UW NOTES: Clay excels at picking up blitzes
Redshirt freshman running back John Clay’s favorite play from the University of Wisconsin football team’s season so far did not involve him touching the football.
It was when Clay, a Park High School graduate, picked up a blitzing cornerback in the second game against Marshall.
That was the moment, for the first time, when Clay felt comfortable in his knowledge of the offense.
“I got more excited picking up a blitz than all my runs I had,”
Clay said. “Just knowing I can do it and I finally got the chance to do it.”
Clay had another important blitz pickup in the last game against Ohio State. It came on a second-and-5 on the Badgers’ first touchdown drive in the second quarter, when he took out the legs of blitzing linebacker Ross Homan. That gave quarterback Allan Evridge time to complete a 4-yard pass to Travis Beckum.
While most fans focus on Clay’s explosive runs — he has rushed 39 times for 260 yards, an average of 6.7 yards per carry — his reliability in picking up blitzes is something that will help earn him more playing time.
“It’s always (critical),”
Clay said. “If a ’backer’s free, or somebody’s free, that can get a kill shot on the quarterback. Knowing I know the right guy, (I’m) going to get (him), that speaks a lot ... (to) me knowing the defense and studying my plays.”
As Clay’s involvement in the offense has grown, his study habits have improved.
“It’s a lot more (time), now that I’m playing a much bigger role and they’re using me a lot more,”
he said. “I really have to be in my playbook and watching film a lot, so I can know the defense and what they’re going to do.”
Vote of confidence: Clay expressed his support for senior quarterback Allan Evridge, who has struggled at times in his last three starts.
UW coach Bret Bielema said this week quarterback is a position that needs to improve and hinted at a possible change if it didn’t. But Clay doesn’t expect any changes at the position this season.
“I’ve got all the confidence in Allan,”
Clay said. “People doubt him, but he’s just one or two plays away from doing his job. We’re going to ride Allan until the season is over, we’re going to stick with our main guy.”
Staying sidelined: UW defensive coordinator Dave Doeren’s opinion of being on the sidelines instead of the press box for games has not changed after the problems getting the call to his players, which helped Ohio State score the game-winning touchdown on Saturday.
Doeren thought the main problem was the noise, which led to players not getting lined up properly on the 11-yard option keeper by quarterback Terrelle Pryor.
“I don’t think being up there (press box) would have changed what I did,”
Doeren said. “I would have loved to have gotten the call quicker to the players. They got the call, they were all screaming at each other, nobody could hear each other.“
“So, obviously, if I get it quicker to them, maybe they could have talked better to each other. Whether I’m up or down, the noise in the stadium is not going to change.”
The call came in after Ohio State subbed late and then ran to the line of scrimmage out of the huddle.
“My hat’s off to them, they executed better than we did on the last play,”
Doeren said.
Doeren thought about using the team’s last timeout but elected not to in that situation.
Tom Mulhern is a reporter for the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison.
