The Wisconsin Badgers football season hasn’t exactly gone to plan, sitting at 4-2 and entering an interesting stretch against the two newcomers — Maryland and Rutgers. After seeing Maryland take down Iowa and Rutgers get to bowl eligibility, Wisconsin can’t expect more of the same from the first half to work in the second half.
Wisconsin is far from a perfect team, and it has many problems that need to be corrected for it to be a true contender in the Big Ten West division.
One could point to quarterback play, big plays given up at inopportune times by the defense or a failure to convert red zone drives in to touchdowns effectively enough.
After all, Wisconsin is 13th in passing offense, 11th in passer efficiency (shockingly higher than some would have you believe) and 12th in red zone offense.
However, the biggest issue that Wisconsin faces is the one unknown entering this season — youth.
Given the loss of 26 seniors, the Badgers were going to be a team in transition this season. They were also going to be a team that needed to have youth step up at positions that weren’t effective in 2013, mainly at wide receiver at the secondary.
It was always going to be on Andersen’s first full class to give Wisconsin a quick jolt of athletic ability and production at those two positions.
After six games, its hard to say that is happening in a meaningful way and on Monday head coach Gary Andersen threw down the gauntlet to those young players following the bye week.
“It was a great challenging moment for our young players to understand that we expect them to rise up to the occasion and we’re never going to, I say it many times, I say it again, we don’t use youth as a crutch and we won’t,” said Andersen.
“And now I expect that youth to grow and develop and put themselves in a position to understand that they have played some road games. They’ve lined up in Camp Randall now four times. And whether they’ve played six or seven snaps or they’ve played 70 or 80 snaps, they should be able to get into the moment and understand it better and I expect them to produce at a high level when given the opportunity.”
That kind of public talk is a not so subtle hint to those young players that it’s time to stop with excuses and start producing. It’s also an indication of the talent Andersen and the rest of the coaching staff see in those same young Badgers.
However, It hasn’t been all bad from the youngsters on this team. Wisconsin found an answer to one of those two questionable spots, and it shows as the Badgers pass defense is ranked first and have given up the fewest passing touchdowns in the Big Ten.
Part of the answer has come thanks to the play of two freshmen — Lubern Figaro and Derrick Tindal.
Figaro has had a few ups and downs, but he’s also a player who sees the field the majority of the defensive snaps and is coming up in big ways already. He has an interception to go along with 12 tackles and 0.5 tackles for loss.
Tindal has become a viable backup behind Darius Hillary, and he filled in admirably while Hillary was out against Northwestern. In that game he recorded four tackles and a sack. He has nine tackles, one tackle for loss and one sack in limited action so far this season.
While those two are good indications of young players producing for the Badgers, much more was expected out of this class this season…especially on the offensive side of the ball.
Outside of redshirt freshman tight end Troy Fumagalli, who has become a favorite target in the pass game as of late (five catches for 69 yards), there hasn’t been any production to write home about from freshmen of any kind.
The class of 2014 was filled with promise on the offensive side of the ball, but whether it be injury or simply not being ready, that promise hasn’t equaled production on the field when it is needed most.
UW has two intriguing running backs in Taiwan Deal and Caleb Kinlaw, but both are redshirting due to injuries that happened before the season ever got underway. It led the Badgers to turn to a former defensive back, Dare Ogunbowale, as the third option in the backfield.
Thankfully, outside of putting him in during the blowout of Bowling Green, Wisconsin hasn’t needed to lean on Ogunbowale in a meaningful way.
Wisconsin’s biggest issue isn’t in the backfield though, that honor goes to wide receiver. Ironically, it’s the area that had the most hype from the incoming freshmen.
George Rushing, Natrell Jamerson and Krenwick Sanders all seemed like they’d be great options out the gate for the Badgers. Sure, Sanders was a bit raw but he had mountains of athletic ability to offer a position lacking that. Rushing and Jamerson appeared to be more polished with route running and also had a lot of athletic ability to offer the Badgers.
With six games gone, that trio has produced one reception. Those three have actually had more of an impact in the rushing game, with Rushing having three attempts for 16 yards and Jamerson having one carry for 23 yards.
Those carries hint at the athletic ability available, but it hasn’t translated to the area that the Badgers need most — a deep passing game.
It’s that area where Rushing, Jamerson and Sanders can make a significant impact the rest of the way. Those three making a significant contribution to the effort in the second half would be a great way to turn this season around quickly.
However, Andersen makes it clear that correcting those issues is a team effort. It isn’t just on an individual or on the coaching staff — everyone needs to be pulling in the right direction for improvement to happen.
“It’s important that as coaches we stress the importance of getting better and players understand the importance of it getting better,” said Andersen. “And then we see us getting better. That is the bottom line.
“We need to get better in those areas. And there is no sit back and say well this and that and whatever. We need to be better.”
Having the bye week just before the most difficult stretch of games on UW’s schedule may have been a blessing in disguise. It allows for the young players to return to fundamentals and improving on the small things.
Now it’s about that youth turning in to difference makers for the Badgers. Andersen sent that message loud and clear on Monday, but we’ll see if that message was received and acted upon over the next few weeks.
After six weeks of play, it is clear UW needs the young players on its offense to become playmakers or it will be more of the same the rest of the season.
(You can see the full video of Andersen’s press conference here.)
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