Monty Ball said today that he plans to submit paperwork to the NFL advisory committee to gauge his place in the upcoming NFL draft.
Ball says that if the committee tells him that he's a likely first or second round pick, he will leave Wisconsin early and enter the NFL draft.
If the committee comes back with any round lower than that, Ball says he will return to school for his senior year.
Things have to be somewhat iffy around Wisconsin in terms of running backs leaving early for the draft after the absolute disaster that was John Clay last season.
Clay chose to leave early to enter the draft and has basically been a failure ever since. He put on weight prior to the combine and his stock dropped and dropped. He went undrafted and was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers cut him at the beginning of September. He now plays on their practice squad.
Clay was something of a laughingstock after his less than mediocre performance at the combine.
Clearly Ball, who slimmed down prior to the season, seems to know better than to make the mistakes Clay made in terms of slowing down and gaining weight, but the cautionary tale still has to give Ball pause.
Aside from the obvious worries about losing stock because of injury, Ball also have to be thinking about how the Badgers will look very different next season and the QB situation is far from settled. It's unlikely he would be able to have anywhere near the season he's had this year.
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For him, his stock is at it's peak and the running back class isn't as big or strong as in year's past. I can't imagine folks wouldn't be interested in Ball, but we'll have to wait and see.
