Badgers vs Illinois

It felt like last year all over again when the Wisconsin Badgers left Ohio Stadium 52-21 losers a week ago.

The embarrassing performance put them at 2-2 through four weeks of the season and prompted many to write them off with Illinois coming to town. Last year's team was in a similar spot after the same number of games, with a 1-3 record ahead of a road contest against Illinois.

The plot was shaping up the same, right? The Badgers would respond resoundingly like last year, right?

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"Everyone is writing us off already," outside linebacker Nick Herbig said on Monday. "It has only been four games. There is a lot of football to be played. In a couple of weeks, keep that same energy. Keep that same energy when we're winning games and playing Wisconsin football."

That same energy led to another embarrassing defeat in front of 73,502 fans at Camp Randall Stadium. Former Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema's Illinois Fighting Illini (4-1) looked like the team eager to wash a bitter loss away, playing harder and more urgent than Paul Chryst's fading Badgers (2-3) in a 34-10 victory.


The Badgers committed too many penalties to win, played poorly on both sides of the ball (again) and can almost kiss their chances to win the Big Ten West goodbye. The outside noise will only get louder and hotter from here.

Here are some quick takeaways:



QUICK TAKEAWAYS​

Penalties stack up again: Some of the calls were questionable, but that happens in this game. The point remains: this Badgers team is as undisciplined as they come. Officials penalized them nine times for 72 yards on the day, including four times for defensive pass interference. Some of those calls extended Illinois scoring drives, and one on Jay Shaw in the first quarter came on a 4th-and-1 inside the five. Another back-breaking call came in the same situation in the second quarter when defensive end Isaiah Mullens was flagged for offsides. The Illini took a 14-10 lead a short time later.
The Badgers cost themselves in the same way in a loss to Washington State last month when they committed 11 infractions for 106 yards. Many of those that day came on the offense and wiped out significant gains.
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A poor start to the second half: Illinois seized control of the game when the second half started. Quarterback Tommy DeVito, impressive all day long, led the Illini on a 10-play, 75-yard drive that spanned 4:36. DeVito capped the drive with his third quarterback-sneak touchdown of the day to give Illinois a 21-10 lead.
On the ensuing kickoff, return man Isaac Guerendo muffed the catch. The ball bounced off his chest and into the turf, where the Illini recovered at the 16-yard line. They took a 24-10 lead minutes later with a field goal.
The Badgers' offense, which was terrible all day against an impressive Illini defense, proceeded to go three plays and out. From there, the Illini opened up the rout for good and sent fans heading toward the exits before the fourth quarter.
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Badgers gashed by Chase Brown: When's the last time Jim Leonhard's run defense has looked this poor two weeks in a row? The Illini had only 36 yards rushing in the first half, but they imposed their will and dominated in the second half. Chase Brown finished with a game-high 120 yards and a touchdown on 23 attempts. His score, a 49-yarder in the third quarter, proved to be the knockout blow, putting Illinois up 31-10.
The Badgers' run defense was demolished by the Buckeyes last week, allowing both TreVeyon Henderson and Miyan Williams to rush for more than 100 yards. The expectation before the season was that this defense could be at the same level as last year's. So far, it's not even close.
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Graham Mertz has another forgettable day: All of the optimism Mertz built up over the first few weeks has vanished. Aside from the first drive of the game — he went 4 of 4 for 54 yards — Mertz had another forgettable performance. He was off the mark all day long while completing 17 of his 31 passes for 206 yards with one score and two interceptions.
This performance comes a week after he went 11 of 20 for 94 yards with one score and one pick. The third-year starter looks no different than he did last year (11 interceptions and 10 touchdown passes) through two Big Ten games.
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Another tight end down: The Badgers lost their best pass-catching tight end (Clay Cundiff) last week. Hayden Rucci, the best blocking tight end on the team, now has a right leg injury. He went down in the first half and returned to the sideline wearing a boot.
Jack Eschenbach took the majority of snaps on Saturday, but expect the Badgers to start using others like Jaylan Franklin and Jack Pugh more. Pugh is a redshirt freshman, while Franklin began his collegiate career in 2018 as a linebacker. Franklin recorded his first career catch — a 21-yarder — in a 66-7 victory over New Mexico State three weeks ago.
The Badgers also lost running back Isaac Guerendo and wide receiver Keontez Lewis to injuries. Both went down in the second half and didn’t return.
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A total failure against Illinois. Worse than what happened at OSU. There needs to be accountability.
 
THis team lacks talent all around. I see nothing getting better in the next year or two. We get another year of Mertz next year then will likely play musically QB while trying to find a QB who can be decent. It's very possible this team could go back to a pre-Barry era when you struggle to get 6 wins in a season and are not making bowl games. PC is a coach lost in his own system has poor assistant coaches under him who can't recurit. Got a AD who was not qualifed for the job but given it due to his connection to Barry. Have admissions board who could give a rats behind about sports and will keep their admissions as it is meaning any quality kid won't come to WI because either they will have better offer at another school or won't be able to get in.
 
Spent a few hours at "The Camp" yesterday. About all you can say is "ugh". Chryst may be safe for another year but from the buzz in the crowd around me you can sense the frustration has even hit the more "mature" fans - the one's who are usually the last to turn against the coach. Chryst can hold on for another season, but if this season goes in the tank and there is a repeat next year, I think the tide has turned and he may well be out.

I see people talking about the downturn in recruiting, but by the "numbers" it's not really the case. As recently as 2021 the Badgers had their highest ranked class in a long time, maybe ever. Now, last year's class wasn't great, but the numbers show it was poorly ranked partly because it was a small class. The average ranking per recruit was about on par with Chryst's classes in general. 2023 isn't done, but so far it's not good. Low in both numbers and average score per recruit.

The problem seems to be player development. They just aren't getting the most out of what they have. Starts with Mertz, who is still making the same dumb mistakes, and really hits home with the mediocre play of the o-line. Bostad has work to do there and the rest of the new offensive coaches clearly are not up to the job right now.

There are lots of young players out there at other positions especially the secondary and linebacking groups who were decimated by graduation and transfers. An awful lot of new bodies out there, so I'm giving Leonard a little break for now. That said, even the defense seemed to quit yesterday. Most obvious on the short TD run in the third quarter where the Illini O-line basically moved the LOS 2 yards into the endzone and the running back just need to follow behind - eazy peazy. This will be something to watch as this could hint that the coaches are losing the locker room.

Bottom line for me, I think the HC is safe for another year, unless there is a complete collapse in the next 7 weeks, but after 2023 all bets are off. The biggest failing seems to be the coaching on offense where a bunch of new coaches don't seem capable.
 
Allowing Chryst to stay another year will crush WI football.

I don't care what rank a recruit has. We used to get 2s and 3s that played up to 4s. Now we're getting 4s that play like 2s.

And regardless of rank, what's the offense strategy. The innovation - Wildcat?

I'm betting the kids that are worth anything will be fleeing this ship.

It's going to get a lot worse
 
As long as Lord Barry has any influence PC will not be fired. We all know while not the AD anymore Barry still carries a large presence in Madison. At best I can see if UW has another bad season or two is were Barry and alumni's agree to get PC to "retire". Even then UW will not go outside of the "family" to find a new coach. Not after what happened with Anderson I think it was a bitter pill for Barry and many alumni to eat and now have the mindset to get Badger family to be a coach. This is why I can see them hand Leonard the job with him being young and the WI hero to many of the Badger family homer's would love to see get the job. It will be a mistake because I don't think they will recurit any better and will still struggle to be anything more then maybe a 8 or 9 win team on a good season.
 
GBP4EVER said:
As long as Lord Barry has any influence PC will not be fired. We all know while not the AD anymore Barry still carries a large presence in Madison. At best I can see if UW has another bad season or two is were Barry and alumni's agree to get PC to "retire". Even then UW will not go outside of the "family" to find a new coach. Not after what happened with Anderson I think it was a bitter pill for Barry and many alumni to eat and now have the mindset to get Badger family to be a coach. This is why I can see them hand Leonard the job with him being young and the WI hero to many of the Badger family homer's would love to see get the job. It will be a mistake because I don't think they will recurit any better and will still struggle to be anything more then maybe a 8 or 9 win team on a good season.
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For the first time since the 90's the older alumni and some of the name formers are ticked off and talking, I haven't seen anything like this in a long time. AD is going to get heat from the admin and boosters if he loses to Northwestern.

Even Barry will bail if it gets too ugly.
 
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