The Badgers will have a different look at running back on Saturday against Purdue.
The Wisconsin Badgers will have a different look at running back on Saturday when they play the Purdue Boilermakers, as Chez Mellusi is no longer with the program, having left to rehab some of his injuries.
Mellusi, who was Wisconsin’s leading rusher, had seen his role cut against the USC Trojans, where he played just 15 snaps, ceding the way to Tawee Walker, who had 12 carries for 55 yards and two touchdowns.
With Mellusi now leaving the program, it’s on Walker to take the next step and become the No. 1 for the Badgers going forward.
“You just got to capitalize on your opportunities,” Walker said ahead of the game. “So, like last week, I think I was the third person to get the ball. I just capitalized on my opportunity just like DD (Darion Dupree) did on his carry. He got like two, three carries, but he had like twelve yards on his first carry. He capitalized on his opportunity. So it’s just stuff like that.”
As they’ve experimented with a wide number of backs, Wisconsin hasn’t seen the success they necessarily expected on the ground when it comes to efficiency. What has been the main problem?
“I think teams we’ve been playing been defending the run, trying to make us pass the ball,” Walker acknowledged. “We did a good job of that coming out last week [versus USC]. Passing the ball opened up the run a little bit, but before that year, everybody’s just been defending the run real good. So we’ve been having four or five yard carries. [But], now we had a great passing game coming out last week hot and that opened up the run game, obviously. So hopefully we just keep on moving like that.”
“The teams we playing kind of been stacking a box. So it’s like you have to make three people miss. It’s some situational things like I said. Cause we did have a couple opportunities in the open field. Didn’t do a great job winning on [those plays], but we didn’t have as much as every other team, if you watch film. But we just gotta start when we get a chance to get to that second or third level. Just make people miss and looking at scoring the ball, but you can’t always look to score. You gotta look, you gotta be okay with football. Four or five-yard runs and one’s gonna pop. And just like Saturday, it popped. But we just gotta keep, like I said, keep stacking them up. It’s gonna come, though.”
Walker is facing some adversity of his own, as the running back is battling a lower-body injury sustained earlier in the year that has caused him to wear a fairly significant brace on his leg. That has fueled a different level of preparation from him to make sure he’s still as effective as possible on the field.
“Knowing I wasn’t 100%, I have to watch triple the times, much film as the next person because maybe I wasn’t up to speed or up to strength like I usually am,” Walker said. “So I got to just strategize myself more in pass pro, run game. Just being smarter than the next person and just knowing my every move faster than he knows his every move is just going to help me out.”
Walker has been used in a number of situations by the Badgers, including on 4th & short, such as last weekend’s missed 4th & 1. While he knows that Wisconsin has to execute those chances, the running back admitted that it is extremely difficult to execute from the shotgun.
“Very hard,” Walker said about executing 4th & shorts from the shotgun. “It is just very hard. I think myself, I have to win every time on one for one, especially how I played my game. I’m a powerful back. I have to win those situations.”
“But we got seven to block nine. So it’s just like maybe [a] different situation, maybe Braedyn pulls the ball, but it’s not his fault. I should have got it. I told him he could always put his trust into me, and I didn’t get the fourth and one. So it’s just like, everything plays a factor, but we getting better. We’re going to work on that and it won’t happen again.”
He’ll get some major chances here in Week 6, as he’s expected to take over the backfield, with Cade Yacamelli and Darrion Dupree seeming like the top choices to back him up.