Actual Badgers Thread

[Kerb Hohl]

Let's take this one officially. We're 8 days from kickoff come tomorrow morning:

A random FYI:

According to Bielema, at least four freshmen should play this season. They are: tailback Melvin Gordon, cornerback Darius Hillary, linebacker Derek Landisch and one of two wide receivers (Jordan Fredrick or Fred Willis).

Gordon should get time on offense and still might return kickoffs at some point. Hillary and Landisch likely will contribute on special teams. Fredrick and Willis are lumped in with a group of several players below the top four wide receivers.

Budmayr may miss the season. He finds out Thursday the status of his elbow.
Nice to see Ogelsby back in action. Hopefully he can make it through the season.
Hopefully Borland and Taylor can both make it through the season. That would be sick.

[Ayt]

I really think James White is going to explode this year and have a massive season. With Wilson at QB, I think Chryst will use White like he did Calhoun. Montee Ball is a fine college RB, but White is special. I think Chryst will use the skills of Wilson and White as his starting point offensively this year. We obviously also have Toon outside at WR (and I like Pederson's potential at TE and the solid play of Abbrederis), but I expect play action, bootlegs, and roll outs to be the norm with White being the centerpiece receiver and runner.

Ball is going to get plenty of PT, but I think it is going to be harder and harder to keep White off the field as the year progresses. Still, it could be extremely interesting to see Ball at 205-210 instead of the 230 or so he was at least year. He put up big numbers last year, but man did he look sluggish. He has great patience, good to very good vision, and he runs with great lean so if he's a well built 210 or so my theory on White above could go out the window.

Defensively, I'm extremely excited to have Borland back. He should be a terror at MLB and he should slaughter at DE in our nickel package. He's one of my favorite Badgers ever and he's only played one season. Athlon picked Mike Taylor as 1st Team All-Big Ten for some reason. He played better at the end of the season last year, but he didn't impress overall. Hopefully he is fully recovered this season because he's definitely a top flight Big Ten LB when at full speed. We need a big year out of him.

[El Duderino]

I'm pretty confident that the offense is going to score a ton of points so long as Toon stays healthy and Pederson develops into an effective pass catching tight end. I'm not worried at all that the running game will be noticeably less effective because they lost Carimi and Moffit.

Where i see the Badgers hopes riding almost entirely on for having a special season instead of just a good season is the defense. The DL seems to have nice overall depth, but i'm not sure yet if it will be able to consistently enough create pressure without blitzing. Linebacker could definitely be a strength, but that will only happen if often injured Borland and Taylor can stay healthy, especially Borland because he's a special talent and he can help as a pass rusher. The secondary has a mix of talent and question marks.

I'm definitely super excited though for the season to start. If the defense can perform at least a little above average, i think the offense will be explosive enough to make a return trip to Pasadena barring special teams woes blowing a game. Speaking of the defense, i'm curious to see what kind of coordinator Ash will be. Doeren generally ran a pretty conservative 4-3 scheme by not blitzing a lot and trying to prevent allowing to many big plays. I'm guessing Ash will be largely the same, but may blitz a little more, especially if the front four isn't providing fairly consistent pressure. We'll see.

[LUKE23]

I think this offense will be sick with a QB that can throw and run. You already have to worry about us ramming it down your throat with three good RB's, but a QB that can either step back in the pocket or tuck it and run is going to make it very hard for opposing D's.

Toon has to stay healthy. The WR production after him is very questionable.

Can't wait.

[ReasonablySober]

Gordon has supposedly looked outstanding. If Wilson picks up the offense it should be outstanding this season.

[BUCKnation]

WR depth is the biggest question. If toon goes down that would be a big hit to the offense, hopefully somebody at WR comes out of nowhere and is has a good year.

Hopefully, Borland and Taylor can both stay healthy. Borland is a monster and Taylor is very good as well.

Im not too worried about a pass rusher either. Every year somebody comes from nowhere and is amazing. Borland/Schofield/Watt in the last few years.

[Allanon23]

Gordon has supposedly looked outstanding. If Wilson picks up the offense it should be outstanding this season.

Yeah, everyone that has watched the Badgers in camp can't stop raving about Gordon. Potrykus says that our trio this year (White, Ball, Gordon) are better than last year (with Clay).

Scary thought.

[LUKE23]

Picked up Wisco/Nebraska tickets for face and just had UNLV tickets fall in my lap. Bring on football.

[Kerb Hohl]

I need to luck into some Nebraska tickets still. Still haven't gotten a connection to hook me up.

It will suck missing the Brewers playoff opener, however, for that.

[LUKE23]

The way I figure it, Brewers will play at least four playoff games, and the game might be during the day anyway (meaning you can do both). Bar for Crew game, then Badgers.

[Kerb Hohl]

Well the only guarantee is that they play 3 playoff games, to be fair. But yeah.

[LUKE23]

Yeah I know, I'm just assuming they are not bad enough to get swept, especially since they likely host.

[MikeIsGood]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P9RLOlfN9c&feature=related[/youtube]

[El Duderino]

Defensively, I'm extremely excited to have Borland back. He should be a terror at MLB and he should slaughter at DE in our nickel package. He's one of my favorite Badgers ever and he's only played one season.

I was thinking the same thing about Borland, but then i read something a few days ago which i hope isn't the case once the actual games start.

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/badgers/128718558.html

During camp Borland didn't line up as a rush end in UW's nickel package, as he did as a freshman. He doesn't anticipate he will reprise that role because he is learning a new, more demanding position.

Yet he showed in camp that despite moving from the outside to the middle of the defense, he can be disruptive against the running game and in pass coverage.

I'd be surprised if they really don't regularly use Borland as a rush end in nickle/passing situations, but after reading that, i wonder if Ash actually doesn't end up using Borland like he was in his freshman season as a rush in on clear passing downs? Of course they could blitz Borland up the middle sometimes, but as a rush end during that freshman year, he caused many tackles fits and i expected to see more of that this season. We'll see.

[Kerb Hohl]

Anybody impressed by the early list of commits for next year so far? These things always change, but the recruits on the lines are incredible.

[El Duderino]

Yea Grendon, obviously recruiting rankings are far from a lock to determine future success when you consider how good overall UW has been the last 15-17 years while rarely having top ranked classes, but this class looks like it could become one of the highest rated Badgers class ever.

Bielema sure looks to have really developed in all facets as a head coach and is making all those Badgers fans look stupid that previously wanted him to be fired. Now instead the main key will be hoping that some higher profile school doesn't fire their coach and come after Bielema. My gut feeling is that he'd stay anyways, but you never know if a big time program in a fertile recruiting area came calling with bags stuffed with cash.

[BUCKnation]

imagine what a bunch of 4 stars would look for us with the way we usually develop talent.

but like you said recruit rankings dont equal success. Just look at josh oglesby, a top 10 recruit at the time, has really been a disappointment his career. I hope he can turn it around though.

[Allanon23]

Anybody impressed by the early list of commits for next year so far? These things always change, but the recruits on the lines are incredible.

And the class is going to get better as well. We're in good shape for a lot of good recruits (like Darboh).

[PkrsBcksGphsMqt]

WSJ takes a shot at UW's scheduling strategy.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... lenews_wsj

Also, I don't disagree with this strategy, especially when building a program. Minnesota would probably be better off scheduling 4 easy wins instead 3 bad teams and USC, especially because their ultimate goal is just getting to a bowl game.

It will be interesting to see if the Badgers try to schedule more elite teams in the comings years now that they are an elite program. I kind of doubt that will happen though because Bielema said he wasn't in favor of a 9 game conference schedule because it will make it less likely that a Big Ten team ends up with a 0 or 1 loss season.

[Kerb Hohl]

I've had this argument with some friends. It's a great strategy, in my opinion.

Talk me out of it.

The current system is extremely stupid, so give yourself the best chance.