2020 Badgers Football

[midranger]

I haven’t been a fan of our QBs since Wilson. I assume very few have been.

However, they have all thrown the ball well enough IF they also possessed the ability to move the chains with their legs and avoid the pass rush a bit better. Basically put pressure on the defense from any angle.

Mix average-ish (even slightly above average) arm skill with negative mobility and you have a milquetoast QB that defenses don’t have to worry about beating them. I think that’s been the past three guys here, which is a bit frustrating given what “could have been” with a marginal upgrade.

[neiLz]

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[MickeyDavis]

Berger, 6 foot and 205 pounds, chose UW over UCLA but had an extensive offer list. The schools that offered included Alabama, LSU, Penn State, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska and Rutgers.

[Mags FTW]

I think he saw the void left by JT's departure and that he has a shot to get carries as a freshman.

[jakecronus8]

Backfield won’t miss a beat with Berger and Davis behind that line.

[skones]

Backfield won’t miss a beat with Berger and Davis behind that line.

We just had a three year stretch of all time great RB play.

[Mags FTW]

Backfield won’t miss a beat with Berger and Davis behind that line.

We just had a three year stretch of all time great RB play.

Yeah, how we'll miss JT the most was that he was a home run hitter. We didn't need to have as many long methodical drives.

[humanrefutation]

I don't want to take anything for granted but when's the last time we didn't have a quality RB? We've seemingly replaced one good RB with another over the last decade - Ball to Gordon to Clement to JT, with a little White/Ogunbuwale mixed in.

I'm not too worried about it.

[jakecronus8]

Backfield won’t miss a beat with Berger and Davis behind that line.

We just had a three year stretch of all time great RB play.

Never said JT wasn’t historically great, just that the next guys up are tremendously gifted as well and running behind that line we’ll still have one of the top rushing attacks in the coming years. Calm down sir.

[jute2003]

I didn't think Coan was ever bad enough to be 100% convinced that Mertz would have been better.. He might have been but Coan was decent enough most of the time. Either way, It is unlikely that there would have been a big enough difference to matter.

[trwi7]

I don't want to take anything for granted but when's the last time we didn't have a quality RB? We've seemingly replaced one good RB with another over the last decade - Ball to Gordon to Clement to JT, with a little White/Ogunbuwale mixed in.

I'm not too worried about it.

Wouldn't it probably be in the 2006-07 range where we had P.J. Hill, Zach Brown and Lance Smith?

[coolhandluke121]

Backfield won’t miss a beat with Berger and Davis behind that line.

We just had a three year stretch of all time great RB play.

Yeah, how we'll miss JT the most was that he was a home run hitter. We didn't need to have as many long methodical drives.

He also had to earn more yards on his own merits than any college RB, let alone any other Badger, that I've seen in a long time. Most of the other Badger RB's ran behind better offensive lines - often much better IMO. We can't take it for granted that they'll have a good ground game next year if the line doesn't play quite a bit better, even if the usual RB talent is there. Taylor could have had 7500 yards behind a line like Dayne and Ball had.

[skones]

Backfield won’t miss a beat with Berger and Davis behind that line.

We just had a three year stretch of all time great RB play.

Never said JT wasn’t historically great, just that the next guys up are tremendously gifted as well and running behind that line we’ll still have one of the top rushing attacks in the coming years. Calm down sir.

I'm more than calm, I just think it's off base to act like we won't "miss a beat." This line wasn't as good as it has been in year's past. We're going to see a pretty substantial drop off in RB play. Does that mean we're not capable of having one of the better rushing attacks in the country? No. There's just a pretty wide gap between the two.

Those "next guys up" didn't light the world on fire this season, and true freshman don't come in and do what JT did for us.

I think it's you who needs to calm down sir with the wont miss a beat.

[midranger]

I would bet that none of the options next year will be even 85% as good as JT. Hard to quantify, but JT was/is amazing.

This is a scorching hot take.

[neiLz]

I would bet that none of the options next year will be even 85% as good as JT. Hard to quantify, but JT was/is amazing.

This is a scorching hot take.

Agreed. 85% would mean they have a 1700 yard back. I don't think they do. The recruit might but I don't think next year he can do that. Jt was special.

[Kerb Hohl]

I would bet that none of the options next year will be even 85% as good as JT. Hard to quantify, but JT was/is amazing.

This is a scorching hot take.

Agreed. 85% would mean they have a 1700 yard back. I don't think they do. The recruit might but I don't think next year he can do that. Jt was special.

My hope/assumption is that they platoon the backs to an advantage if nobody really steps up. About the only good thing is that things might be [i]slightly[i] less predictable than swapping Taylor/Groshek on obvious running/passing situations.

Of course we all hope that Julius Davis or Berger steps up and is nearly as good as Taylor but maybe they can get something out of utilizing all of their strengths and keeping everyone fresh if nothing else.

[Kerb Hohl]

The best QB every year in Wisconsin post-Alvarez football history, as decided upon by the fanbase:

1990: The backup
1991: The backup
1992: The backup
1993: The backup
1994: The backup
1995: The backup
1996: The backup
1997: The backup
1998: The backup
1999: The backup
2000: The backup
2001: The backup
2002: The backup
2003: The backup
2004: The backup
2005: The backup
2006: The backup
2007: The backup
2008: The backup
2009: The backup
2010: The backup
2011: Russell Wilson
2012: The backup
2013: The backup
2014: The backup
2015: The backup
2016: The backup
2017: The backup
2018: The backup
2019: The backup
2020: The ba

I thought Tolzien and even Bollinger did ok...

Stocco too. Also, it should say post-Morton, not post-Alvarez. More importantly, there were several times it was correct (Coan and Bollinger, for example, were actually much better players than the starter at the time).

Not that I disagree with the point being made, but not everyone who clamors for the back-up is just excessively dissatisfied with UW qb's in general; sometimes, they're right. I thought Coan was decent though, especially when the play-calling got less predictable at the end of the year.

I think that the 2018 season can pretty much be thrown away but maybe they could've gone to Coan earlier. If you take what Coan did at face value, he was definitely better than 2018 Hornibrook but was not good because he was making some bad reads/taking terrible sacks. But maybe if they had gone to him earlier he might've ironed that out by the end of the year. But I doubt it leads to more than the Pinstripe Bowl in that case either way.

[Kerb Hohl]

Cephus is going pro. That sucks. Seemed like he wouldn't with how loaded the draft is with WR.

[ReasonablySober]

What a weird move.

[Mags FTW]

Wanting to just get out of Madison probably has something to do with it.