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Wisconsin Badgers 2016 was a year that was supposed to be a massive step back. Games against LSU, at Michigan State Michigan Iowa and Northwestern, and hosting Ohio State and Nebraska made the Badgers bowl streak look like an unsure mark. But holy loving poo poo, they beat LSU on a perfect day, they roll Michigan State and only lose regular season games against Michigan and Ohio State by a TD, and just miss a Rose Bowl berth in a hell of a game against Penn State. A season that started off with a realistic December bowl ended as Cotton Bowl champs. Key departures: Corey Clement, a more workmanlike running back than Wisconsin's had in a while graduates, as does DIII transfer turned All-American Ryan Ramczyk. Bart Houston split time at QB in the middle of the season, but ended the season with a win against Western Michigan. Defensively, the last Watt joined the family profession, as did Vince Biegel and a pair of safeties. Offense Gary Anderson's scheme of spread-to-run didn't gel with the Wisconsin hallmark of pounding the ball down opponents throats, and his recruiting and development of offensive line talent left a rather bare cupboard for Paul Chryst up front when he rejoined his alma matter. It took 3 years but it looks like that unit's back to what Badgers expect. There's about 8 lineman that will see usage, and my guess is fall camp will be figuring out what combinations work best together. The running back spot figures to be a heavy rotation of Shaw, Deal and James, with no clear favorite right now. At QB, Alex Hornibrook returns. He had issues with poor arm strength, which coupled with being a redshirt freshman splitting reps created too many picks. If he can create some zip on his passes, he'll take advantage of a pretty-good-for-Wisconsin receiving corp. The standout is TE Troy Fumagalli - tight ends have been a focal point for Chryst as a safety blanket in the passing game, and this is one of the most reliable he's had in some time. Jazz Peavy will probably be the second passing option as a WR, with Quintez Cephus as the home run threat. Defense 3rd defensive coordinator in 3 years. Dave Aranda begot Justin Wilcox, who begot Jimmy Leonhard. I was a student when Leonhard played at Wisconsin. I tell myself I'm not old, he's just young. It helps. There's a wealth of talent in the front 7 - the entire defensive line returns, as do 7 linebackers that saw significant action. They'll have to attack and keep pressure off the secondary, as the Big 10 championship game showed there's opportunities for deep passes if they get time. Special Teams Rafael Gaglianone is back, which means 50 yard field goal makes and sambas are back as well. Punting wasn't a strong suit, and returning any sort of kick hasn't been a strong point in a while. Schedule Well, we don't play 4 preseason top 12 teams. 1-Sep Utah State - Upside - night game! Downside - on a Friday. Win. 9-Sep Florida Atlantic - Kiffykins! Win. 16-Sep at BYU - 75% Win. Road game and everyone's sober. Not Wisconsin's strength. 30-Sep Northwestern - 80% Win. Maybe a ranked matchup? Northwestern has Nevada, at Duke and Bowling Green and could backdoor into a ranking by the fifth week. 7-Oct at Nebraska - 70% Win. We've lost to Nebraska once. Should be a good game there though. 14-Oct Purdue - Win. Scott Starks killed the Boilermakers 13 years ago. 21-Oct Maryland - Win. 28-Oct at Illinois - Win. 4-Nov at Indiana - Win. Maybe if they didn't have a new coach, I'd feel shaky. 11-Nov Iowa - 80% Win. I'm worried Iowa will keep the streak of 'road team wins even though they probably really shouldn't' alive in this matchup. (Seriously - away has won since 2009, 6 straight games.) 18-Nov Michigan - 65% Win. Last year, Wisconsin was incredibly spoiled by the home schedule - even with just 6 games, they included night games against Nebraska and Ohio State and 2:30 games against Illinois and Minnesota. This year, the Michigan game dwarfs all others. They'll be the best team we face, Michigan will probably win every game outside of @PSU so they'll be highly ranked, and they haven't played in Madison since loving 2009. (I've seen Michigan as many times as Nebraska, figure that out.) This is going to be a hell of an atmosphere, and we better loving pull it out. 25-Nov at Minnesota - 80% Win. PJ Fleck might have something going by the last game of the season, but Minnesota is only in the middle of the Big 10 West because Illinois and Purdue have the bottom spots locked down. Prediction, 11-1 because I don't have full confidence in Hornibrook or Leonhard yet, but we do win the West and beat Ohio State or lose to Penn State in Indy and win a great bowl or lose in the playoff.
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Jul 22, 2017 16:58
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MourningView posted:If you meet a Penn State fan older than like 30 in the wild run the other way as fast as possible because there's like an 85% chance they are insane Paterno truthers This was by far the worst part of going to the Big 10 Championship game last year, seeing Gameday signs like 'JOE PATERNO KNEW WE'D BE BACK.'
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Aug 24, 2017 20:43
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