Wisconsin may have to head into Saturday’s game against Penn State without its starting running back, and Luke Fickell says the Badgers are still sorting that out.
At his weekly press conference Monday, Fickell said Abu Sama III was cleared to play last Saturday against Eastern Michigan and was warming up with the intention of going. Wisconsin held him out anyway in a game that never really came into question.
Now the focus shifts to Beaver Stadium, where Wisconsin will likely need more than it had available a week ago. Fickell is hopeful Sama III can be on the field.
“He was a guy that was cleared to be able to play last week. “A little bit more of a game-time decision on where he was and what we thought.
He warmed up with every intention of playing and going. And I think we just kind of felt like, ‘hey, not sure he was quite ready to be where he needed to be.’
Hopefully he’s a lot further along this week without playing last week (and) without taking some shots. But we won’t know right away.
We’ll figure that thing out hopefully here soon.”
Sama III has already shown what he can do in Wisconsin’s backfield. He opened the season with 49 yards on 15 carries against Notre Dame, then followed that up with a big outing against Western Carolina, rushing for 107 yards on eight carries and scoring a touchdown.
Before arriving in Madison, Sama III spent three seasons with Matt Campbell at Iowa State, where he topped 500 rushing yards in each year. As a true freshman in 2023, he ran for 614 yards.
He followed that with 587 yards the next season and helped Iowa State reach the Big 12 Championship Game. His best statistical season came last year, when he finished with 732 yards and five touchdowns while averaging 6.8 yards per carry.
Penn State and Wisconsin are set for a 5 p.m. kickoff at Beaver Stadium on Peacock.
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