MADISON, Wis. -- With three player departures just prior or early in the 2018 season and two off-season suspensions, many are asking, "what is going on at Wisconsin?"

My advice...Get used to it.

The 2016 recruiting class has already lost seven players. Nearly one-third of the class is gone after year two.

The Wisconsin program these guys committed to two, three, four years ago isn't the same as it is today and defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard has made it clear over the past few weeks, if you want to play here, you better bring it Every. Single. Day.

"He knows what it's like on Saturdays, but that doesn't give him a pass to compete on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and in training camp," Leonhard said of transfer cornerback Dontye Carriere-Williams during fall camp.

Farrar, a former four-star prospect, was set to be a third-team outside linebacker this season.

Drama and departures aren't uncommon of a program in Wisconsin's position.

Okay, the suspensions should and will be scarce as Barry Alvarez and Paul Chryst work hard to establish a certain culture and recruit the right type of players to avoid those headaches, but this would still be considered a relatively quiet off-season at the likes of Alabama and Ohio State.

'But Wisconsin is still a developmental program,' fans say. 'They can't replace these guys with four or five-star players like Alabama or Ohio State.'

Often true, but if there wasn't an uptick in the talent pool, would these players even be leaving in the first place?

The Badgers have eight underclassmen in starting spots at this moment -- something that's not typical of the better teams in program history. Last season's 13-1 squad had seven underclassmen on a first-team unit.

Around here, we're used to guys paying their dues. The norm was that it was supposed to take 2-4 years in the program before you were rewarded with a job. Seeing a freshman on the field was eye-opening.

The Badgers have recruited to a level that's allowed them to ditch that at many positions.

Most seasons, Patrick Johnson would be starting at safety and may have even earned that right in 2017 had Natrell Jamerson not switched over from cornerback. This was a player who got on the field immediately and consistently as a true freshman and had he not suffered a season-ending arm injury last season, would have been a big part of the defense.

Johnson may have left the program for personal reasons, but he was still beaten out by redshirt freshman Scott Nelson.

Not only has UW been able to absorb the loss of Johnson, they can fill in the pieces behind him as well.

Carriere-Williams was UW's most experienced cornerback and left the team two days before the season opener.

Wisconsin went into Maryland and pulled a four-star safety in Eric Burrell, who will relieve Johnson of his backup duties. The Badgers still did what they do best, find under the radar talent that many schools overlook, signing Reggie Pearson Jr., who's going to play as a true freshman when healthy.

Carriere-Williams, most thought, would be UW's No. 1 cornerback in 2018. From a talent perspective, he probably should have been.

There's more to the story than Carriere-Williams simply leaving because Leonhard challenged him in the media and sent a message by putting the redshirt sophomore on the second unit during fall camp, but Leonhard doesn't even have the luxury of doing so if Wisconsin doesn't hit on Caesar Williams and Faion Hicks, two first-team quality cornerbacks despite having just two games of experience between them going into the 2018 season.

If Hicks and/or Williams don't challenge for starting roles the way they did in fall camp and Carriere-Williams is the clear cut No. 1 guy, does he still walk out the door? Time will tell if Carriere-Williams' decision ends up hurting Wisconsin this season or down the road, but Leonhard obviously felt good enough about his cornerbacks to risk losing the most experienced one in the room...by far.

"I like the way this group works," Leonhard said. "We're going to continue to get better throughout the course of the year. It goes back to that approach that I really like about this group -- they don't pay attention to where they are depth chart-wise. They just play and get better.

"They go out to practice with a purpose. That's not always the case with young guys. They look over their shoulder, left and right, just try and evaluate themselves within the group.

"I think this group has really done that -- just go get better. Don't worry about where you're at."

Recruiting rankings aren't an exact science, but Arrington Farrar was a heck of a coup for the Badgers in 2018. The four-star prospect had offers from Notre Dame, Stanford, and got some serious looks from big time SEC programs.

This was one of the bigger recruiting wins in recent memory and Farrar was a third-team outside linebacker for Wisconsin prior to leaving the program. Granted, Farrar being too much of a tweener affected his impact on this defense in the end, but since UW moved to a 3-4 front, all five former starting outside linebackers (Vince Biegel, Joe Schobert, Leon Jacobs, T.J. Watt, Garret Dooley) are on a NFL roster, while Andrew Van Ginkel and perhaps even Zack Baun are poised to follow suit.

Johnson left the program due to personal reasons.

In a perfect world, programs could retain all of the talent they bring in. But departures and drama are a sign you're arriving as a program. Name the last time the biggest brands in college football, or even sports in general, had a quiet off-season.

David West had a quote after the Golden State Warriors won their second-straight NBA finals and third in the last four years, telling the general public they had "no clue" what the team had to endure this past season. Yet on the scoreboards, it was often a cake walk.

After four consecutive 10-win seasons and perhaps on the verge of a third-consecutive top 10 finish, Wisconsin just isn't battling every other team in college football while climbing the national ladder, they're battling themselves, they're battling complacency.

The old adage is to recruit better than what you currently have.

Chryst has lost 14 players from his first two recruiting classes. How many were named or considered projected starters in the season they opted to depart? Zero.

After winning a national championship last season, Alabama lost 13 players due to transfer or personal decisions. For some players, academics are the priority. However, no prospect signs a letter of intent with the mindset of being a backup for five seasons, and in Alabama's case, even winning it all isn't enough to keep them around.

As a top 10 team, turnover and roster change is a good thing. It gives coaches a chance to undo mistakes by freeing up scholarships and continue to upgrade the talent level.

If Wisconsin continues to win big, expect roster turnover to be present, and embrace it.