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Not too many surprises. One that sticks out is Kyle Jefferson. Even though he's extremely frail, he showed some flashes last year for big play ability. Apparently he's been haunted by a ton of drops in camps and that is why he got dropped. Will be interesting to see how the offense does with two 5-11 starting WR's.

Lots of questions at starting cornerback. Both Langford and Henry are coming off knee injuries, and both Goins and Henry will see significant time this year as a freshman and sophomore respectively. I like the DL ASSUMING they can stay healthy, they have Chapman, Newkirk, and Shaughnessy all coming back off injuries there.

The OL remains a major strength and they should bury people in the run game. Hill, Brown, Clay forms a great RB trio and Beckum remains one of the best weapons in the country.

Keys to this season IMO are Evridge's ability to make plays and not turn the ball over, the health of the starting DL given I believe they are shallow there, and how quickly the young DB's adapt.

I hope Clay gets some touches.

It's Maurice Moore OR Kyle Jefferson. The hope is that KJ is able to take the spot by the time play opens up, or at least in time for Fresno State, so that Evridge doesn't have to throw to two midgets (though, all reports say that Gilreath has made big strides).

I would imagine Clay gets touches, but Hill is in the best shape of his career after being healthy for his first summer as a Badger, and Brown of course played well to finish out the year. I still think we'll see Clay some, though. It appears that Bradie Ewing has stepped in as the assumed #4.

Where is Hodge?

I am assuming he is just buried on the chart finally. As a former LB, all I remember doing is ripping his decision-making all of last year. The guy used to get caught up in the wash way too much on running plays and looked clueless in his zone on his drops. I would blame that close Citadel game almost squarely on him. He looked as though he didn't even realize when a guy would cross right in front of him on a route. He didn't shade to the guy or anything. Obviously, you don't follow the guy but there was no notification to or awareness of his other teammates out there. So many times against spread offenses, a guy would come across his face and just sit 2 yards in front of him and he would just sit there. Then he'd be stuck trying to make a tackle in the open field on him.

Interesting that Jae, I believe his freshman roommate and his best friend took his spot at #1. That's gotta hurt.

Hodge is 3rd at MLB.

CharlosVllnueva wrote:Where is Hodge?

I am assuming he is just buried on the chart finally. As a former LB, all I remember doing is ripping his decision-making all of last year. The guy used to get caught up in the wash way too much on running plays and looked clueless in his zone on his drops. I would blame that close Citadel game almost squarely on him. He looked as though he didn't even realize when a guy would cross right in front of him on a route. He didn't shade to the guy or anything. Obviously, you don't follow the guy but there was no notification to or awareness of his other teammates out there. So many times against spread offenses, a guy would come across his face and just sit 2 yards in front of him and he would just sit there. Then he'd be stuck trying to make a tackle in the open field on him.

I'm with you in being glad he looks to be moved back on the depth chart. I was very excited when he signed with us and in his uniform looks the part, but on the field he so often took bad angles and looked like he was running in mud. Given the Big Ten has turned into the Big Spread, Hodge's inability to make plays in space is a recipe for giving up big plays.

My concerns


Young corners and young WR's---I'm pretty confident Paul Chryst will be able to design an effective offense even if the wideouts struggle this year, but with an experienced line, great tight ends, and good RB's, adding to that productive WR's should make the offense deadly. As for the corners, lots of uncertainty at a vital position and with all the spread teams, the corners will need to play quite a bit of one on one with little help.

DLine health----Health is important at every position, but depth on the defensive line is already thin behind the starters, a couple of which are coming off injuries already.

OLine in big games---The offensive line is experienced and should be a strength, but IMO, a recurring theme in to may seasons where the line was expected to be a big strength was not being able to move guys and create holes in the bigger games when facing the top teams. To many 30-35 rushes for barely over a 100 yards or less and often mixed in, shaky pass protection. I understand other teams also struggle to run the ball well vs the tough defenses, but when the Badgers were in the Rose Bowls stretch, the line opened holes vs almost everyone, not just mainly the weaker defenses.

QB---This is Captain Obvious land here, but Everidge needs to not force things and cause stupid turnovers.

ST---Young kickers are wildcards, regardless if they have talent. Quite a few games should be close, can't have kickers shanking fields say 35 yards and under.


I'm amped for the season to start, but i'm not really sure what exactly to expect. I love the overall talent on offense and think if healthy, the defense has a solid to good base of talent. What scares me though is all the spread offenses now in the conference. I'm sure the coaches are working hard to scheme for the various versions of the spread each team runs, but until i actually see the Badgers stop some of these teams, i'm leery.

Virtually everything Bielema reports to the media has some kind of ulterior motive behind it so I wouldn't use him as a credible source to gauge the strength of units/players. Why do you think practices are closed to the media unlike most other programs? He wants to dominate public perception in order to keep fans excited about the team, motivate his players, misinform opponents. Safety was a big question mark going into last season, he hyped Shane Carter as possibly the best player on defense at camp, yet he was one of the 2-3 biggest liabilities on the defense (in spite of his int total). I was told by a very reliable source that the Evridge/Sherer QB competition was contrived so each would compete harder and they'd become better as a result. As far as the receiver concerns I think Bielema is just sandbagging a bit (also trying to motivate Jefferson) Against the first couple of teams we'll probably use a very vanilla offense because with our caliber of back/offensive line we can still succeed with 8, even 9 in the box. It's going to be the Hill/Brown/Clay show. Sprinkle some safe throws in for Evridge to the TE's Beckum and Graham. But we can't survive playing that same style against the likes of Ohio State and Fresno State. That's where I think we'll see Chryst open up the offense. Teams will be preparing to stop a grind it out style, camp 8-9 guys in the box, and then Evridge will drop bombs over the top to one of the many speedsters in the receiving corps like Jefferson, Jones, Gilreath, Moore, Toon, etc. I have confidence for when it happens because they are a very talented group. If we can't seriously find 2-3 starter caliber players then receivers coach Delvaughn Alexander should be fired.

With the talent on offense and Paul Chryst running it, my concerns about the offense are fairly minor, i'm confident they'll score points. The defense is another story.

Was out with a few guys on the team last night, 2 things:

1. The D-Line has looked amazing. Actually pretty much the whole defense.
2. Apparently Hodge not only lost his spot from being simply out-performed (McFadden has been excellent), but he also was in an incident where he was hitting on a girl at a bar, the boyfriend smashed a bottle across his face, and he got maced by the girl. Nothing he was suspended for or anything, but it hindered his play for a week, obviously.