Wisconsin Badgers 2016 Football Team Preview

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2016 Wisconsin Badgers Football Preview

Team Strengths

Paul Chryst successfully led the Wisconsin Badgers (+10,000) to 10 wins last season—his first year as the team’s head coach. But can he replicate or better that result on his second year?

That should be quite difficult to achieve as the Badgers have a lot of holes to fill and some new faces to introduce. They have a new defensive coordinator in Justin Wilcox. They also need a new starting quarterback and a replacement for talented wide receiver Alex Erickson, who is now in the NFL as a member of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Putting those issues aside, the Badgers can at least look forward to the return of a highly-motivated Corey Clement. He was limited to just 48 carries through four games due to a sports hernia injury last year, but now, the 21-year-old running back returns for his senior season and is ready to take on the challenge of resurrecting Wisconsin’s ground attack that ranked just No. 95 nationally in 2015.

Defense, meanwhile, will continue to play an integral role in Wisconsin’s overall success. They led the country in scoring defense (13.7 points) and limited opponents to just 268.5 yards of total offense (2nd) last year. However, it’ll be interesting to see how the defense will hold after the departures of linebacker Joe Schobert and safety Michael Caputo.

Team Weaknesses

Wisconsin, as mentioned earlier, is looking for a successor to Joel Stave behind center. Senior quarterback Bart Houston appears to be the leading candidate for the job. He completed 27 of his 47 passes for 281 yards with three scores last season. And in case he ends up struggling, there’s another viable option in freshman Alex Hornibrook, who had some brilliant moments during the spring and fall camps last year. Both are in for a challenging task of directing an offense which averaged below 30 points in 2015.

We also mentioned that the Badgers need a new reliable pass-catcher who can consistently capitalize on moments when opponents place too much attention on stopping their running game. The ones expected to fill this hole are Robert Wheelwright or Jazz Peavy. The former was second in the team in receiving yards (416) with four touchdowns last season, while Peavy finished with 268 yards on 20 receptions without reaching the end zone.

2015 Team Stats

Category | Stat (Rank)
Points per game | 26.8 (#69)
Passing yards per game | 228.3 (#58)
Rushing yards per game | 150.3 (#89)
Scoring defense | 13.7 (#1)

Writer’s Prediction

Wisconsin (+10,000) finishes the season with an 8-4 overall record.

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