By: Nate Craft (@nathancraft2)
Wisconsin Badger football fans have been pretty spoiled as of late.
Under Bret Bielema’s tenure from 2006-2012, the program had on overall record of 68-21 with 7 bowl appearances, three of those at the Rose Bowl. However, Bielema’s failure to only go 2-4 in bowl games, including the two Rose Bowls he coached in, is a good indication why Badger fans welcomed his departure to Arkansas and Gary Andersen’s hiring. It was clearly time for a change as the Badger’s looked to take that next step and finally start producing some big time bowl wins.
As we look back on 2013, which marked Gary Andersen’s first season on the job, the Wisconsin Badger’s football team played well. The 9-4 record does not necessarily reflect how talented Andersen’s first squad at Madison actually was.
The Arizona State game clearly was an anomaly with subpar decisions made by the referees (Madison should’ve won this one), Ohio State was able to save their skin at the last minute and avoid a Badger win in Ohio (again Madison should have won this one), and the matchup against Penn State was just the Badger’s having their annual game where the state of Wisconsin was simultaneously wondering: “do the Badger’s know they are playing a football game now?” (Badgers deserved to lose this one).
Andersen’s first season very well could have been 11-1 going into a bowl game. Yet it clearly was not and many of the issues that led to these losses and the team’s bowl game loss to South Carolina mark the glaring obstacles that will need rectified in 2014 in order to have another positive season.
With the loss of the 2013 seniors, 2014 marks the first year that we will see Andersen’s rebuilt system fully implemented. Let’s take a look at the four main issues the Badgers need to address in order to win the Big Ten Championship and compete in the new BCS Championship.
Under Bret Bielema’s tenure from 2006-2012, the program had on overall record of 68-21 with 7 bowl appearances, three of those at the Rose Bowl. However, Bielema’s failure to only go 2-4 in bowl games, including the two Rose Bowls he coached in, is a good indication why Badger fans welcomed his departure to Arkansas and Gary Andersen’s hiring. It was clearly time for a change as the Badger’s looked to take that next step and finally start producing some big time bowl wins.
As we look back on 2013, which marked Gary Andersen’s first season on the job, the Wisconsin Badger’s football team played well. The 9-4 record does not necessarily reflect how talented Andersen’s first squad at Madison actually was.
The Arizona State game clearly was an anomaly with subpar decisions made by the referees (Madison should’ve won this one), Ohio State was able to save their skin at the last minute and avoid a Badger win in Ohio (again Madison should have won this one), and the matchup against Penn State was just the Badger’s having their annual game where the state of Wisconsin was simultaneously wondering: “do the Badger’s know they are playing a football game now?” (Badgers deserved to lose this one).
Andersen’s first season very well could have been 11-1 going into a bowl game. Yet it clearly was not and many of the issues that led to these losses and the team’s bowl game loss to South Carolina mark the glaring obstacles that will need rectified in 2014 in order to have another positive season.
With the loss of the 2013 seniors, 2014 marks the first year that we will see Andersen’s rebuilt system fully implemented. Let’s take a look at the four main issues the Badgers need to address in order to win the Big Ten Championship and compete in the new BCS Championship.
The offensive line really is not an “issue” for the Badgers, yet it has the potential to decide games for the team. A large, powerful offensive line has become the symbol of the Badger offense, however in 2013 the Badgers had some difficulties scoring in the red-zone. With 4/5 O-line starters coming back, be prepared to see Melvin Gordon produce many red-zone TD’s and hopefully some major protection for Joel Stave.
So the Badger defense really was not as awful as many believe it was in 2013, but they were pretty bad especially at the end of the season. Considering Andersen and Defensive Coordinator Dave Aranda instituted a 3-4 defense, issues were bound to arise. But now that Andersen & Aranda have had the off-season to tweek the defense, it will be interesting to see how a less experienced linebacker corps, a probably less talented secondary, and a pretty normal defensive line will fair. My hope is that the young guns will prove themselves and play well, but I’m rational and don’t expect the Badger defense to be that much better this season.
Let’s be frank, Stave’s only real job this year is to not be a liability. We all know that he is not going to be a great quarterback like Russell Wilson. All we should be asking is for him to play like Scott Tolzein: advance the offense, make a few good passes, not fumble/throw a bunch of crap passes at the feet of the receivers/into the hands of the defense, and hand off the ball to Melvin Gordon like a champ. Really, that’s all he needs to do. Without Jared Abbrederis, the receiving corps is kind of depleted. There are many decent receivers Stave can throw to but Stave really doesn’t have a great #1 receiver so the passing game is going to be a bit of a struggle. But that doesn’t really matter, as we all know the Badgers are a running team. As long as Gordon and the rest of the backfield remain healthy and the O-line is able to push through to the second level, expect to see some explosive runs.
Improve the once mighty special teams:
Remember when the Badger special teams were great? It was a few years ago so if you can’t remember I don’t blame you. For being Bielema’s responsibility, the special teams really seemed to go south. Even last year with Bielema gone, the special teams were not fun to watch at all. Case in point, the punt game was awful. It seems like every time the Badgers had to punt, they were either going to get a wimpy punt out of Drew Meyer, or they straight up got destroyed with a fumble or huge return. Thankfully, the Badgers have a good return man again. Kenzel “be chilling” Doe will put the offense in prime positioning after big returns this year. The only other liability on special teams may be their place kicking. Thank you God that Kyle French is finally done.
If Coach Andersen and the Badgers have the ability to rectify the above issues and play some decent ball, then expect the team to cake walk through the division and make the Big Ten Championship.
Finally, let's dissect the Badger schedule.
How is the program continuing to schedule early games against these sub-par programs. Thankfully, Wisconsin added to their strength of schedule by opening the season against LSU (thankfully might not be the right word because I could definitely see Les Miles and LSU absolutely laying the hammer on the Badgers). The Badgers should start scheduling tougher games so that when it comes to bowl season, the argument can be made that Wisconsin had a stellar strength of schedule.
As Saturday the 30th approaches, Badgers fans hope that Coach Andersen continues to work his squad hard so that they will come out and perform on the national stage. Wisconsin supporters hope the issues from last season have been rectified so that Bucky can do plenty of pushups, which in turn will give fans a lot to jump around about.
Nate Craft is a contributor for The Sports ReKap which is hosted by Nick Kapetan and DJ Vogt. The show will begin airing again in September on MarquetteWire.org.
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