2018 Wisconsin Badgers football

[young guns]

At least this game is exciting to watch and now we get 3rd overtime! Coan has looked better at least. Don't know if it's just because of Purdues defense or because hes starting to get a feel. Jt remains amazing.

[young guns]

Jt beast mode wins it!

[pacopete4]

Incredible effort on display tonight. Nice win!

[JosephC]

Have to give the team a bunch of credit for pulling out that ballgame. Winding down a disappointing season where they will end up in no better than a C-level bowl game...on the road...with a backup QB playing...coming off a three game string of games where they haven't played very well at all...pulling out a win after being down 14 points with under 10 minutes to go in the game. Purdue has beat Boston College, Ohio State and Iowa in their last three home games so it's not like Wisconsin ended up winning a game they should have easily won. Purdue has been Jekyll and Hyde, but the Badgers seemed to get more a Jekyll performance out of them and still managed to win the game. Really a great display of resiliency.

 

It will be interesting to see if all the rumors are true and Brohm goes to Louisville. Lots of folks in Madison are really happy about that because they believe that Brohm is the real deal. I'm still not so sure about him. He's made some interesting personnel decisions that haven't been very good. How does a team lose to Eastern Michigan at home and then beat Ohio State at home during the same season? What about that Minnesota game last week? There are some crazy results on Purdue's schedule.

[nodakfan17]

I’m praying for a better result in tomorrow’s border battle.

[stalton]

Hornibrook was very nightmarish. 3 Int's and a lost fumble.

[jjgott]

[sarcasm]Tanking for a high draft pick next year. Savvy.[/sarcasm]

[JosephC]

Complete embarrassment. Hopefully the bowl game will be Hornibrook's last time on the field. The guy has no business wearing a Big 10 uniform.

[Jenkins5]

Graham Mertz is being the greatest high school QB in Kansas history..... There is at least that. Too bad Idont think he is an early enroll.

 

Losing in this fashion for Axe & streak is most embarrassed I have been in long time. Big 10 champ blowout included. Just pathetic

[nate82]

I thought Mertz selected WI because he wanted to be an early enroll.

[LouisEly]

Complete embarrassment. Hopefully the bowl last night's game will be Hornibrook's last time on the field. The guy has no business wearing a Big 10 uniform.

Fixed.

 

Since his concussion he's 29-49 with 2 TDs and 5 INTs. He obviously isn't 100% and shouldn't have been starting.

[LouisEly]

You don't fire a head coach after one 7-5 season.

 

You do demote an offensive coordinator who is in charge of an offense that ranked 64th in the nation in PPG and 117th in the nation in passing YPG. The question is whether they have the balls to demote a former player. Their offensive scheme and game plan is not working.

[nodakfan17]

I’m not really a big Badger fan, so forgive me if this is a silly question ... but why can’t they bring in better QB recruits when their OL is one of the best in the country and they consistently have a top tier college RB?

[DuWayne Steurer]

I’m not really a big Badger fan, so forgive me if this is a silly question ... but why can’t they bring in better QB recruits when their OL is one of the best in the country and they consistently have a top tier college RB?

 

This is a question that always plagues me as well. There are many other teams that are run-oriented offenses that still manage to have quality quarterback play, but the Badgers just are stuck with guys that are mediocre at best. I keep hearing about Graham Mertz but we'll see when he gets here.

[True Blue Brew Crew]

You don't fire a head coach after one 7-5 season.

 

You do demote an offensive coordinator who is in charge of an offense that ranked 64th in the nation in PPG and 117th in the nation in passing YPG. The question is whether they have the balls to demote a former player. Their offensive scheme and game plan is not working.

 

It's really, really hard to be bad at offense when your RBs average seven yards per carry. Like painfully hard. It should be easy to develop a simple passing game with that kind of rushing threat. Rudolph has to go.

[Jenkins5]

A top ranked offense last year that returned 10 of 11 starters & has leading rusher in college football.... incredible how bad we are. Goes to show what awful QB play & basic play calling will get you.

 

Just looked it up. Mertz is an early enroll. Should be interesting competition this Spring and fall.

[LouisEly]

I’m not really a big Badger fan, so forgive me if this is a silly question ... but why can’t they bring in better QB recruits when their OL is one of the best in the country and they consistently have a top tier college RB?

 

This is a question that always plagues me as well. There are many other teams that are run-oriented offenses that still manage to have quality quarterback play, but the Badgers just are stuck with guys that are mediocre at best. I keep hearing about Graham Mertz but we'll see when he gets here.

They're not mediocre though - over the last 10-15 years the only school to put more QBs in the NFL is I believe USC. They've put more QBs in the NFL in that time span than Michigan, Ohio State, and Alabama. This is impressive given that their best QB recruits - Houston, Phillips, and Budmayr - all got hurt early in their careers and never really recovered and never played in the NFL. Last year Hornibrook was 27th in the nation in passer rating; not a star, but not mediocre by any stretch (it was better than Sam Darnold's passer rating).

 

Other teams look like they have better QBs, but that's because they play in a spread hurry-up scheme against mediocre defenses. When they actually play a good defense they look worse than the Wisconsin QBs; defenses outside of the SEC and Big-10 are almost laughable. Shea Patterson is a mediocre QB who benefits from being surrounded by 4 and 5-star WRs.

 

Their problems have historically been injuries to said players and a lack of WRs/targets. Until this year. Now it's scheme and play-calling. They still have a lack of depth at WR; they only have one upper-classmen at WR (Taylor, a true junior).

[PeaveyFury]

Losing Cephus so close to the start of the year was devastating to the offense, but they did have success at the end of last year following his injury.

 

I think the young, and frankly, bad defense was the only real difference that mattered this year. Wisconsin wins by wearing teams down and winning time of possession. The defense wasn't shutdown like it has been the past 4-ish seasons, and that made the offense significantly worse as a result, IMO. And obviously, they gave up far more yards and points this year than they ever have.

 

Wisconsin's offense isn't built to dig out of a big hole, but they were there a lot in their losses this year. I think Rudolph is and should be getting a lot of scrutiny after this year, where his offense AND his o-line were major dissapointments, but the defense must get better next year for the team to be better.

[LouisEly]

I think it's the reverse - the offense is wearing down the defense. If the offense can't move the ball (64th in scoring offense this year, 117th in passing yards/game) the defense has to keep coming back on the field. Eventually the defense will wear down.

 

What hasn't been talked about is field position and penalties. They've had so many penalties on offense and special teams that they have had to move the ball farther.

 

I also wonder about how much distraction - and possibly divisiveness - the Cephus situation has had on the team and the locker room. You know that he's in contact with teammates, and if he's suing UW then you have to wonder how much his friends on the team are questioning the university. It's Title IX policy they are following, not UW's, but players may not see it that way.

[PeaveyFury]

I think it's the reverse - the offense is wearing down the defense. If the offense can't move the ball (64th in scoring offense this year, 117th in passing yards/game) the defense has to keep coming back on the field. Eventually the defense will wear down.

 

 

That is typically the case and certainly didn't help. The team seemed to gameplan and make their in-game decisions based on the faulty assumption that the defense would be as tough as it had been, when it clearly wasn't the case. Over the past few seasons, that defense has made the offense look better by winning the field position battle by forcing turnovers and deep-in-their-own-territory punts, creating the shorter fields for the offense. As you very correctly noted, they got no help from themselves via special teams or due to their own mistakes, and the field was a lot longer than it had been in the past.

 

All in all, poor to mediocre play by all three facets of the game is why the Badgers are sitting here at 7-5.

[superfly]

That loss was one of the most embarassing moments of the past 20-25 years that I have been alive and conscious of Badger football. Absolutely pathetic.

[pacopete4]

That loss was one of the most embarassing moments of the past 20-25 years that I have been alive and conscious of Badger football. Absolutely pathetic.

 

Which tells you that things have been pretty good in Badgerland. They were due for a clunker.

[Samurai Bucky]

That loss was one of the most embarassing moments of the past 20-25 years that I have been alive and conscious of Badger football. Absolutely pathetic.

 

Which tells you that things have been pretty good in Badgerland. They were due for a clunker.

I'll echo this. I try to be careful not to get too spoiled. I was in the band when Don Morton was the coach... and Alvarez's first year. Might be four of the worst years in Wisconsin football history.

 

I'm optimistic that the Badgers will bounce back next year. They will be bringing in Mertz, at least two stud OTs, a stud DT from Columbus, plus a lot of other skill players. It will be interesting to see how Davis from Menomonee Falls does in the backfield.

[tmwiese55]

Coan was a highly rated QB recruit as well, 4 stars, top 10. All time NY record holder. And in two years of development how did he look? Something is lacking on the offensive side of the coaching. I'd guess PC needs to get more heavily involved in the offense/QBs again. Call it a demotion of Rudolph or not, idc, but something is up. Of course, I don't know for sure his current level of involvement but it seems lacking considering he has a tiny playcard and just how bad the passing game has been since he's been back. Nothing looks like it did under him previously. Bostad should be back to coaching OL again.

 

The D, well they lost a ton of seniors and were massively injured yet generally held their own. Don't see too much to be overly worried about there long term.

[homer]

That loss was one of the most embarassing moments of the past 20-25 years that I have been alive and conscious of Badger football. Absolutely pathetic.

 

You must have missed the 63 - 32 loss to Indiana at Camp Randall back in 2001.