To the untrained eye, there is a considerable lacuna between Wisconsin football’s on-field success and its recruiting achievements.
Questions 1) What has been the biggest surprise for the Badgers this season? 2) What is the area in which the Badgers need to improve the most? 3) What is your bold prediction for the rest of the season? Jake 1) After arriving to spring camp at the bottom of the Badgers’ depth chart, running back Jonathan Taylor has seemingly been vaulted into the feature back role for Paul Chryst’s team.
Last week against FAU, Alex Hornibrook watched Jonathan Taylor enter the Wisconsin record books with 223 yards as a true freshman running back. Evidently, the redshirt sophomore quarterback wanted his own name etched in stone by the No. 10 Wisconsin Badgers (3-0 Overall) as Saturday afternoon, BYU (1-3) ended up on the wrong side of an historic performance in a 40-6 contest. Hornibrook could seemingly do no wrong as he set a Wisconsin school record for completion percentage in a game at 94.7 percent in what was clearly the best game of his young career. He was actually accurate on 100 percent of his 19 pass attempts, completing 18 of them for 256 yards and four touchdowns, as his lone incompletion came when a pass was dropped by true freshman wide receiver Danny Davis in the first quarter to keep him short of statistical perfection. And while it was a nearly flawless performance from the young quarterback, he also had quite a bit of help to get him through it.
This past weekend, T.J. Watt recorded two sacks, seven tackles and an interception. In the same game, Joe Schobert recorded nine combined tackles before Jonathan Casillas had two solo tackles of his own later that night. Watt, Schobert and Casillas will always be Badgers, but make no mistake, these outside linebackers now play their football on Sundays, providing an example to No. 100 Wisconsin’s (2-0) current unit of what they can achieve in the future. “That was my roommate three years ago,” said fifth-year senior outside linebacker Leon Jacobs on his former teammate Watt.
In the Week 3 edition of the Cardinal Zone Football Podcast, sports editor Ben Pickman is joined by football beat writers Lorin Cox and Jake Nisse to preview No. 10 Wisconsin's upcoming matchup against BYU.
Head coach Kalani Sitake and the BYU Cougars’ football program isn’t having the start to the season that it was hoping for.
Take one look at the BYU (1-2) roster, and you’ll notice something slightly different than most other schools.
After the early 34-14 Wisconsin win against FAU last weekend, my plan was to rest up to prepare myself for the incredible slate of night games.
Paul Chryst doesn’t run an offense with exotic spread packages or flashy play calls to try and keep the opposing defense guessing. The Badgers’ offense doesn’t try to hide what they do.
With Hurricane Irma making landfall in Florida this past weekend, Florida Atlantic University’s football team has had an extended stay in Madison after losing to the Badgers this past Saturday.
Growing up as a kid in the D.C. area, Wisconsin football was a program in my periphery. Unlike a majority of current UW cohorts, Badger football wasn’t part of a weekly routine for me, nor was I constantly aware of their year-to-year roster and coaching changes.
Wisconsin (0-0 Big Ten, 2-0 overall) defeated Florida Atlantic (0-0, 0-2) in a comfortable 17-point victory on Saturday, but a couple of crucial mistakes allowed the Owls to stay in the game for longer than expected. Florida Atlantic head coach Lane Kiffin’s team trailed just 21-14 with 4:29 remaining in the first half, but the Badgers cleaned up their play after that point, closing the game on a 10-0 run. The first of Wisconsin’s major mistakes was a blown coverage in the first quarter which left Florida Atlantic junior wide receiver DeAndre McNeal wide open for a 63-yard score. According to senior cornerback Derrick Tindal, there was miscommunication between him and the other defensive backs—Tindal expected safety help over the top, and, accordingly, moved infield instead of following the Owls’ receiver, leaving him wide open on the sideline with nothing but the end zone in front of him. “I should’ve done a better job of relaying it to the corner [Nelson], and I didn’t, and it turned into a big play,” Tindal said.
The Badgers (0-0 Big Ten, 2-0 Overall) found the next great Wisconsin running back in their 31-14 win over Flordia Atlantic (0-0, 0-2). True freshman Jonathan Taylor put his mark on Camp Randall history with an astonishing performance of 223 yards and three touchdowns.
Daily Cardinal football beat writers Lorin Cox and Jake Nisse join sports editors Ethan Levy and Ben Pickman to preview Wisconsin's week two matchup against Florida Atlantic.
After true freshman running back Jonathan Taylor exploded for 87 yards and a touchdown Friday night versus Utah State, Wisconsin fans stood up and took notice of who could possibly be the next heir to the Badgers’ long line of running backs. But Taylor himself wasn’t that impressed with his debut performance. “I think that I could’ve played better,” Taylor said.
With 4:52 left in the second quarter, the Utah State Aggies took a timeout. Up 10-0 over the No. 9 team in the country, USU didn’t want to let UW back into the game. The timeout, taken right before the Badgers were flagged for a false start that resulted in a third-and-12 situation, would help keep enough time on the clock for the Aggies to possibly march down the field and pad their 10-point lead. All they needed was a stop on third down, but senior tight end Troy Fumagalli had other plans. An incomplete pass would’ve left the Badgers facing a fourth down outside of field goal range at the Utah State 49.
Below are three keys for UW and FAU in preparation for Saturday morning's game: Florida Atlantic: Rely on the run. The Owls have a very threatening duo returning to their backfield this season.
“Welcome to college football Saturday” is a beautiful phrase. Hearing it means great games, fun performances by awesome players, rivalries and upsets are bound to happen.
Florida Atlantic head coach Lane Kiffin has a knack for being the center of attention. Whether he’s coaching in the NCAA or the NFL, in the south or out west, as a head coach or as an assistant, controversy and national headlines seem to follow the 42-year-old like his very own shadow. So it’s no surprise that the majority of the attention directed towards a Florida Atlantic program that’s attempting to recover from three straight 3-9 seasons has centered around the accomplished but erratic head coach since he left his job as offensive coordinator for Alabama the week before the national title game. Kiffin has worked hard to make the roster his own, installing his son Chris as defensive coordinator and adding 12 transfers from junior college and FBS programs, but for now he’ll primarily be looking to make the best of the remnants of a squad that finished sixth in Conference USA’s eastern division last season. On offense, that means featuring sophomore running back Devin Singletary, who rushed for 1021 yards on only 152 carries as a true freshman in 2016.
Through the first weekend of college football, the Big Ten showcased its depth and went 11-3, including No. 2 Ohio State’s 49-21 victory over conference opponent Indiana.
Read on Issuu
Solutions by The State News
