Two Wisconsin safeties suspended indefinitely

[Lumi]

Two Wisconsin safeties suspended indefinitely

Senior safeties Shane Carter and Aubrey Pleasant were suspended indefinitely by Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema, according to a report on the Capital Times (Wisc.) web site.

The suspensions will last at least the duration of preseason training camp and leave the Badgers short in the secondary, although neither player starts. Bielema gave no reason for the suspensions, telling the newspaper, "When we're in camp, the 105 guys that are here, those 105 gotta work. All I want is the guys that want to be here."

Carter is the backup to Chris Maragos at free safety and has nine interceptions in 37 career games, including 20 starts. He was suspended for last season's Champs Sports Bowl. Redshirt freshman Shelton Johnson worked with the second-team defense at Saturday's practice, the report said.

Pleasant is the backup to Jay Valai at strong safety and has played in 41 career games, including 14 starts. Sophomore Kevin Claxton took his spot and had a strong practice, according to the reportt.

There was no indication about the status of Carter and Pleasant for Wisconsin's season opener vs. Northern Illinois on September 5. Northern Illinois was 100th in passing last season at 163.8 yards per game and 36th in rushing at 171.2 yards.

Wisconsin is 100-1 to win the national championship and has a win total of 7.5.

 

[IE]

The suspensions leave junior Jay Valai as the starter at strong safety and senior Chris Maragos as the starter at free safety. Those two probably were favorites to win the jobs anyway, but Pleasant and Carter figured to get a lot of playing time in specialty defenses.

Pleasant played last season as the nickel back in passing situations. The coaches were excited about the way he played in the spring and talked about an even bigger role.

Carter is the most physically gifted of all the safeties and has 20 career starts, tied with tight end Garrett Graham for second-most on the team behind left tackle Gabe Carimi (23).

After losing his starting job to Maragos midway through last season, Carter played mostly in passing situations. Carter started the final two regular-season games before being suspended for undisclosed reasons for the bowl game.

?From last spring to where we are now, we knew we had four safeties in there that have won for us, played good football for us,? Bielema said. ?Obviously, with the departure of Shane and Aubrey, those two (Valai and Maragos) naturally get slotted into (starting spots) all by themselves.

?But there was good, healthy competition. It?s made those guys better all the way through.?