Sports editor Thomas Valtin-Erwin, football writers Lorin Cox and Andrew Tucker, and football columnist Zach Rastall preview Wisconsin's Big Ten opener against Michigan State.
It was another topsy-turvy week for Big Ten football, with both highs and lows for some of the conference’s top teams.
Wisconsin Stuff Scott For years, Wisconsin football has used a philosophy reminiscent of teams like the current Minnesota Vikings or the 1985 Chicago Bears—ground-and-pound offense and physical, tough defense.
Midway through the first quarter against Akron, redshirt senior tight end Eric Steffes lined up on a third and sixth as one of the two players at the end of the Wisconsin line of scrimmage.
The Badgers will open Big Ten play this week against a foe that follows them from the basketball court to the gridiron, Mark Dantonio’s No. 12- ranked Michigan State Spartans.
In senior tailback Corey Clement’s absence, the Badgers offense struggled against a stingy Georgia State defense, needing someone to provide the Badgers with some firepower in order to avoid disaster. That firepower came from the left hand of redshirt freshman quarterback Alex Hornibrook. “I thought we just needed a little bit of a spark, and I liked how both of them had been working and preparing,” Wisconsin’s head coach Paul Chryst said.
In 2012 long snapper Connor Udelhoven walked into the Badgers locker room as an anonymous walk-on looking to impact the Wisconsin football team.
Few teams have been able to make this Wisconsin Badgers’ defense (3-0) look vulnerable in the last few seasons, but the Georgia State Panthers found a way to do it last week, at least for a few quarters. Their quick passing attack, combined with double moves and deep shots on the outside, stretched the defense horizontally and vertically.
I’m just going to come out and say it: Football fans in Wisconsin have been spoiled by great quarterbacks. Going from arguably a top-five all-time QB, Brett Favre, to arguably a top-two in the game right now, Aaron Rodgers, is absurd, and many Packers fans seem to think that’s just the way football is.
Football With the start of Big Ten play looming, the quarterbacik contest and red zone efficiency was the highlight of head coach Paul Chryst’s press conference on Monday. “I don’t think about the odds,” said Chryst about the Badgers’ 3-0 start despite their poor red zone efficiency.
Throughout the long, hot summer months, a quarterback battle unfolded inside the historic walls of Camp Randall Stadium.
There’s nothing that gets the blood pumping quite like a full-fledged quarterback controversy as your team is about to enter the gauntlet in conference play. But after an extremely ugly win over Georgia State, that’s exactly where the Badgers find themselves as they prepare to travel to East Lansing to take on No. 8 Michigan State in their Big Ten opener.
Despite a tumultuous afternoon for the No. 9 Badgers (3-0), they snuck out of Camp Randall with a 23-17 win against the Georgia State Panthers (0-3) after falling behind by four points in the fourth.
Coming off a convincing win versus the Akron Zips, the No. 9 Wisconsin Badgers (2-0) wrap up their non-conference schedule this weekend with a contest against the Georgia State Panthers (0-2). Georgia State has struggled with the start of their schedule, dropping its first matchup 31-21 to Ball State, followed by a crushing 48-14 loss to Air Force just last week.
In this week's episode of the Cardinal Zone Podcast, sports editor Thomas Valtin-Erwin, football writers Lorin Cox and Andrew Tucker and columnist Zach Rastall preview the Badgers matchup against Georgia State.
To the casual Wisconsin fan, after losing Alex Erickson to the NFL, there really wasn’t any receiving threat left on the Badgers.
Saturday was a day full of impressive individual efforts leading to overall team dominance, as the Wisconsin Badgers defeated the Akron Zips 54-10.
Unless chaos abounds, the Badgers should handily defeat the Georgia State Panthers this Saturday. Just like in the game against Akron, UW will be ahead by a lot in the second half, and again they’ll give a number of second- and third-stringers some playing time.
Sophomore Alan Johnson, the man in the Bucky Badger suit, took off the mascot head and threw it down in disgust upon completing his 54th push-up after Wisconsin’s final touchdown Saturday.
Let’s put the cart way before the horse, just for the fun of it. Could this be the best year ever for Badger athletics?
Solutions by The State News
