Published
Aug 28, 2024
The 3Cs: Western Michigan
BadgerBlitz.com's weekly feature, "The 3 Cs," returns for the 2024 season. The staff takes a look at one thing we're curious, confident and concerned about heading into Wisconsin's opener against Western Michigan.
Staff writers Seamus Rohrer and Donnie Slusher each give their thoughts on the aforementioned topics for this week's contest.
CURIOUS
ROHRER: I'm curious as to how much of its depth Wisconsin uses in Week 1.
One of the buzzwords this offseason has been "1A/1B" as the Badgers' coaches have stressed a need to rotate more players in and out of games so that no one is playing 80 snaps every Saturday. That's all good and well, but what does that actually look like come game day? The opener may not be the best indication of the coaching staff's true philosophy in this regard, as if Wisconsin goes up big on an inferior opponent, backups will almost certainly be inserted in the second half.
There's a few positions that I'll be keeping an eye out for in particular. Halfback is one of them; what does the carries disparity between Chez Mellusi and Tawee Walker look like? Both players are essentially starters, so that may not be the best example. Still, it'll be interesting to see how carries are divided. Even more intriguing, what does the RB3 spot look like? Does the staff stick to a known commodity like Jackson Acker, or does it give a promising young talent like Darrion Dupree a chance to shine in the opener?
Wide receiver is also a big one. The Badgers played seven receivers in the opener last season, and with another deep wideout room, I'd expect something along those lines again. The players who have yet to make an impact for Wisconsin will be especially intriguing to track — what do we see from Chris Brooks Jr. or Tyrell Henry?
On defense, I'm mostly looking at the defensive backs. I'm curious how deep Alex Grinch goes into his safety room, and how much Austin Brown, a surprising omission from the starting lineup, plays. I'll also be looking at corner to see how frequently RJ Delancy and Jonas Duclona rotate in to spell Ricardo Hallman and Nyzier Fourqurean. What about Xavier Lucas? Does he get a shot to play right away?
SLUSHER: I’m incredibly curious to see how Tyler Van Dyke looks.
He’s the question mark hanging over the Badgers’ season. He’s the ex-factor of the season. He will likely define how we remember this season. And I have no idea how good he can actually be.
Van Dyke had a strong fall camp, and is ultimately deserving of optimism. He can make almost any throw, run when he has to and brings three seasons of starting experience.
But he also brings baggage. If he turns into the guy he was last season — throwing 11 interceptions in a five-game span and getting benched — that could single handedly deflate the team’s chances at any sort of impressive finish.
After watching this year’s Badgers throughout the offseason, I feel confident that just about every position group is better and deeper, as Seamus explained above. But the ceiling of this Badger team will be determined by the most important player on the field.
CONFIDENT
ROHRER: I'm confident that Wisconsin's defense will come to play.
I can't speak for the offense. Phil Longo's unit in theory has all of the pieces and experience to be much improved in year two, but that side of the ball remains a significant unknown in my mind. Defensively, however, I don't think the Badgers are messing around in 2024. Excluding the defensive line, this unit is loaded.
If Jaheim Thomas and Tackett Curtis live up to their respective expectations, the inside linebacker room might be one of the best in the nation, and that's not hyperbole. The outside linebackers are exponentially more athletic than they were a season ago and likely have three starting-caliber players in John Pius, Leon Lowery and Darryl Peterson. The defensive backfield is stacked with players ready to contribute, especially at cornerback. Hunter Wohler is a superstar on the back end.
Meanwhile, the Broncos' starting quarterback Hayden Wolff is coming off an extremely average season, as is the entire Western Michigan offense. There's plenty of offenses on the schedule that will truly test the Badgers, but the Broncos aren't one of them and if Wisconsin's defense struggles, that'll be a harbinger of bad things to come.
SLUSHER: I’m confident that it’s Tawee Time.
Mellusi may have been listed as the starting running back on the unofficial two-deep, but it’s unlikely he’ll handle the lionshare of the reps this season, given his injury history. It’s especially unlikely that the coaches will give him a heavy workload in Week 1 against a MAC opponent.
Thus, it would be a perfect time to trot out their shiniest new offensive weapon in Walker. The Oklahoma transfer was one of the stars of offseason camps and has shown legitimate RB1 potential.
He finished 2023 with 496 rushing yards and seven touchdowns, but was never the Sooners’ top running back. It would be worthwhile to get a taste of Walker’s potential with a greater workload.
It’s also likely that against a team like Western Michigan, there’s a good chance we’ll see the full extent of his skills. The Broncos gave up an average of 200.3 rushing yards per game in their three games against Power Five opponents last season. They did add 19 new transfers to the defensive side of the ball, so it’s difficult to predict how they’ll perform, but I would be surprised if the Badgers have any difficulty running the ball.
CONCERNED
ROHRER: I'm concerned that the offense looks discombobulated.
I'm not expecting a surgical performance from Longo's unit, but Van Dyke and company need to be able to execute and sustain drives. It's unfair to expect perfection when your quarterback is a transfer who's famously had his highs and lows, but Longo is running out of excuses in year two. The offense returns seven starters if you count Mellusi. There's eight seniors in starting roles. This is a home game with 75,000-plus fans determined to make life hell for Western Michigan. The time for growing pains is over.
SLUSHER: I’m concerned by the mystery of Western Michigan.
Western Michigan will play their very first game with three brand new coordinators, as well as 32 new players via the transfer portal, meaning the Badger coaching staff will have to make quite a few educated guesses for their gameplan.
“I mean, we know as little as we ever have known, right?” Luke Fickell said during Monday’s press conference.
“They have a new offensive coordinator, they have a new defensive coordinator, they have a new special teams coordinator. So what do you know? Obviously, the head coach is an offensive guy. Does he stick with what the head coach has done, or is it more of [offensive coordinator] Walt Bell? And are they going to be like Louisiana Lafayette, where the defensive coordinator came from? So there's a lot of unknowns. Even with transfers and things like that, there's still a lot of unknown.”
On the bright side for the Badgers, they learned last season that having a bunch of new coaches and players can be quite a disadvantage. It also became clear that they weren’t as mentally tough as they needed to be. Dealing with this type of rare challenge could build some confidence despite the talent disparity.
“If I would say anything about last year, … after Week 1 and 2, I did recognize one of our shortcomings was our ability to problem solve as things changed, as things changed within a game, as things change from the start of a game. Because I felt like last year we were really good with the things we prepared for, but we were not nearly as good with the things that we hadn't prepared for. So that comes down to what you prepare, but your ability and maturity wise to be able to problem solve. And I think we'll get a great look at that in Week 1,” Fickell said.
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