Whose stock is up and whose stock is down ahead of Week 4 for the Badgers?
The Wisconsin Badgers 42-10 loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide was…. not pretty. It was a clear example of Murphy’s Law at work: “If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong”.
Not only did Wisconsin get blown out at home, they also lost their starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke for the rest of the season. That’s a huge blow. As you might expect, vibes are not at an all-time high within the program.
However, there were still some things to be positive about in this game. Here is what’s rising and falling inside Wisconsin’s football program.
Stock down: Wisconsin’s QB situation
Losing Van Dyke was the worst possible scenario for the Badgers. There’s no sugarcoating that. Second-string quarterback Braedyn Locke has the potential to be serviceable but lacks experience and a deep ball unlike Van Dyke.
One thing about Locke that puts the Badgers in a slightly better place than people might think is the fact that Locke dealt with the same kind of situation last season when starter Tanner Mordecai got injured. Locke struggled in the game when Mordecai got hurt, similar to his slow start against Alabama, but ended up having solid enough games away at Illinois and home against Ohio State.
Nothing about Van Dyke’s injury is positive. Still, the fact that Locke has already been in this unexpected position before is a little reassuring for Coach Fickell and his Badgers staff. Let’s hope Phil Longo successfully finds a way to get Locke prepped these next two weeks for their big game away at USC.
Stock up: Wisconsin’s run defense
Despite the final box score, Wisconsin’s run defense did look better for the majority of this contest. While they conceded some long runs to Milroe and Miller, those were the two outliers in this game.
Wisconsin managed to stop the run on a few crucial third down plays which gave them an opportunity at the start of the game. If Wisconsin wants to have a chance in close games down the stretch, they need to limit long runs and make sure to force the opponent to pass more.
I want to give credit to defensive coordinator Mike Tressel who clearly made the necessary adjustments in the run defense during the week leading up to the game against Alabama. Hopefully he can cook up another strong start against USC in two weeks.
Stock down: Phil Longo’s “air raid”
Phil Longo’s attempt at bringing an “air raid” offense to Wisconsin has been disappointing. The Badgers’ offense is suffering from an identity crisis simply because Luke Fickell’s style of offense is run-heavy while Longo’s is pass-heavy.
The Badgers seem to be at an impasse because of this, which is why their offense is so stagnant this season, and struggled for parts of last season. For a team to succeed, there needs to be synergy between the head coach and the schemes that his team is running.
Unfortunately for the Badgers, Fickell and Longo’s vastly different play styles are only hurting Wisconsin’s rebuild. Either these two coaches need to workshop gameplans that fit their two visions or Fickell needs to part ways with his offensive coordinator and bring someone else in that can more effectively carry out his gameplans.