When Wisconsin football team’s 2014 Big Ten schedule was released, many saw it as an easy ride with a trip to Indianapolis for the Big Ten Championship game a likely outcome.
However, after a deflating conference-opening loss to Northwestern and a less than satisfying victory over lowly Illinois, the Badgers (4-2, 1-1 Big Ten) find themselves in the middle of the pack of the Big Ten West and that “easy” conference schedule suddenly looks a bit more difficult.
After their second bye week of the season following the win over Illinois Oct. 11, the Badgers will return to the field this Saturday as they try to position themselves atop of the West division with a Homecoming game against Big Ten newcomer Maryland (5-2, 2-1 Big Ten).
Despite a sub-par performance in their first two conference games, according to head coach Gary Andersen, the Badgers are still control their own destiny to get back to the Big Ten Championship game after Nebraska took down Northwestern last weekend, which clogged up the Big Ten West Division standings.
“So our kids are, I’m sure, very aware of it,” Andersen said. “That really should be in the back of our mind for this football team, in my opinion, for any football team right now, just take it one step at a time and what’s at the end of the rainbow hopefully is a nice pot of gold and a lot of pennies sitting there.”
Heading into this weekend’s slate of conference games, Minnesota (3-0) remains the only undefeated team in Big Ten play in the West Division. Both Nebraska and Iowa fall after Minnesota with 2-1 records before Northwestern (2-2), Wisconsin (1-1), Purdue (1-3) and Illinois (0-3) round out the division.
Iowa’s lone loss in the Big Ten so far this season came at the hands of Maryland last weekend when they lost to the Terrapins in College Park, 38-31.
Maryland’s offensive attack goes through one of the best quarterback-wide receiver combinations in the Big Ten. Senior dual-threat quarterback CJ Brown leads the Terrapins in both passing and rushing this season. In seven games, Brown has thrown for 1,187 yards with seven touchdowns, while rushing for a team-high 382 yards and five touchdowns.
Brown’s favorite threat though the air comes via wide receiver Stefon Diggs. The junior has already caught 45 passes this season for 580 yards and four touchdowns. Last weekend against Iowa, Diggs had season-highs in both catches (9) and yards (130).
“[Iowa gives] you a bunch of different looks and causes you problems in the option game, throw game,” Andersen said. “It’s a wide-open spread offense with a little bit of pace, but they do a nice job on the defensive side of the ball.”
For Wisconsin on offense, the situation at quarterback continues to be one of uncertainty. Both redshirt juniors Joel Stave and Tanner McEvoy saw the field against Illinois, although McEvoy only came in for one series. Stave did just enough against the Illini to move the offense down the field but most importantly, did not turn the ball over.
But Andersen and Wisconsin offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig will continue to employ both Stave and McEvoy throughout the course of the game, with McEvoy set to receive a few more reps this week against Maryland.
Andersen is quick to not call it a competition between Stave and McEvoy, while both he and Ludwig see the dual-quarterback system as one that takes advantage of both quarterback’s talents.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a competition,” Andersen said. “We have two quarterbacks. And those kids are completely on board with that. And that’s the way I see us progressing, and that’s the way we are moving forward.”
The decision to use both quarterbacks started before the Illinois game, but neither quarterback knew just how much they were going to play heading into the game. Coming off of a bye week, the extra preparation has certainly been beneficial to both Stave and McEvoy, and the UW offense as a whole, as they now have a better idea of how the two-quarterback system will work going forward.
“I think the bye week came at a really good time for us in that respect,” Stave said. “In that we were able to go back and look at ourselves to see where we can use me, where we can use Tanner. I think we both do things really well, so being able to go back and really figure out how we can expand [McEvoy’s] role in the offense, how we can use me in the offense, I think it will be good for us.”
Regardless of how the quarterbacks play Saturday against Maryland, the Badgers will always have Heisman-hopeful Melvin Gordon in the backfield. Gordon, who leads the nation in yards per game (174.3), should be set for a big day against a Maryland run defense that ranks 102nd in the nation, giving up 198.3 yards to opposing rushers. Wisconsin, meanwhile, averages 343.0 yards per game on the ground, which is also tops in the nation.
On defense, the Badgers certainly got healthier over the bye week. Inside linebackers Derek Landisch and Marcus Trotter will both be 100 percent against Maryland after they both dealt with injuries over the course of the past couple of weeks. Defensive lineman Warren Herring, could also return to the field after sustaining a knee injury in the season opener against LSU.
Maryland presents their own challenges on defense, as they have given up more than 20 points in three games this season. It’s a defense that UW wide receiver Alex Erickson says is solid across all eleven positions.
“They have a lot of talented guys at safety, defensive back, linebacker, all across the board,” Erickson said. “They’re a very talented team and we’ve been studying them. We’ll be ready.”
The first ever meeting between Maryland and Wisconsin is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at Camp Randall Stadium.
