A look at the Wisconsin Badgers.
We are now less than a week away from the 2007 Outback Bowl where Tennessee will face off against Wisconsin on New Years Day. Board member MarineBadger posted an analysis of the Badgers in our Vols Forum and I thought it was worth sharing here.
Part I – The offense
QB– Tyler Donovan (5th year Senior, 1st year starter). TD is a homegrown product. He’s not an NFL level QB, but his only goal in life was to play QB for the Badgers. He spent a lot of years here, and finally got his chance this year. He is a mobile QB, but he’s not anything like Tebow. He’s a little undersized at a generous 6’0″, but he’s got the feet to make plays. His arm isn’t exactly a cannon either, but it gets the job done. I’d say his best ability is his toughness and overall athleticism. The kid has heart and plays tough. His biggest liability is he doesn’t go through progressions as well as us fans would like.
RB– We’ll start with PJ Hill (Redshirt Soph, 2nd year starter). PJ is a power RB. He is about 5’11” and around 225lbs. His running style is good between the tackles. He doesn’t have the shiftiness or speed to blow through the line for 70 yard scampers, but he’ll get hit and fall forward for 3 more yards, and what looked like a 2 yard gain will be a 5 yard gain. He’ll break a few 8-15 yarders as well. He has the most experience in our system, and has decent hands out of the backfield. His biggest asset is knowing the offense and hitting the right hole. His liability would be his speed and he is prone to injury. He gained over 1000 yards this year but that was 4 games ago. He got injured against Indiana early, and played only sparingly against Michigan.
Lance Smith (true Sophomore). Lance Smith is our change of pace back. The guy has some jets. He was PJs backup last year, and figured to be this year. However an offseason altercation with his g/f led him to get suspended for the teams 5 road games this year. He had over 400 yards in backup duty in the other 7 games and averages over 6 yards a carry. His biggest asset is his speed. He can break the 70 yard runs. His biggest asset is his ability to read the hole. He likes to bounce it outside a little too quickly and he has carried the ball loosely at times. If he were more patient and a better pass blocker, he’d probably start.
Zach Brown-(True Freshman). We had a stud recruit of ours(John Clay) have trouble with getting academically qualified, and he had to take summer classes to make our program. He made it, but missed quite a bit of fall practice and was behind the curve and so we elected to redshirt him. Zach Brown made his way to the 3rd spot, probably figuring on not playing that much. Well after PJ’s injury and Lance Smith suspension, Zach Brown was pressed into action this year as both a starter and a backup depending on which game it was. He did an outstanding job gaining over 500 yards this year. He had a game of over 200 yards, but to be fair that was against Minnesota, who was one of the worst defenses in the country. Zach Brown is neither as powerful as PJ, nor as quick as Lance. But he reads the holes well, and always goes forward. He is a very good blocker in pass protection too, which is the hardest thing for freshman RB to pick up.
I don’t know who is starting, and Bielema is known for playing games with the press. So I’ll know who the starter is when you do, which will be Jan 1st.
WR– Paul Hubbard(5th year senior, 2nd year starter). Paul Hubbard came to UW as a track athlete. He came over to the football team, and last year became a starter. He was injured in the second game against UNLV and sat out 4-5 games. He has decent hands, and good speed. His strength is really as a run blocker at the wideout position. I don’t know that he has any glaring weaknesses, but he’s not a game breaker either. Solid kid.
Kyle Jefferson(True Freshman, 1st year starter)
Another track runner, he was actually recruited to play football here. He was pressed into the starting role when Hubbard went down, and stayed in the starting role when Luke Swan went down for the year. The kid is a beanpole at 6’5″ and maybe 180lbs. He has decent hands, and good route running for a kid his height. He is the deep ball threat. He kind of disappeared the last few games, but I couldn’t tell you exactly why. My thinking is that Donovan is more comfortable with Beckum and Hubbard than he is with the true frosh. Or perhaps our O coordinator used Kyle to open things underneath. He showed some flashes of a bright future at UW, but he is still a freshman.
TE– Travis Beckum(Junior, 2nd year starter). Beckum was recruited as a LB when he came to UW, and last year was the first year he ever played TE. This guy is our play maker. More in the frame of a large WR, he is a pass catching phenom out of the TE position. Too fast for LBs and too big for safeties, he has been a matchup nightmare for defenses the past two years. Great hands, great speed. Near 1000 yards receiving this year, this guy is Donovans favorite target. Our OC will use motion and formations to create mismatches in Beckum’s favor. His only detraction is in run blocking, where he is serviceable but not a world beater.
OL– In the interest of saving space, and the time honored tradition of OL not getting credit they deserve, I am just going to be brief here.
We have a very big line, that is experienced despite only having 1 senior. We return starters at every position except LT where we lost All-World Joe Thomas to the NFL last year. Redshirt Frosh Gabe Carimi has filled in well for JT, but he has had some freshman mistakes with holds. I want to say off the top of my head we average around 6’6″ and 315 across the line, with Carimi being the light in the loafers at 292. The play from this group has been anywhere from average to great, but never bad. Last year we had trouble running on Arkansas 5 man fronts, something I am sure your coaching staff is aware of. However I don’t know if you have the personnel for it.
Other names/positions worth note.
FB Chriss Pressly- Big powerful run blocker. Decent hands for a big fellow too.
WR/KR/PR-David Gilreath. True freshman that is tiny but fast. He may be in as the 3rd/4th WR sometimes, but his biggest impact is in the return game. He had issues earlier in the year with PR, but he gained valuable experience, again when Luke Swan went down for the year.
TE Garret Graham-The “other” TE at UW. He is more of a true TE, than Beckum but possesses great hands as well. Mickey Turner is our best blocking TE, and sometimes all three will be out there at the same time.
Part II – Defense
Let us start off by saying that our defense was supposed to be the strong point of this team. We returned 8 starters from last year when our defense was a top 5 D. All we had to do was replace a MLB, and two safeties. Piece of cake, right? Wrong.
We will start off on the DL. We lost 1 senior, Jamal Cooper, who was a starting DE. More of a pass rush specialist than anything. He had some off the field issues most of his time here, and brought them to the practice field one day. Bielema gave him plenty of chances to redeem himself, but prior to our opener, the kid ran out of rope and was booted from the team. So that was the first strike in many for our DL.
DE‘s Kurt Ware (5th year senior 1st year starter) and Matt Shaugnessy (Junior 2nd year starter).
Kurt Ware has been on and off the field with some injuries this year. When healthy he is a solid contributor, but he just hasn’t been there all season.
Matt Shaugnessy is a great pro prospect for next year. He has a good balance of pass rush ability, and playing assignment ball on running plays, especially ones that reverse field back towards him. Due to the nature of your passing game, I don’t expect any sacks. Were your passing attack more conventional in its drop back I would be confident they would generate some pressure at times.
DT– Nick Hayden (Senior- 2nd or 3rd year starter, can’t remember if he started as a soph) and Mike Newkirk (Red. Junior 1st year starter).
Nick Hayden is a solid DT, and will probably be drafted to the NFL. Good power and assignment sure. He is the leader of this defense. Mike Newkirk was actually a reserve DT, but got pushed out to DE with the departure of Cooper and the injury to Ware. DE was not his natural position and it showed. Putting him out there also depleted our DT of some depth. Jason Chapman was our other starter at DT and he went down with a season ending injury a few weeks back(OSU IIRC). So Newkirk slid back to his natural DT position and Ware came back. Newkirk is a little undersized as a DT, but he plays with a mean streak. This depth behind the line is not that good. The lack of depth showed against OSU as we were tied 17 a piece at OSU in the 4th quarter, and then OSU just ran over us with their power running game. Sadly enough, this is the strength of our D.
LBs- DeAndre Levy (Junior, 2nd year starter at OLB), Elijah Hodge (Red. Soph 1st year starter at MLB), and Jonathon Casillas (Junior, Second year starter at OLB).
This is where disappointment abounded for the Badgers. Both Casillas and Levy were fast, sure tackling LBs last year. Elijah Hodge had shown flashes of brilliance in backup roles last year. It was assumed that Elijah Hodge was going to be an instant upgrade over departed Mark Zalewski. This was not the case.
To be fair, this group has played with some guts. First off both Levy and Hodge have battled pretty much the entire year with nagging injuries. But the tackling angles these fellows have taken this year have been atrocious. Hodge seems to run towards the blocking rather than trying to shed the blocker and stay in his assigned area.
Levy and Casillas have both over pursued at times, and cutbacks were available all year long against this team. This was supposed to be the strength of this team, and it never panned out. Hopefully they are healed up and ready to go. The depth behind them isn’t bad, and can spell these guys for a time.
CBs- Jack Ikegwuonu (Junior second year starter) and Ben Strickland (5th year Senior, no seasons as a starter).
At the beginning of the year Ben Strickland was out dime coverage guy and a special teams contributor. Allen Langford was the starter (with Ikegwuonu we’ll call him Ike for short) to begin the season, then went down with a season ending injury. True freshman Aaron Henry took his place and performed admirable for a frosh, and he suffered a season ending injury in practice, jumping over a pile and landing awkwardly. During the course of the year, whether by coach design, or player decision, the corner opposite Ike was lining up way downfield from the receiver. Like not even on the TV screen, thats how far off they played them. I screamed bloody murder more than a few times, wonder just what the @#!% they were doing. When Henry came in, they played it a little closer to the ball, but still a good 5 yards off. you should be drooling right now.
Ike, when he is on, he is a shut down corner. He has been nagged a little bit with some injuries/sickness this year. Most of those were just in game things though, nothing where he missed weeks on end. He only has 1 pick I believe, and thats usually because he doesn’t get thrown at. Weird thing is, is he got beat pretty bad by some nobody at Minnesota, after holding the two best receivers in the Big Ten (Manningham and Hardy) to almost nothing when he had coverage on them. Hopefully an aberration, and not something we will see repeated come Jan 1.
Strickland may not be the fastest guy or the most talented guy, but the kid straps them up and plays his heart out every week, no matter where he is. You’ll probably want to pick at him as he is the weaker of the corners. The guy gave up his scholarship for another teammate who needed it this year(due to financial situations). The kid is a class act and competitor.
Should we go nickel or dime coverage I have no idea who you will see out there. Probably Josh Nettles or Kim Royston, both with a little time on the field but we are thin here.
Safeties– Aubrey Pleseant (Red. Sophomore 1st year Starter). Shane Carter (Red Sophomore 1st year starter). Admittedly this was a question mark at the beginning of the season. It continues to be so. After they both redshirted last year together, with the exact same injury, they both apparently skipped out on tackling class with each other as well. Pleaseant is the SS, Carter the FS. Now Carter has 7 picks this year. he can go up there and get it if Ainge hangs it up there. He ought to catch the ball, since he is the younger brother of Cris Carter of the “all he does is catch touchdowns” fame. But the tackling from this position has been abysmal, if we are being kind. Wrong angles, ankle tackles, no wrapping up, poor in run support, getting fooled by TEs rubbing the DL and running corner routes, these guys have let it all happen. If a big play was broken(and many were), you usually could attribute it to a bad play by a UW safety. Hell, we even gave up the longest passing play in Michigan history when Shane Carter got caught out of position and Manningham went like 98 or 99 yards. If these guys are the starters, I cannot imagine their replacements could be much better. If they were, they’d be starting, unless these guys have some photos of Bielema in compromising positions.
K– Taylor Mehlhaff (Senior- 3rd year starter, might be 4th not sure). Kid can kick the ball. He is able to kick them to the back of the endzone, but I think by coach design, they asked him to kick it a little higher to let the coverage teams get down there. He started the season by kicking it out of the back, but then quit doing so.
He is a good fieldgoal kicker, and was the difference last year in beating Arkansas by kicking a 52 yarder. Pro prospect here.
P– Ken Debauche (5th year senior 3rd year starter). After an impressive sophomore season, Ken disappointed mightily last year, and is somewhere between that this year. If he’s on, he’s one of the best in the country, but he just hasn’t been consistent this year for me to bank on it being so in the bowl game.