Jasper

June 8th, 2011 at 6:45 PM ^

He's from south of the Mason-Dixon Line, so he must have incredible speed. He'll run circles around his teammates and everyone else in the Big Ten.

Irish

June 8th, 2011 at 6:51 PM ^

Wow that would be big news, I wonder how Phil steele would view the Leaders division now after the past week of news.  Have to think that 3 way tie would become #1 Wisconsin, #2 PSU and then OSU (at the very highest).  

Amazing what a week can do to an entire division.

those.who.stay.

June 8th, 2011 at 6:52 PM ^

and he was the reason why. He's quite talented.

Good thing we don't match up with Wisconsin until the B1G Championship game.

 

I don't know much about who Wisco loses this year, but they've got to be the favorites to win their division (Legends? Legendary leaders?).

Naked Bootlegger

June 8th, 2011 at 9:01 PM ^

Wisconsin loses a ton of talent on the OL, but developing OL talent at Wisconsin has not been a huge issue in recent years.  Kendricks has graduated at TE, but Wiscy also is great at developing TE's.   Their RB situation is still very deep.  But there's a huge void at QB.   Their 3-deep at QB is littered with inexperience and people coming off of serious injury (K. Phillips), although they have some supposedly good young talent at QB that should eventually develop.   Wilson should easily step in as the starter, though. 

I live in Madison, and the Wilson chatter has grown louder over the past few days.  

MichiganMan2424

June 8th, 2011 at 7:03 PM ^

 We don't play Wisconsin so it doesn't effect us, it just helps Wisconsin beat other teams in our division. Plus I have a soft spot for Wisonsin.

FreddieMercuryHayes

June 8th, 2011 at 7:09 PM ^

If it will help them beat our competition for the title game, I like it. If we have to meet them in Indy to play them, then I would think that it has been a successful season.

WolvinLA2

June 8th, 2011 at 7:31 PM ^

How does this work?  He'll have to sit out a year, right?  And then he only has one year of eligibility left right?  Someone please explain.

Captain

June 8th, 2011 at 7:48 PM ^

Correct, as long as Wisconsin offers a graduate program that NC State does not, he can transfer to the new program and play immediately. 

So look for Russell to be getting a masters in fromage consumption or something.

Zone Left

June 8th, 2011 at 8:05 PM ^

I'd kind of like players to be able to go anywhere after they earn a degree. If it's really about the student-athlete (which it really isn't), why couldn't someone get accepted to a better med school or a program in an area they'd like to settle in after graduation?

gobluesasquatch

June 9th, 2011 at 12:14 AM ^

at QB, Allan Everidge helped to provide Michigan the turnovers necessary to complete the largest comeback at Michigan Stadium. Perhaps the man with two first names will be as generous to another Big Ten school. 

panthers5

June 9th, 2011 at 8:56 AM ^

Russell is a good player so don't take this the wrong way, but he really isn't a good fit for Wisconsin. He is athletic, but we are not talking a burner here. I am guessing high 4.6 to 4.7 40. Reminds me a lot of a more accurate Tate Forcier. I live in the triangle and have seen my share of wolfpack games, let me just say this about the ACC, if Michigan last season were in the ACC, there is a pretty good chance we go 10-2 or 11-1. The ACC is awful.

 

Anyways, Russell is about 5'10 and will have a very difficult time in their play action scheme trying to see over those huge OL. I think he is a quality QB but due to lack of actual good QB's in the ACC the conference makes him out to be better then he really is.

 

JMO

ryebadger

June 9th, 2011 at 11:56 AM ^

I'm not sure he has to carry the offense or even be the focal point. They have a lot of pieces in place. They just needed an experienced game manager type who can be efficient in the passing game. That he has the ability to make plays and extend drives with his feet is a great bonus but not really crucial to the success of the offense.

Wisconsin has another talented offensive line in place. They lose two great players there but are still pretty loaded. 6 UW OL earned All Big Ten recognition last year, which shows the depth considering there are only 5 spots on the OL. They get back their top two running backs in White and Ball and have some great talent behind them, including a very talented incoming freshman in Melvin Gordon, who will get to develop slowly behind Ball and White. They have pretty good talent at WR, led by a returning Toon. And, the defense was expected to be the real strength of the team.  The missing piece, a huge one at that, was a capable QB. Looks like they have added it. Who knows what happens on the field, but I feel a lot better now than I did two months ago.

The real key to our offense last year was balance. The running game was great, largely because Tolzien and the passing game were too good for teams to sell out to stop the run. The QB in our system does not have to be Tom Brady. He simply needs to protect the ball and be good enough to prevent defenses from keying on the running back all the time. If Russell can fill that role the team could be decent again. I know most Badger fans were thinking this year could see 9-10 wins, possibly 8 due to the QB, with 2012 shaping up to be a special, BCS type season. Maybe Russell moves up that timetable, maybe he doesn't. I just can't see us being worse with him on the field than we were with the QBs who played in the spring game.