Badgers won't have senior inside linebacker Ryan Connelly in the Pinstripe Bowl

MADISON – T.J. Edwards will have a new partner at inside linebacker when Wisconsin faces Miami in the Pinstripe Bowl. 

Ryan Connelly, who started alongside Edwards in all 12 games this season and the last four of the 2017 season, will miss the bowl game because of surgery. 

UW coach Paul Chryst declined to specify the nature of the injury but noted Connelly had been hampered during the team’s final four regular-season games. 

“Feel bad,” Chryst said after practice Friday, “because I know how much he wanted to play in this game.”

Redshirt junior Chris Orr, who has worked mostly on special teams this season, is set to replace Connelly against Miami.

"Part of it was that Ryan and T.J. were really playing well," Chryst said. "That is why I appreciate … Chris took his energy and put it into (special) teams."

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Orr has flourished on special teams this season and has 19 tackles and two fumble recoveries. He has started 15 games at inside linebacker for UW. 

“We feel good with Chris there,” Chryst said.

Connelly, a former walk-on from Eden Prairie, Minnesota, finished the regular season No. 2 on the team in tackles with 89. Edwards had 104 tackles. 

Connelly had 10 tackles for loss, No. 2 on the team behind Edwards (10½). He recorded three sacks, six quarterback hurries and one forced fumble. 

“I’m telling you, he has been unbelievable,” Chryst said. “It’s been awesome. He was struggling. He said: ‘I want to finish it out.’

“Part of you says: 'Did you leave it all out there?' And every game he played, he can answer with great confidence that he did.”

Defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard noted that Connelly, like Edwards, had to perform with younger players on the line and in the secondary this season. 

“What Ryan has been able to do this year has really been impressive,” Leonhard said. “In the three years that I’ve been here, just watching him grow as a player, watching him grow as a leader, has been unbelievable to see how far he has come. 

“It is going to be really hard to replace in a game, obviously. But leadership is No. 1, where he took the next step. He was always in the shadows, doing his thing and playing well and making plays. 

“With a younger team around him, he really stepped up that way.”

Connelly’s signature play this season came in the Big Ten opener at Iowa. 

Iowa took the second-half kickoff and moved from its 25 to third and goal at the UW 2.

The Hawkeyes ran a pitch to the right with tailback Ivory Kelly-Martin. Connelly was lined up in the end zone, even with the right guard. Immediately after the snap, Connelly flowed to the outside, dived over fullback Brady Ross and dropped Kelly-Martin for a 4-yard loss. 

Iowa settled for a field goal and a 10-7 lead and UW rallied to win, 28-17. 

“There’s a number of more but that’s the first one that comes to everybody’s mind,” Leonhard said. “There is doing your job on paper and then there is going and make a play. 

“That is what it was – playing at a speed they couldn’t match on that play. That is what the great ones can do and he did that consistently this season.”

Hurricanes lose star defender

Miami officials announced Friday that senior defensive tackle Gerald Willis III will not play in the game because of a hand injury.

Willis was a second-team All-American according to The Associated Press and the Football Writers Association of America. He recorded 18 tackles for loss in 12 games this season, the most among FBS tackles, and 59 total tackles.

Recruiting update

Titus Toler, a 6-foot, 185-pound safety from St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, California, announced Friday he had given UW an oral commitment for its 2019 freshman class. 

Toler first committed to Colorado but had a change of heart after head coach Mike MacIntyre was fired. 

He visited UW and California before choosing to play for the Badgers. 

Toler is the second recruit UW has flipped in the last week. Fullback Quan Easterling initially committed to Akron but de-committed and chose UW on Dec. 9.