The No. 21 Wisconsin football team walked away with the Heartland Trophy Saturday after beating Iowa 28-9 in Iowa City.
Keeping to their strong points, the Badgers’ (4-1 Big Ten, 6-2 overall) offense, No. 3 in the Big Ten, ran the ball for 218 yards against the Hawkeyes. Senior running back James White led Wisconsin with 132 yards and two touchdowns.
“There is always room for improvement, I had a pretty decent game last week but at the same time you have to move on,” White said. “We have a great opponent in BYU, they’re going to come out here ready to win and so we’re going to have to keep it going and prepare for them.”
The question for Wisconsin’s offense will be how to improve upon their excellent run game. No team has matched the explosive ground game of the Badgers this season. Wisconsin leads the nation in runs of 50-plus yards (8), 60-plus yards (6) and 70-plus yards (5). The Badgers have averaged 6.67 yards per carry on 344 rushing attempts. They are second only to Oregon, who boast 6.92 yards per carry.
Both White and redshirt sophomore running back Melvin Gordon have amassed over 1,000 yards from scrimmage this year. White has 804 rushing yards and 208 receiving while Gordon obtained 1,074 rushing and five receiving.
If the driving duo meets opposition the Badgers tend turn to red shirt sophomore quarterback Joel Stave and his favored target redshirt senior wide receiver Jared Abbrederis. With a 150.46 rating, Stave ranks third in the Big Ten for passing efficiency. Stave has passed for 1,630 yards and 15 touchdowns. Abbrederis has brought in six of those passes.
Abbrederis ranks third in the Big Ten in receptions per game with 6.3 and in receiving yards per game with 97.8.
BYU will be travelling into Camp Randall for the second time in their history. The first time the two teams played in 1980 the Cougars walked away with a 28-3 victory. BYU may be a stranger to Wisconsin in recent years but not to head coach Gary Andersen. This will be Andersen’s tenth consecutive season playing against BYU.
“He has played [BYU] quite a few times in his coaching career, he knows a lot about them,” White said. “He knows that they’re going to come out here and they’re going to play tough, similar to us.”
The Badgers should know that the Cougars are not just tough but experienced on the defensive side of the ball. Six players on BYU’s defense have played in more than 40 games.
It has been a long time since these teams have seen each other, but this Badger offense has come a long way this season.
