BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
DALLAS, Texas — Holiday music was wafting through the gigantic speakers atop AT&T Stadium on Tuesday morning when Corey Clement appeared on the scene.
The senior tailback for the Wisconsin football team ambled onto the field wearing a big smile, lip synching to the sounds of the season. "Let It Snow" indeed, as if trying to defy the sunny, 65-degree conditions outside the mammoth facility.
For the next two hours or so, Clement and his teammates rolled purposefully through their first on-site practice for a Cotton Bowl date opposite Western Michigan on Monday.
Clement did so in good spirits. He'd just learned he'd been invited to play in the prestigious Senior Bowl. The happy news came while he was practicing inside the luxurious home of his favorite NFL team, the Dallas Cowboys.
Clement has some history with this place, the kind that makes it appropriate he will play his final game for the Badgers inside its confines. He can come full circle and do so fulfilled.
For Clement, the toughest period of his 42-game college career is rooted in the 2015 season opener, an assignment vs. perennial powerhouse Alabama staged here under the fancy retractable roof and county-size video board.
Clement played despite a groin injury — suffered during a preseason workout — which was ultimately diagnosed as a sports hernia that required in-season surgery.
Instead of making a statement to the rest of nation that he was the next great tailback to come out of Madison, Clement never got going against a club that would go on to claim the College Football Playoff championship.
Fresh off a sophomore season in which he averaged 6.5 yards per carry and nearly topped 1,000 as a celebrated backup to Heisman Trophy runner-up Melvin Gordon, Clement was limited to 16 yards on eight attempts by the Crimson Tide during a 35-17 loss.
"It was tough sledding," Clement said when asked what he remembered of that forgettable day. "I wasn't 100 percent. I was trying to do what I could."
Clement missed the next two games completely, then had the sports hernia surgically repaired and sat out another five games.
Clement returned with a temporary flourish, rushing 11 times with 115 yards and three touchdowns in a Big Ten Conference romp over Rutgers. But then came a mistake, a fib and a long journey back in search of redemption.
Clement was cited for disorderly conduct on Nov. 7, but misled UW coach Paul Chryst and support staffers on what happened leading to a campus fight. Clement didn't play in the regular-season finale at Minnesota.
"I think after that fight, I bottomed out," Clement said. "I couldn't take it anymore.
"I didn't know what to do at (that) point. I was frustrated with everything whether it was football or school or life itself."
Throughout the season, Clement had a large circle of confidants trying to give him advice about what to do about his future, whether it be his health or his NFL draft stock. It was confusing, insistent and persistent.
One guy who listened to Clement instead was friend and fellow senior tailback Dare Ogunbowale.
"He had a lot of people in his ear, which was a source of the problem," Ogunbowale said.
Chryst reinstated Clement in time for a Holiday Bowl matchup with Southern California and Clement responded with 66 yards on 19 carries while accounting for a TD to key a 23-21 victory.
How did Clement regain the coach's trust?
"It wasn't about me," Chryst said. "Corey had to earn Corey's trust."
How did he go about that?
"By stacking the days, being true to himself," Chryst said.
Ogunbowale knows what Chryst is talking about and tried to provide some context to that process.
"His mind wasn't where it needed to be and I think he realized that," Ogunbowale said of Clement.
"Once he started kind of acknowledging the fact that he needed to get back on track — worrying about the right things; worrying about winning games; being in the now — I think that's what Coach means.
"(Clement) realized he was only hurting himself. Once he was being beneficial to himself he could start worrying about being a good teammate." Clement was asked how he earned Chryst's trust.
"By playing," he said. "I think he didn't want any talking. He wanted to see me prove through action.
"Talk is cheap. I said a few things and sometimes I didn't back it up."
Clement's march to accountability found its stride during offseason workouts, spring practice and preseason training camp.
"Trying to redeem myself," he said, "and get that amount of respect back from my coaches and fans."
Clement recalled a preseason chat with Chryst in which the coach implored him to stay in the moment.
"You can't be selfish at all," Clement said of the message. "You've got guys playing for you and you have to be willing to play for them." It gave Clement pause.
"I really took a step back and said, 'Last year was really selfish of me to put myself before those guys,'" he said.
Clement started the current season slower than he'd like — 319 rushing yards through the first four games — but he and a young offensive line eventually found a groove.
Clement has 991 yards in his last eight outings — 1,304 in total — to go along with a team-best 14 touchdowns.
Clement is one of the reasons why the eighth-rated Badgers (10-3 overall) earned a Cotton Bowl berth against 12th-ranked Western Michigan (13-0) here Monday.
"I think the last two months he's taken steps forward," Chryst said. "He comes across more relaxed. I think he's finding genuine confidence." Ogunbowale said he never lost his trust in his friend.
"I'm sure guys with different relationships in the locker room with him, that relationship might have wavered a bit," Ogunbowale said. "But me and Corey, I never had any doubt about what kind of person he was and I never lost trust in him as a person or as a teammate.
"I'm really happy to see how successful he's been this year just as a teammate, but as a friend also."
Clement has battled through a balky ankle to put himself in position to become the 10th player in program history to rush for 1,500 yards in a season.
"This year has definitely been a year of maturity for me, growing up and realizing the choices I make affect both myself and the players around me," he said.
"This year's definitely been fun. I learned so much. I've learned to be patient and good things will come.
"I realized that college, you're only here once so make the most of it. If you can slow it down, slow it down as much as you can. In the blink of an eye, you're going to graduate and doing a different thing."
Has Clement found redemption?
"Yeah, definitely," he said. "I couldn't have asked for a better season to close out on."
