2017 Wisconsin Football Thread

[owbc]

Hearing the UW-Notre Dame series announcement got me excited for the upcoming college football season.

 

It looks like the Badgers have a favorable schedule and should once again be favorites to win the B10 West. Northwestern and Nebraska seem like the biggest threats.

 

Less than 3 weeks until the season starts...

[bani1717]

I am very excited for the upcoming season. We have a legitimate chance to finish the regular season undefeated and it seems plausible that a spot in the playoff could come down to the B1G championship game.

 

Even with the loss of Cichy our defense appears to be strong. Offensively we should once again be able to pound it down people's throats with a good line, and I think Shaw will have a very good year at RB.

 

We need to take care of business at home especially against Northwestern, Iowa, and Michigan, and not have a letdown on the road at BYU or Nebraska. No big opening weekend this year to get the season under way, and we wont have the excitement playing a top-10 team seemingly every single week for a month straight like we did last year, but I am still very much looking forward to September 1st!

[OnTheBlack]

I am very excited for the upcoming season. We have a legitimate chance to finish the regular season undefeated and it seems plausible that a spot in the playoff could come down to the B1G championship game.

 

Even with the loss of Cichy our defense appears to be strong. Offensively we should once again be able to pound it down people's throats with a good line, and I think Shaw will have a very good year at RB.

 

We need to take care of business at home especially against Northwestern, Iowa, and Michigan, and not have a letdown on the road at BYU or Nebraska. No big opening weekend this year to get the season under way, and we wont have the excitement playing a top-10 team seemingly every single week for a month straight like we did last year, but I am still very much looking forward to September 1st!

 

 

Dang...I hadn't followed the Badgers camp at all. This is the first I'd heard about Cinchy. Love watching that guy play. I think we're still loaded on the inside and we have our entire DL back, but that guy just made plays.

[fondybrewfan]

LB depth is going to be tested with a couple injuries including Cichy. I think the offense is going to be substantially improved albeit very young. Oline is going to be better and they have 3 RB's, 3 TE's, Peavy, and a couple promising underclassmen WR's. I think they will have to score some more as it won't be reasonable to expect the D to be as good as it was last year.

 

BYU was entirely unimpressive last weekend. Michigan at home will be tough and Northwestern is never easy. Biggest game is probably on the road at Nebraska. Unless there are significant injuries I would be disappointed if they have more than 2 regular season losses.

[tmwiese55]

I'd say a reasonable goal is to go undefeated regular season since they'll be favored in all games. 11 wins is a good expectation though since you can't expect undefeated, you'll slip up once. 10 wins in regular season would be a slight disappointment with this schedule unless of course they make up for it by winning the B1G title game.

[pacopete4]

This (could) be a year of frustration for me. It is very much lined up to head back to Indy to win the Big 10 but I could very much see the Badgers stumbling against opponents that have no business beating them. I hope this doesn't happen and they just take care of business but it just feels too good to be real.

[LouisEly]

I'm concerned about offensive tackle. Edwards is still fairly raw, and they didn't have enough confidence in him to let him take LT thus the move for Dieter to LT and inserting a freshman in at center. Dietzen needs to get healthy; his return to the lineup last year coincided with the improvement in the running game, and that's no coincidence.

 

On the plus side, they are deep at RB and it seems like they have the horses again to make the jet sweep a big part of the offense again. Taylor is really coming on and now is listed as an "or" at first team on the depth chart. Shaw, James, Taylor, Ibrahim, Deal... not as talented as Ball/White/Gordon, but as deep or deeper.

 

Defensive line will be the best its ever been. We could finally see the real Leon Jacobs - yeah, the dude who ran down Gordon in practice but for some reason could never find a way to get him on the field. I'm anxious to see what he will do back on the outside. Fortunately they have the depth to survive the injuries at LB. Could be the best cornerback trio in the conference, and one of the best in the country.

[ZBTMP]

I'm concerned about offensive tackle. Edwards is still fairly raw, and they didn't have enough confidence in him to let him take LT thus the move for Dieter to LT and inserting a freshman in at center. Dietzen needs to get healthy; his return to the lineup last year coincided with the improvement in the running game, and that's no coincidence.

 

On the plus side, they are deep at RB and it seems like they have the horses again to make the jet sweep a big part of the offense again. Taylor is really coming on and now is listed as an "or" at first team on the depth chart. Shaw, James, Taylor, Ibrahim, Deal... not as talented as Ball/White/Gordon, but as deep or deeper.

 

Defensive line will be the best its ever been. We could finally see the real Leon Jacobs - yeah, the dude who ran down Gordon in practice but for some reason could never find a way to get him on the field. I'm anxious to see what he will do back on the outside. Fortunately they have the depth to survive the injuries at LB. Could be the best cornerback trio in the conference, and one of the best in the country.

 

Through my red colored glasses, I prefer to look at it as they like Edwards more in pass protection that they want him covering the blind side while playing to Dieter’s strength in run blocking. And Biadasz has been has been so good that it became logical to move Dieter outside to get him in the lineup. As a group though, they probably aren’t loaded with top 60 draft picks and future pro bowlers like the vintage Chyrst offenses of the 10 and 11 teams. I still think overall it will be an improved group expecting developmental improvements across the board.

Back-up QB is probably concern A for me. Hornibrook didn’t exactly display elite pocket presence to expect him to avoid all injuries. Coan is a decent enough recruit, but not that you’d expect to lead a top 10 team as a true freshmen.

With Baun and Cichy out, the options at outside linebacker concern me as well. Suddenly a walk-on, redshirt freshmen that I’ve heard very little on is in the 2 deep; and conceivably, rotation. Its worked before I guess, but…

I hope you are right about the DLine. I have yet to see them as the elite group that other team's offense has to game plan for, but the potential to take that step is certainly there and they won’t lack experience. Still might be bit premature to put them ahead of the ’04 line, you know, before Purdue decided to take out James knee.

[LouisEly]

Ah, yes, forgot that the QB is a lefty and that RT will be the blind side.

 

Comparing the DL to '04 (and I think the 2010 line of Watt/Allen/Hemer/Gilbert/Kohut/Butrym/Nzegwu was better than the '04 line) is a bit of apples/oranges, as the DL responsibilities of a 4-3 are very different than a 3-4. In a 3-4 the job of the DL is to occupy the OL to free up the LBs to make plays; they are not expected to rush the passer. But there is a lot of talent - Sagapolu, Rand, Obasih, James, Sheehy, Loudermilk (who will be a monster), and Hirschfeld isn't even on the 2-deep (nor is Preston, Howe, or Pfaff). Those guys have a ton of experience and do their job of occupying the OL.

[owbc]

2-0 but not exactly impressive victories. Huge game for Taylor though. Lots of upside to this team despite the mistakes.

[stoutdude04]

2-0 but not exactly impressive victories. Huge game for Taylor though. Lots of upside to this team despite the mistakes.

 

It seems like that is typical Wisconsin football. Beat the average and below average teams close(closeish)...play the big boys tight win or lose.

[LouisEly]

Once again they completely abandon the jet sweep, allowing the opponents to put 8 in the box and come crashing in on corner/safety run blitzes off the corner.

 

Even if they just fake it, it keeps the OLBs/corners/safeties at home and opens up the middle.

 

Coan looks like he has a lot stronger arm than Hornibrook, who threw several balls behind receivers and had a bad INT. Coan was an early enrollee and practiced in the spring; he's familiar with the playbook. It probably won't happen, but if he becomes the starter in mid-October I won't be surprised.

[pacopete4]

Did UW miss on a Wisconsin guy (Menomonie) in Nathan Stanley? He's sure looked good so far for them.

[OnTheBlack]

Once again they completely abandon the jet sweep, allowing the opponents to put 8 in the box and come crashing in on corner/safety run blitzes off the corner.

 

Even if they just fake it, it keeps the OLBs/corners/safeties at home and opens up the middle.

 

Coan looks like he has a lot stronger arm than Hornibrook, who threw several balls behind receivers and had a bad INT. Coan was an early enrollee and practiced in the spring; he's familiar with the playbook. It probably won't happen, but if he becomes the starter in mid-October I won't be surprised.

 

 

I agree what you're saying, but I'm not sure they should do it just because of the RB depth. I would learn more towards one of the young, athletic WR'ers. We have a few of them. The reason being, I think Shaw takes a little bit to get going and I'm not sure James has the speed you'd like to run that and be able to not only hit the HR on it, but also make it a big threat. And Taylor has the speed, but I'd rather he benefit from the threat of it as our main back.

 

At the very least it keeps the DE/OLB'er from crashing like you said and setting the edge. That leaves the counters which we love running wide open.

 

At QB, I haven't seen much of Coan, but Chryst strikes me as the type of coach who's not going to take the traditional approach to making a change, ie, waiting for an awful performance in a loss, or waiting until they get down big before making a change. I still like Hornibrook and think he'll improve, but if he doesn't, the Badgers can certainly end up with 11 wins, a nice win in a bowl game, but at some point the program has to try and take that final step to put itself in contention for a playoff spot. If Coan does that...I think Chryst will do that.

[OnTheBlack]

Did UW miss on a Wisconsin guy (Menomonie) in Nathan Stanley? He's sure looked good so far for them.

 

 

He had huge numbers....but it was Iowa State. So hard to say. I think they've been a 3-4 win team for the last 5 or so years. Pretty bad program. And it took a 4th quarter comeback and OT. That said, he did throw two really nice fades inside the 20-25 yardline and then made a nice throw to win it in OT from the 5. Scrambled, rolled to his right and then threw it where only his guy had a chance to get it. His other 2 TD's were on a little bubble screen where it didn't go pass the LOS and then on a little check down where his back just made guys miss and took it 50 yards.

 

So maybe. That said, we signed Hornibrook the year before and we signed Coan this past year. Coan was just slightly higher rated(20th PPQB) and Hornibrook was rated lower but in a better class(41stPPGB). Stanley was the 20th rated Pocket Passer.

 

He is at a Wisconsin like program that seems to constantly develop 2-3 star recruits and turn them into NFL players, so we'll see. I'll be rooting for him for no other reason than he's a Wisconsin guy.

[tmwiese55]

The story on Stanley is that Anderson didn't recruit him because he's a typical dropback QB, not a spread dual threat. Chryst came in and did all he could, gave the full court press but it couldn't make up for the lost ground to Iowa and the kid sticking to his word with Iowa. Look at their depth after Horni, true frosh and redshirt frosh (who really wouldn't be here if his brother wasn't a 5 star recruit). They'd for sure want Stanley at least for the depth and who knows, he could easily be starting right now.

[LouisEly]

Chryst changed QBs last year during the GA State game, even though Houston led the team to 216 yards of offense in the first half (and 54 points the week before). Badgers weren't scoring, but it wasn't Houston's fault - he wasn't the one who fumbled at the goal line, or dropped a pass, or ran a route one yard short, or missed a field goal.

[CheezWizHed]

I still scratch my head at hiring Anderson. I was abhorring the thought of transitioning to a spread offense...

 

So glad we went back to traditional with Chryst.

[CheezWizHed]

NOTE: I've left the generic thread open now that we moved to the Other Sports Forum. But if you feel like opening a thread for a specific Badger topic, feel free to do that.

[tmwiese55]

I still scratch my head at hiring Anderson. I was abhorring the thought of transitioning to a spread offense...

 

So glad we went back to traditional with Chryst.

 

It did bring us Aranda and the 34 aggressive D instead of the old Bret bend but don't break D of standing 12 yds off wideouts and getting picked apart. Offensively though, yea that was never going to work here

[OnaBadger58]

The story on Stanley is that Anderson didn't recruit him because he's a typical dropback QB, not a spread dual threat. Chryst came in and did all he could, gave the full court press but it couldn't make up for the lost ground to Iowa and the kid sticking to his word with Iowa. Look at their depth after Horni, true frosh and redshirt frosh (who really wouldn't be here if his brother wasn't a 5 star recruit). They'd for sure want Stanley at least for the depth and who knows, he could easily be starting right now.

Stanley has ties to Iowa as well, so there was no guarantee he would have ever been a Badger.

[OnTheBlack]

I still scratch my head at hiring Anderson. I was abhorring the thought of transitioning to a spread offense...

 

So glad we went back to traditional with Chryst.

 

 

I went to a HS football game with a guy who has had 3 kids play for the Badgers and who has a relative who works very closely with Alvarez. We talked the entire game about the program and for about a half about Andersen. I was of the impression that Barry was caught off guard when he left but apparently there was a lot of friction between Andersen and the administration and he was real close to being forced to move on. He didn't like the direction the franchise was going, he was recruiting a lot of guys who had literally no chance to get into Wisconsin(got a few examples) and he did not like the way he wanted to come in and change Wisconsin's style of football.

 

I could go into more detail, but it sounds like he was real close to actually being fired and him leaving was a godsend for them as they didn't have to pay him to coach elsewhere.

 

At the time they said it would take 3 years for them to get things "back on track."

 

The guy kept saying, "I'll stop rambling," but it was one of the most interesting conversations I've ever had. Hearing about behind the scenes stuff that was going on then, about the Ron Dayne days and making sure he got to class, to his recruiting pitches to out of state guys.

 

But yeah, moral of the story with Andersen, he was frustrated they weren't letting guys in he thought they should make exceptions for, Alvarez was not happy with the direction he was taking the offense, he wasn't happy with way he recruited certain players and thought the program was heading in the wrong direction.

[OnTheBlack]

I still scratch my head at hiring Anderson. I was abhorring the thought of transitioning to a spread offense...

 

So glad we went back to traditional with Chryst.

 

It did bring us Aranda and the 34 aggressive D instead of the old Bret bend but don't break D of standing 12 yds off wideouts and getting picked apart. Offensively though, yea that was never going to work here

 

That's definitely a game changer for the Badgers. Them sticking with their traditional offense but adding that dominant attacking defense will hopefully help put them over the top.

[homer]

A couple of thoughts after today's game:

 

Hornibrook's arm looks MUCH better

This is one of the better receiving corps they've had in a long time

Taylor is the real deal. That kid is quick.

I don't think the LBs get as much pressure as we are used to.

Overall this team looks really solid in all phases. Definitely could run the table with a little luck

[OnTheBlack]

A couple of thoughts after today's game:

 

Hornibrook's arm looks MUCH better

This is one of the better receiving corps they've had in a long time

Taylor is the real deal. That kid is quick.

I don't think the LBs get as much pressure as we are used to.

Overall this team looks really solid in all phases. Definitely could run the table with a little luck

 

 

Well, you can't really blame them! They lost TJ Watt and Vince Biegel(who everyone loved telling you was more productive than Watt...which he was).

 

I actually think I said every single one of those things sans the OLB'ers outloud watching the game at my Dad's house today. Of course I started out the game saying if Hornibrook looks bad for another week or 2 Coan might get a shot(so maybe tomorrow I'll talk about how Hawkins might get a shot if our starting corners struggle!).

 

The OL needs to get squared away a little bit...they just need to be healthy and they need continuity in there. Get guys healthy and keep them together for a stretch.

 

WR'ers/TE-Loaded, they have young guys they don't even need. And you can put the TE's in there. Penniston is super talented and would be a great #1 TE most years, but we have the best in CFB this year. Cephus and Peavy are stepping up big. AJ Taylor is a really talented young guy. Davis is a big play threat.

 

RB-Taylor looks as good as anyone not named Gordon has looked since Dayne as a young guy. He IS a really quick guy with great speed, but he'll run you over also. Shaw and James are solid, nothing special for a UW back, but Taylor is really the game changer.

 

All their DL is back and they have more depth...their MLB'ers are among the best in the country there as well.

 

The only questions I have is just how good the secondary is...only because we haven't matched up against a good QB and WR'er corp like we'll see vs Michigan and hopefully vs OSU in Indy or in a playoff.

 

 

Just hope Hornibrook can get his confidence, keep going to the WR'ers more to open it up for Fumigalli and Penninton underneath and Taylor can keep hitting those lanes...this could be a year to remember for the Big Red!