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Wisconsin Badgers safety gets 7th year of eligibility and will enter transfer portal

After missing most of the season with an injury, Wisconsin Badgers safety Preston Zachman received a medical waiver for eligibility and plans to play again in 2026. But he's entering the transfer portal to play elsewhere.
Lorin Cox|
Sep 13, 2025; Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA; Wisconsin defensive back Preston Zachman (14) makes a tackle on Alabama tight end Josh Cuevas (80) at Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Sep 13, 2025; Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA; Wisconsin defensive back Preston Zachman (14) makes a tackle on Alabama tight end Josh Cuevas (80) at Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium. | Gary Cosby, Gary Cosby / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Wisconsin Badgers

The Wisconsin Badgers thought 2025 would be their last year with Preston Zachman in the secondary.

That proved to be true, but it won't be his last year playing college football.

After missing most of the season with an injury, he received a medical waiver for eligibility and plans to play again in 2026.

Zachman is entering the transfer portal to play for a different team instead.

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Zachman was originally a three-star recruit for the Badgers out of Pennsylvannia in the 2020 recruiting class.

He played in only one game through his first two years at Wisconsin, helping him maintain eligibility for an upcoming seventh season in college football.

This year, he suffered a season-ending injury during the Badgers' Week 3 loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Related: Wisconsin Badgers are set to return only 1 defensive starter from Week 1 of 2025 season

He was supposed to be the leader of the Wisconsin secondary in his second season as a full time starter, filling the void left by Hunter Wohler after he left for the NFL Draft.

Instead, the Badgers struggled to find any consistency to replace Zachman, and Fickell will likely need to find that replacement in the transfer portal instead.

Wisconsin is also losing senior safeties Austin Brown and Owen Arnett to graduation, leaving Matthew Traynor and Matthew Jung as the top returning players at the position.

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Lorin Cox
LORIN COX

Lorin Cox is the managing editor of Wisconsin Badgers on SI. He has been covering Badgers sports since 2014, when he was an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin. He previously wrote for the Wisconsin State Journal, NBC Sports Chicago and USA Today Sports Media Group, and he is a former analyst for Pro Football Focus.

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