Wisconsin "May have separated from the rest of the West"

L

LAblackshirt

Three-Star Recruit
Saw that noted as a quote from Gerry Dinardo after watching a scrimmage Friday.  McKewon even noted he thought that Wisconsin was a playoff contender this season.  I gotta be honest the last few years I have written off everything that the BTN crew has said as just a guess.  Last season though I noticed that despite our 7-0 start we ended up about where the BTN crew said we would in the divisional rankings. I went back and looked at their quotes from our training camp and saw them pointing out a "softness" that at the time I excused as bias,  but there is no arguing we saw that later on in the season during the blowout losses.  This season I decided I would take their evaluations further into account when setting my expectations and was pleasantly surprised with the feedback that we got.  Now I see this though and I wonder if thinking we can beat Wisconsin (which until now I gave us a 60% chance) is realistic at all.  

What do you guys think? Beating Wisconsin realistic this year? Do you believe the BTN crews evaluations are accurate?

 
Wisconsin had a nice schedule and is going to start off ranked high so they are in the mix for sure.  I am guessing they will be favored in all their games?  

 
Beating any team is realistic, you have a chance with anyone. Last time I checked Wisconsin is Wisconsin. All of these changes that have happened over the years will catch up to them. I wouldn't doubt we see a different team and crowd in those two weeks. Going to be fun.

 
While the BTN Crew has been rather on point with some of their assessments, they're only assessing what they see at one practice, one day, and with what the coaches want to show them. It's like looking through the knothole trying to watch the game--you may catch a brief glimpse of something cool and exciting, but you're hardly seeing the whole picture. 

Wisky does look like the team to beat in the West, but I don't think they're heads and shoulders above where we are. After all, they were one play away in OT from losing to a decidedly above average (9-4) Nebraska team last year...and frankly, I don't see where they may have improved on their roster over last year, save for their O-Line. 

 
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I think we beat Wisconsin this year. They have an easy schedule, but IMO they are overrated. TJ Watt was so damn good for them last year, and losing Cichy on top of that doesn't help. 

 
I think Wisconsin has been tougher than I expected under Chryst and they were/are a QB away from being a really good football team although 11-3 last year was nothing to sneeze at.  At the same time I feel like they actually relied on the run too much but with the limitations at QB I can kind of see why.  Even when they played us I thought they ran at times where I definitely would have passed.  Almost like they were keeping Nebraska in the game.  

If Hornibrook can develop as a passer that would certainly be huge.  Recruiting an actual QB would be super huge for them because they certainly have had the OL''s as well as the receivers.  They have a lot of the same defensive guys back this season but they'll have a new defensive coordinator.  

 
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The Dude said:
Totally agree.

We took them to OT at their place with Banker and Armstrong.

There's just no good excuses to lose that game this year.
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Agree. IMO we'll have to play well below what we should be capable of to not beat Wiscy this year.  I know, I know....that hasn't necessarily helped us in recent years but we have to get past expecting to play poorly. I don't think we should ignore the bolded above.

 
Lots of good points here.  I really wish I could know specifically what is was they saw in one scrimmage that made them feel confident enough to stake publicly that they had pulled away from the rest of the B1G west. 

 
LAblackshirt said:
Lots of good points here.  I really wish I could know specifically what is was they saw in one scrimmage that made them feel confident enough to stake publicly that they had pulled away from the rest of the B1G west. 
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They did hedge their bet by using the phrase "May have...."

 
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