Wisconsin’s long-standing tradition of offensive dominance is well documented. A wildly successful lineage of running backs and offensive linemen have accounted for the vast majority of the Badgers’ success. Equally well-documented has been Wisconsin’s recent transition to a dominant defense.
The Badgers are one of only three FBS teams to rank in the top 15 of both yards and points allowed per game in each of the past two years. Only Alabama and LSU have shown that level of defensive consistency over the past two seasons. 20 games, however, is a relatively small sample size.
With a sample size that small, it’s possible that the success of the Wisconsin defense has partially been the result of chance. But looking further back, it’s clear that the Badgers have been playing great defense for a lot longer than people think.
As it stands right now, this is the seventh consecutive season in which the Badgers have ranked in the top 25 in total defense. There are exactly two other schools that can say the same: Florida and Alabama, just about the two most dominant defensive programs ever. The second-longest active streak in the Big Ten is held by Iowa, with just three straight top 25 seasons.
Redshirt senior defensive lineman Jake Keefer has been with this team as long as anyone, and gives a lot of credit to having experience on the defensive side of the ball.
“I’d like to think that we’ve had good leadership. And that comes from guys that are seniors now learning from people in the past, I think that’s important,” said Keefer. “You take things that you learned as an underclassman and you try to use that to keep this program going.”
Keefer’s comments point to a larger theme that Wisconsin football has relied on for years. While other top-tier programs like Ohio State, Alabama and Florida rake in new high-level recruits every year, as their best players leave early for the NFL Draft, Badger players have a rich history of staying for the entirety of their college careers.
This gives them time to learn from those ahead of them on the depth chart, as they have more time to grow and have more experience when they eventually find their way onto the field. Having been in the college game for a longer period of time, they have more knowledge that they can pass on to the next generation of players.
This isn’t just true for defense, either; Wisconsin has also managed a fantastically consistent offense in that time frame as well. Although it hasn’t maintained the same level of greatness throughout the years, offense is much harder to keep steady through roster turnover. It’s much easier for one offensive player to drastically improve a team, but defense is much more of a team game.
“We’re huge into discipline here,” Keefer added. “You know, doing your job and playing as one.”
Despite the recent success of other Big Ten programs, like Ohio State and Michigan State, none can match the consistent dominance on both sides of the ball that the Badgers have shown over the years.
The Daily Cardinal’s Consistency Rating, which takes into account average national overall offensive and defensive rank and the standard deviation of that rank over a given time period, pegs Wisconsin as the most consistent Big Ten team over the past seven years.
Redshirt junior center Dan Voltz attributes this consistency to a mindset put in place by athletic director and former head coach Barry Alvarez.
“I think it’s just the culture of the program,” said Voltz. “You look back in history and ever since coach Alvarez took over the program we’ve always had good teams, and he kind of created that culture of hard working, blue-collar guys. We’re not the flashiest team, you know, we might not get the best recruits but we’re going to work hard and give ourselves every chance we can to win.”
And therein lies the philosophy that has been at the heart of Wisconsin’s consistency over the years. The Badgers have long been a grind-it-out team, dominating time of possession and the run game. And it all started, like Voltz says, with Barry Alvarez.
In the 22 seasons since 1993 — Alvarez’s fourth season as head coach — Wisconsin has produced 22 1,000-yard rushers. The ground game is always easier to maintain from year-to-year than the passing game, because it relies more heavily on the offensive line and is therefore less susceptible to the influence of a single great player (although nobody told Melvin Gordon).
College football, like any other sport, is cyclical. Teams go through highs and lows, extended periods of success and extended periods of futility. But the Wisconsin mentality put in place 25 years ago by Alvarez has kept the Badgers relevant in the national landscape every year. Even in a down year in 2015, they’ve flirted with the AP rankings throughout the season. And while Alvarez won’t stay with Wisconsin forever, his culture certainly will.
