I've spent the past day watching bits of Wisconsin games other than the Purdue game (Mark and Nick had that covered). Here are my notes:
Offense
Wisconsin’s entire line is pretty solid. Right guard Ryan Bruss will be making his second start this season, and since I didn’t watch the Purdue game, I’m not familiar with him, but there weren’t any glaring weaknesses or guys getting consistently beat of the lineman I watched. Right tackle David Edwards is likely to be a high draft pick. Since Hornibrook is a lefty, Edwards protects his blindside. Left tackle Cole Van Lanen got away with a dozen holds when I watched...but are we really surprised?
Wisconsin will have receivers closer to their lineman than just about any team you’ll see and frequently have a fullback and tight end on the field at the same time. They’ll also use heavy sets with three tight ends or literally an extra lineman and a receiver to the field side.
Jonathan Taylor is a dude. He’s good. He’s patient, he’s fast, and he’s powerful. He changes speeds very well. Taiwan Deal is very good. He comes in with fresh legs to spell Jonathan Taylor.
Wisconsin runs mostly inside zone but will also run power and outside zone.
Wisconsin throws a lot of slants.
Fullback Alec Ingold is a great blocker and sometimes used to run or catch passes. He’s as effective of a fullback as you’ll see now-a-days. Tight end Kyle Pennison is more of a blocker and freshman tight end Jake Ferguson is more of a pass catcher.
Defense
Wisconsin runs a base 3-4 . The DT will either line up directly over the center or as a one-technique. The 3-4 looks a lot like a 5-2 and plays a lot like it too because the outside linebackers are frequently stand-up ends at the LOS that rarely drop into zone coverage.
On the backend, as Nick Falato wrote about, Wisconsin plays mostly Cover 1 with man-to-man underneath.
In obvious passing downs, Wisconsin usually plays nickel and only has two down lineman.
Wisconsin will usually rush four or five but rarely rush more than that. One of the edge rushers (the outside linebackers) will usually blitz.
The inside linebackers, Connelly and Nelson, will usually have one shoot the first read hard and the other wait until there’s a read he has to react to. I’m interested to see how this will work against an RPO team like Minnesota. The media has hyped up Connelly and Nelson as All-Big Ten First Team-level players. Hard to say that without watching the majority of Wisconsin's games, but they do seem to be pretty sound and make plays. Nelson was a First Team All-American last year.
Wisconsin will also have a down end sometimes drop into a delayed mid-zone. That’s something to watch and potentially an interception waiting to happen on RPO slants that Minnesota likes to run.
Jet sweeps were consistently effective for BYU against Wisconsin. Iowa also used a lot of jet motion against Wisconsin, which is kind of out of character for them.
BYU ran some trick plays. I'd expect trickery from the Gopher offense, as well.
I thought Olive Sagapolu was Wisconsin's best defensive lineman in the games I watched and actually wasn't super impressed with the rest of the defensive line. Sagapolu is out with an injury currently. It will be big if the Gophers can win at the line of scrimmage. I thought Iowa won at the LOS, and BYU held their own too. His backup is true freshman Bryson Williams, who has struggled like you'd expect from a true freshman.
Wisconsin's not a great pass rushing team. Vank Ginkel and Baun are both athletic and will get to the QB as outside linebackers in their 3-4 defense, but I wouldn't classify defensive ends Kayden Lyles, Matt Henningsen, or Isaiahh Loudermilk as great pass rushers. Wisconsin graduated their top three DEs last year, had a DE get hurt early in the year and miss the season, and Loudermilk was hurt early this season as well.
Wisconsin's started ten different players in the secondary this year and six of them started for the first time. They're likely to start two freshman at corner, Faion Hicks and Rachad Wildgoose. Hicks got beat several times in coverage when I watched.
D'Cota Dixon is the leader of the secondary and is a senior surrounded by freshman. He's the secondary's ringer on what is otherwise a not great position group. Dixon is also effective near the box but has mostly been needed in pass coverage given the group’s youth. He’s often the Cover 1 safety.I expect Bateman and Tyler Johnson to get separation against man coverage fairly consistently so long as Morgan has a mostly clean pocket, which I think can happen.
