Wisconsin Football: Transfer Portal Addition’s Future Still a Mystery

During the offseason, it was considered a significant recruiting win for Luke Fickell and the Wisconsin football team when the Badgers secured the services of Jake Renfro through the transfer portal.

Knowing that he intended to run a different style of offense at Wisconsin, bringing in a center that could snap from the shotgun and had familiarity was going to be essential. Who better to fill that role than Fickell’s former All-AAC first-team center from Cincinnati?

Per Pro Football Focus, the 6-foot-3, 310-pound linemen logged 1,126 snaps at center and allowed only four sacks in 602 pass-blocking sets. It seemed like a perfect fit, given that Joe Tippmann entered the NFL draft.

Nevertheless, his experience in Madison hasn’t followed the expected path. Dealing with a persistent injury and facing another setback that caused him to miss significant time, his absence has been felt, particularly in a position where the Badgers could benefit from his contributions.

Wisconsin Football Provides an Update on Jake Renfro 

During his weekly media availability, Wisconsin football head coach Luke Fickell was asked about the status of Jake Renfro.

It’s worth noting that Coach Fickell eluded to him inching closer to playing the past few weeks, saying that Renfro would be ready if needed. However, he still hasn’t seen the field this season.

“The consistency of what we have to do upfront kinda holds him [Renfro] back a little bit, with where we are in kinda rolling some of those guys in there,” Fickell said. “We’ve had enough inconsistencies with bruises and things like that that we’ve been fortunate, at least up front, we haven’t had as much of that. That’s kinda one of the stabilizing factors that make it a little bit harder to get Jake some of the reps that he deserves.”

With each passing week, the possibility of Renfro’s return this season becomes more uncertain. While Renfro is a talented player, the longer he remains sidelined, the more questions arise about his potential contributions to the Wisconsin football team in the future.

To me, this means you can expect to see Tanor Bortolini remain the starting center for the remainder of the season. When you consider how much rust Renfro would need to shake off to earn a starting job, that prospect seems more and more unlikely with every passing day.

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