Wisconsin players still working through grief while preparing for Nebraska

MADISON – Coaches and athletes routinely use the word adversity when asked to assess how their teams must respond to a trying situation:

A crushing loss.

Injuries.

Suspensions.

But learning a friend and former teammate was shot to death? On a class field trip?

The word adversity doesn’t cut it.

Yet that is the reality Wisconsin interim head coach Jim Leonhard, his assistants and the players face when the take on Nebraska at 11 a.m. Saturday in Lincoln.

More:Wisconsin at Nebraska: Game preview, prediction as the Badgers try to become bowl-eligible

The critical Big Ten game will come five days after the team learned former UW wide receiver Devin Chandler was among three people shot and killed by a former Virginia football player.

“It’s been hard for a number of guys,” Leonhard said. “Big questions with what happened there. It is kind of crazy. Some guys really got shook by what happened and obviously there is another group that was really close with Devin and it hits home in a different way.