University of Wisconsin enters Piscataway in strong form
At the beginning of October, head coach Gary Andersen and the Wisconsin football team seemed to be on track for a rough year.
The Badgers had dropped their Big Ten opener at Northwestern, 20-14, their second loss of the season, and appeared to have serious issues at quarterback, with then-starter Tanner McEvoy being pulled after just four drives against the Wildcats.
But things have changed drastically since that opening conference loss, with Wisconsin now on a two-game winning streak, which includes a 52-7 romping of Maryland last Saturday at Camp Randall Stadium.
Entering this Saturday’s noon encounter with Rutgers at High Point Solutions Stadium, the Badgers are playing their best football, according to Andersen. But he insists their confidence level has never really changed.
“Not every game goes your way, not every play goes your way, but they should feel pretty good about themselves right now when you beat a very, very talented [Maryland] team,” Andersen said during Tuesday’s weekly Big Ten Teleconference. “… So I believe they feel good about themselves, their performance, but as soon as they pat themselves on the back, then we’ll have major issues. But this has always been a confident crew.”
One player who’s certainly risen in confidence level and has been a major part of Wisconsin’s turnaround is new starting quarterback Joel Stave.
After throwing three of the team’s four interceptions in relief of McEvoy against Northwestern, Stave has settled into the starting role. He threw for two touchdowns last week against the Terrapins and boasts a 2-0 record as the starter under center this year.
After starting for the majority of the 2012 and all of 2013 season, Stave lost the job to McEvoy after dealing with confidence issues throwing the football during the summer.
But despite having some doubt earlier on, Andersen believes Stave has turned things around and is back to his former self.
“[I] frankly did not know just cause of the unknown of where he was [mentally], but if I was going to bet, I was going to bet on Joel Stave to find a way to get this thing fixed and ride it in the right direction,” Andersen said.
With Stave back in form and running back Melvin Gordon, who is third in the nation in rushing touchdowns and fourth in rushing yards, producing big numbers, Wisconsin looks to be a handful offensively.
Against a reeling Scarlet Knights defense that has allowed 98 total points and 616 total rushing yards the past two games, the Badgers could be in for another big day.
While their schemes will give Rutgers head coach Kyle Flood plenty of headaches, Andersen praised Knights offensive coordinator Ralph Friedgen for his play calls and said that whoever starts at quarterback will flourish under Friedgen.
“To me, the sign of a quality coordinator or a quality coach in general, is getting his best players the opportunity to make plays when the opportunity presents itself and he really does that through his scheme, through his different types of packages and through his play calling,” Andersen said. “So it is a challenge. … I think we’ll be ready, but we’re going to have to be to defend an offense that is going to be very good regardless of who’s playing quarterback.”
Despite the praise given to Rutgers’ offense, the Knights will have a hard time breaking down a talented Badgers defense.
Wisconsin ranks as the top scoring defense in the conference, averaging 16.1 points per game. It’s a unit Flood described as a great team defense.
“They’ve got excellent players, but I think as a whole they play great defense,” Flood said. “The safety Michael Caputo leads the team in tackles. Their inside linebackers are two and three in tackles but their outside linebackers lead the team in [tackles for losses], so they get a lot of production from a lot of different places on that defense and think their corners are as well-coached a pair as we’ve seen. I think they play great 11-man defense.”
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