Wisconsin football: versatile OL Cormac Sampson leaves program

On Tuesday morning, Evan Flood at Badger247 reported that Wisconsin Badgers senior offensive lineman Cormac Sampson was leaving the football program. Sampson confirmed the report himself and gave Flood a couple of quotes about his decision.

It basically boiled down to this: Sampson graduated in the spring and wanted to get started with his post-football playing career, uh, career. According to Jon McNamara at BadgerBlitz, it sounds like Sampson will be moving into education and coaching at Sun Prairie High School.

A native of Eau Claire, Sampson was a multi-skilled piece on Wisconsin’s offensive line for years. He earned starts at center (three), guard (one) and blocking tight end (two) throughout his career while appearing in a total of 32 games. While Sampson wasn’t expected to start for UW this year, his ability to play multiple positions would’ve been valuable if the injury bug bit the o-line this season.

In fact, Sampson started at center in the most recent game the Badgers have played, their Las Vegas Bowl win over Arizona State. Throughout spring practice, Sampson was filling in for the injured Joe Tippmann at center as well.

We suppose this leaves the Badgers with an unused scholarship for the 2022 season now, so perhaps they can dip back into the transfer portal and find another player to add to the roster before fall camp starts. More than likely, however, they will just give a walk-on a one-year scholarship and then use it again in the 2023 class like normal.

As a senior at Eau Claire Memorial, the 3-star prospect was named first-team all-state at tight end and honorable mention all-state at defensive end by Wisconsin Football Coaches Association.

We wish Sampson well and hope to see him back at Camp Randall in the future while he watches Sun Prairie players he coached star in Cardinal and White.