This Week in Badgers: Indiana, Recruiting and the 2021 Roster
Season 2, Episode 10
Welcome to This Week in Badgers, where we talk recruiting, Indiana, 2021 roster construction and avoid making a painfully unfunny pun on Wildgoose.
Last week: No Game
When they cancelled the Nebraska game it hurt and I remember 2:30 hitting on that Saturday and thinking, dammit they were supposed to be playing today. When the Minnesota cancellation news hit it didn’t really register. I think I remembered on Sunday that the Badgers could have played the day before. Maybe it was Thanksgiving. Maybe it was the booze. Maybe I’m dead inside.
This sums up my feelings towards the 2020 season perfectly
Next Week: Indiana
The big news out of this one is Indiana will be without star QB Michael Penix Jr who tore his ACL last week against Maryland. He’ll be replaced with Jack Tuttle, a former 4 star QB who the Badgers offered back when we were all younger and had thoughts and dreams yet to be crushed.
Having 4-star depth is nice, but Tuttle is on his second college team and it didn’t seem like there was much competition between him an Penix for the spot this year or last. Its a little different than having a home-grown guy biding his time like Mertz was with Coan.
That could be a problem for Indiana as they really can’t run the ball, averaging 102 yards per game on just 2.97 per carry. They do have some nice WRs with awesome names in Ty Fryfogle and Whop Philyor. You might remember Fryfogle from his 7-218-3 performance against Ohio State, a week after putting up 11-200-2 against Sparty. He’s going to be a test for whoever the Badgers have left in the secondary.
Vegas has the Badgers as 10.5 point favorites. I have absolutely no feel for this one. Since the opener on October 23rd the Badgers have played just 2 games. It could be Northwestern 2.0 or a 45-3 win. Who knows. How’s that for a preview?
Happy Trails Rachad Wildgoose
I noted last week that the talk around him went from “huh, he’s starting” to “he’s the best CB they have” really quickly and just like that, his Badger career is over.
Obviously hurts the Badgers to a degree - he was looking pretty good this year and someone you’d want around next year. They will have 3 experienced guys in Hicks, Burton and Semar Melvin back. No one knows what happened to Deron Harrell but if he is back that helps, plus Alexander Smith and Dean Engram are in the depth conversation as well. Overall the unit should be OK.
Not sure about Wildgoose’s NFL potential. Seems like a “good but not spectacular Big Ten CB” and not sure how that translates to the next level. Obviously the combine or Pro Day will be key for him, and if he isn’t one for school and wants to give his NFL dream a shot, good for him.
The Badgers recruit with the message that kids can use the program to get to the NFL so can’t fault them when they make a move for it. To their credit, the team and coaches I see on Twitter seem to be pretty supportive of his decision. Certainly some of that is a desire to look player-friendly but I don’t think we’d see the same amount of stuff if it was a guy they couldn’t stand.
Rachad Wildgoose, remembered.
Figuring out the defense rotations
Its hard to get a feel for what’s going on with the defense during the game - was that Wilder? Goetz? Where is Benton and when did Melvin get in there? — and it felt nice for my sanity to rewatch and get a feel for how they used personal. Quick breakdown below, all post-Wildgoose injury so theoretically should be similar on Saturday.
First just some general notes:
Herbig has mostly locked down one of the OLB spots and is on the field for most of the game. Goetz and Burks rotate on the other side.
Mullens and Rand seem to be about 50/50 in their rotation. Loudermilk plays most snaps at the other spot. At this point it seems to be a 3 man rotation for 2 spots at DE and Bryson Williams seems to be the backup to Benton at DT.
Benton only plays in base defense.
Sanborn and Chenal played every snap.
Burrell and Nelson are the most common safety combination, but Wilder will frequently sub in for either. I’m sure job duties vary, but to my layperson eyes there doesn’t seem to be a huge difference in Free Safety vs Strong Safety, they more just handle different sides of the field
Above is the base formation, which they didn’t play a ton of against Northwestern, Colton mentioned Benton only played 26 snaps all game.
We mentioned the rotations above, but after Wildgoose went out Hicks moved into his spot.
Nickel:
Here we have two of Mullens/Rand/Loudermilk in the middle, Melvin is brought in as the extra DB and pushes Hicks onto the slot WR. Earlier in the game Burton was on the outside but got pulled in favor of Melvin after giving up a TD on a really good throw and catch.
Just for fun, the goal line defense
In case you were wondering why Lytle was on the field, he seems to be one of the second level guys in the goal line package. I studied his fumble recovery from all angles to see if he could have picked it up and ran ala Leon Jacobs against Iowa and while possible, probably not realistic and definitely don’t blame him for securing possession.
Other Stuff
Think we’ve reached the point where sportswriters who get a DM from Bielema should just sit on it.
9:52 AM:
From what I’ve heard on the ground in Mississippi, Bielema isn’t currently considered a top candidate for the USM job. The reporting of Bielema as being in the running for the job instantly created chatter among the Southern Miss faithful, but it doesn’t seem like it’ll go further than that.
Ok then
We believing this?
It’s not Mertz’s fault, but I have Alex Hornibrook flashbacks when I hear about how much film they watch. Always sort of fascinating to see what the players come up with for off the field hobbies that aren’t “playing video games.” Who can forget the Jonathan Taylor hot yoga story line last year.
Recruiting!
The Badgers landed a 2021 guy today when Jake Ratzlaff committed. Ratzlaff is a 6’2” 220 LB OLB, 3 star recruit from Minnesota. He’s been a long time source of speculation as he weighed his options between joining the Badger football team or sticking with his commitment to the Gopher hockey team.
With his size it would seem like a possible future at ILB but they’ve got a ways to go on that one. Its all anecdotal but seems like recruits who come in as two-sport stars do pretty well on the football field. The Badgers have had tons of top HS wrestlers (Keeanu Benton the latest) and lots of good hoops players as well - Quintez Cephus comes to mind as a recent guy. Of course “he’s also a good Lacrosse player” is Jack Coan’s middle name.
Seems rare to get a dual sport guy who also plays hockey. I suspect the pure numbers - there just aren’t a ton of HS hockey teams compared to other sports. I also have an impression that if you want to be a serious hockey player it involves committing to the sport at a pretty early age, playing in Canada for a period of years and learning French. Hard to do that and play HS Football.
To be in the room when he came up with “Axe the policy.” There will be movies made about that some day.
“I never got around to re-tweeting them.” Oh yeah, that’s the stuff.
After reading the article the answer to the above question is “no idea.” It would have been better angle to write without quotes from Chryst like the one below that are completely meaningless. Alas.
I think there’s been moments where they’ve had really good development
Free idea: Paul Chryst Mad Libs
Let’s speculate about 2021
As we know, this year was a freebie in terms of eligibility and any player with Senior eligibility can come back next year. Obviously at this point we have no idea who is coming back and who isn’t. It will need to be the right combination of the Badgers actually wanting the guy to come back and player themselves wanting to spend another year in school.
Let’s take a run through some guys:
5th Year guys
Garrett Groshek
Mason Stokke
Kendric Pryor
Jack Dunn
Adam Krumoltz
Cole Van Lanen
Isaiahh Loudermilk
Garret Rand
Noah Burks
Caesar Williams
Eric Burrell
Collin Wilder
I’m guessing most, if not all of these guys will be gone. If they have NFL dreams, sticking around for a 6th year and entering the NFL tryout world at 24+ years old is probably not in their best interest. Spending 6 years in college isn’t a thing most people want to do and when the season was initially cancelled in August, you heard a couple of them (Burrell specifically) mention they’d be moving on.
If I had to pick one guy to come back it’d be Collin Wilder. He missed all of 2017 with injury and 2018 due to the transfer so hasn’t played a ton. He also isn’t going to be an NFL guy and plays a position where the Badgers would likely welcome him back. It makes a lot of sense for both parties. Kendric Pryor at WR is another wildcard, we’ll look at that spot in a bit.
NFL Eligible Juniors
Jake Ferguson
Jack Sanborn
Logan Bruss
Kayden Lyles
Faion Hicks
Tyler Beach
Reading between the lines from public comments and internet gossip, Jake Ferguson to the NFL seems like a near certainty. I’d be surprised at anyone else in the Junior class leaving early, but I also wouldn’t have guessed Rachad Wildgoose would be gone already so never say never.
4th year Seniors
Jack Coan
Danny Davis
Madison Cone
Cone finished his undergrad in December of last year, doesn’t have a huge role on the team and would seem to be the type who would move on. The other two are the more interesting ones. Lets separate them out.
Wide Receivers
This one I have no idea about. Clearly, production-wise Wisconsin would take either Pryor or Davis back next year. If they wanted to have a full season of film as the top WR options with Graham Mertz throwing to them, it seems like a way to boost their stock for the NFL and get on some radars. Whether they want to come back? Man I have no idea. I feel like Danny Davis has been here for a decade.
Jack Coan, 2021?
When an older, established college QB gets injured and a younger, highly rated QB steps in and shows potential and hints at a higher ceiling, its almost a near certainty that the older QB will transfer elsewhere for playing time.
Its also not generally the way Wisconsin has operated under Chryst. Yes, they’ve had players transfer and even a QB or two leave, but while the “developmental program” line has become a bit cliche, it is based on the reality that lots of guys stick around for 4 or 5 years even if they aren’t clear starters instead of seeking easy playing time elsewhere.
Another variable is Jack Coan seems to be genuinely well-liked by his teammates and coaches, where the last Badger QB to transfer, uh, wasn’t.
So its far from a slam dunk that he leaves, but it does seem to make the most sense that both the Badger coaching staff and Coan to look for an opportunity for him to play somewhere else next year. I was curious myself if I was off on this feeling and ran a Twitter poll where 77% of my very smart followers agreed with me. Always nice when that happens.
Looking around the country, if Ramsey doesn’t take a 6th year, Coan landing at Northwestern seems to make too much sense as they’ve got nothing behind him. They play a defense-first, short passing game, ball control style not all that different than Wisconsin (though much uglier!) which would seem to play to Coan’s strengths. They also recruited Coan out of high school and both parties should be familiar with each other.
So since I put Coan to Northwestern out into the internet, I’m sure it will end with him and Mertz backing up Wolf next year, or something else truly bizarre. Alas.
Feel free to @ me or respond to any thoughts or inside info on how Jack Dunn is approaching the possibility of year 6. Let’s get weird.
Substack is telling me I’m near my limit so let’s end it here. Hopefully we have a game to discuss next week. Go Badgers.