MADISON — Coming out of the gauntlet that was the beginning of their Big Ten schedule, Wisconsin will be heading into the ‘easy’ part of their schedule.
It starts with a game at Northwestern this week. Evanston, IL has not been kind to Wisconsin, as the Badgers have not won there since 1999.
“It’s going to be a battle. The last year we didn’t beat them so it’s going to be a tough challenge so we’re ready to embrace the opportunity to go into the stadium and come out with a victory,” starting running back Corey Clement said.
Trying to pinpoint why Wisconsin has struggled on the road against Northwestern, Clement could not find a specific reason.
“I wish I could tell you but like I was saying we just have to execute on both sides of the ball and just really can’t be lax at all when it comes to playing in big time opportunities,” Clement said. “We can’t take our foot off the pedal just because they’re not a top ten ranked team, we got to play every game like it’s our last.”
Wisconsin’s stagnant offense will be going against a Northwestern defense that has given up about 22 points per game and over 400 total yards a game. Wisconsin will be looking to take advantage of a weaker Northwestern defense to jump-start its offense.
But in recent games against Indiana and Ohio State, the Wildcats have given up 14 and 24 points respectively and their rush defense has only been giving up about 140 yards per game.
“Those guys are very sound up front when it comes to the front seven so we just have to be technique sound and do what we got to do,” Clement said.
Northwestern linebacker Jaylen Prater will be one of the key players on the defensive side trying to stop Clement and company. To date, Prater has 61 total tackles. Making room for Prater to make plays in the run defense are his two defense tackles up front.
“Their defensive tackles are big dudes who they play well and they’re strong and they’re going to try and clog the gaps on us. I think movement off of the ball is going to be huge for us this week,” starting left tackle Ryan Ramczyk said.
Coming in at about 300 pounds each, Jordan Thompson and Tyler Lancaster are people movers, and Wisconsin’s offensive line will need to be quick off the line in order to make holes for the running game to work in.
“From an O-line perspective I’d say just sustaining blocks a little bit longer, getting a little more movement off the line of scrimmage. Those are some of the things we saw on the film from last week,” Ramczyk said on what the offensive line can do to improve.
Coming into the game, Wisconsin also has a looming question hanging over them, what kind of quarterback system is this?
Clearly both Alex Hornibrook and Bart Houston are going to play but the question is a matter of what kind of two quarterback system Wisconsin is going to use moving forward. Playing against Northwestern should give Wisconsin a chance to figure that out.
The Wildcats have given up almost 275 yards through the air per game, and Wisconsin should be able to take advantage of a weaker secondary.
With Wisconsin getting ranked in the top 10 in the first college football rankings, many fans are looking down the road at a possible push for the final four playoff. The players are still focusing on what’s in front of them though.
“Obviously it’s fun looking down the road to see what could be but what’s important is right now and coach makes sure that we know that,” Ramczyk said.