Another game, another team; yet the outcome was the same for the UW secondary.
After being burned for 63, 17 and 42 points in its previous three games, the Badgers’ defense gave up another 42 points to the Spartans.
“We’re not very good on defense,” UW head coach Barry Alvarez said after his team’s 42-28 loss. “We’ve always had a chance to win around here because of our defense. We’ve scored enough points the last two weeks that we should have a heck of a chance to win and haven’t. It’s very disturbing to me, yet I know we’re very limited in our answers.”
One area that’s lacking answers is the secondary.
With two 5-foot-10 cornerbacks in Mike Echols and Scott Starks, the opposing receivers have used their size to dominate the backfield.
On Saturday the Spartans’ 6-foot-4 wide receiver Charles Rogers burned the backfield for 206 yards on five receptions. He also scored two touchdowns, one of which came on an 87-yard reception from quarterback Jeff Smoker in the fourth quarter.
And most of Rogers’ yards came off of Starks.
A freshman, the young cornerback has been thrown into action and forced to contend with many of the league’s best receivers, a situation that worries Alvarez.
“I hate to put a freshman in that position,” Alvarez said. “I just hope he doesn’t lose confidence ? You’ve got good receivers each week going at him. I’m sure he gets flustered. I feel bad because I wish we could use him as a nickel back and break him in slowly, but that’s not where we are.”
Echols also voiced concern over the situation Starks has been put into to.
“I think he’s just learning [the position] in a fast way,” Echols said. “He can’t use these games to put himself down; he just has to use them as learning experiences.”
But Starks is not concerned with the situation he’s in, and said he’d rather be learning on the field than watching from the sidelines wearing a redshirt. The freshman won’t even use his size as an excuse for his struggles.
“You’ve just got to use technique,” Starks said. “Size doesn’t have anything to do with it. It was mostly using techniques.”
While Starks takes responsibility for his lack of defense, Alvarez is hoping he doesn’t face too much criticism while he improves his game.
“If a defensive lineman makes a mistake no one knows about it,” Alvarez said. “If a corner makes a mistake in man coverage or when he’s isolated on someone, everybody knows about it.”
But everyone can agree with one thing ? the freshman has enough confidence to get over the humps.
“I think he’s a bright young man and he’s a confident young man,” Alvarez said. “I think he’ll be okay. He’s going to have some more growing pains; we’ve got a lot of other good receivers and people to play yet, so hopefully he can get a little better, learn a little bit from today.”
And Starks doesn’t doubt that he’ll be fine either.
“Today was [the] first day it was kind of hard, but I will bounce back,” Starks said. “I won’t let my confidence drop.”
Starks, along with the rest of the secondary, can’t afford to lose confidence as Iowa and Michigan ? and top receiver Marquise Walker ? loom on the schedule in the next couple of weeks.
