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The Badger Herald

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Football Notebook: Deal, UW running game prepared for first Big Ten battle of season

With Iowa approaching, Badger tailbacks are ready for challenge
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Joey Reuteman

As the Wisconsin football team prepares for their Big Ten opener against Iowa Saturday, they are well aware of the physicality and toughness the Hawkeye defense will bring.

This is especially true for the team’s running game, as they’ll be going up against an Iowa defensive front that has given up just 84 rushing yards per game this season thus far.

Running backs coach John Settle made sure both of his running backs knew what they were going up against Saturday.

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“I told them this morning: Be prepared to be sore on Sunday,” Settle said. “It’s going to be a physical matchup and when you come to Wisconsin, you’re going to play those kinds of games.”

While both redshirt junior Dare Ogunbowale and redshirt freshman Taiwan Deal have each been very effective running the ball over the past three weeks — combining for a total of 541 yards — Big Ten opponents present a much bigger challenge than any of their previous three have.

For Settle, he feels as though the way Deal is built as a 220-pound back makes him the ideal Big Ten tailback, despite the fact that he has only appeared in four career games.

https://badgerherald.com/sports/2015/09/22/lets-make-a-deal-redshirt-freshman-continues-to-take-advantage-of-unexpected-opportunity/

“In my mind, [the way he’s built] does help,” Settle said. “I think this is a conference where you must be physical, be a back that can bring the physicality to defenders and absorb some blows.”

And while Deal’s physical nature may make him better suited for bigger defensive fronts in the Big Ten, that does not mean he will be shouldering the entire load by himself as the team moves forward without starting running back Corey Clement for the next month or so.

Both Deal and Ogunbowale will be featured in the running game, as Settle has found that the two compliment each other far too well to feature just one of them.

“Well, you like to have a No.1, but we are at the position now where the season started and you got two guys that compliment one another,” Settle said. “The two guys together, they give us a great opportunity to be productive.”

No matter the amount of carries Deal takes Saturday, he feels as though his time on the field has all been leading up to this moment.

He will be prepared for whatever Iowa brings his way.

“They got some big guys, a stout defensive line, but I’m just waiting to see what happens [and] how we match up,” Deal said. “It’s going to take a lot of preparation through the week for us to come out and have a good game on Saturday.”

Ground and pound

Coming into the season, Wisconsin coaches saw Clement as a guy they could rely on to make big plays as a running back, something the team has had a luxury of having over the past few years with guys like Montee Ball and Melvin Gordon.

But with Clement undergoing sports hernia surgery, and both Ogunbowale and Deal working to get more comfortable playing the position, the team has maintained an efficient ground and pound attack.

They have not been a team that relies on big plays, and as Big Ten play approaches, UW appears to be set on that identity.

“We’re probably not going to be a big-play offense,” Settle said. “But we are going to be an offense that can sustain drives.”

While explosive plays that gain big yards are obviously beneficial to a team, as they help build momentum and, most importantly, put points up on the scoreboard, they aren’t a necessity for this Wisconsin offense.

For offensive coordinator Joe Rudolph, those big plays will come with time, but for now, the offense has to keep pressing the ball down the field and finishing with a score.

“If you score at the end, it’s good, but it is always nice to get a couple of those explosive plays,” Rudolph said. “I think that’s got to be part of what you’re doing, so I look forward to that developing more and more as we go along.

More than a game

If you ask almost any UW player, they will likely say that Saturday’s matchup against Iowa is just another game for them.

Even a young player, like Deal, who has never been on the field against a Big Ten opponent, will tell you that his mindset won’t change.

“I pretty much see every opponent the same,” Deal said. “I’m just going to go out and run hard.”

But for Rudolph, who has seen plenty of the Hawkeyes from serving nine years as a coach in the conference, Saturday’s battle for the Heartland Trophy needs to be looked at as more than another game.

“I think it means a ton, and I don’t see how it couldn’t mean more,” Rudolph said. “This is Iowa. It’s a huge game.”

https://badgerherald.com/sports/2015/09/28/football-badgers-veterans-ready-for-physical-game-against-iowa/

Rudolph elaborated on the fact that there are not going to be a ton of surprises Saturday, as each of the programs are aware of what the other brings to the table. This adds to the rivalry and the typically physical nature of the game between the two schools.

But with that rivalry, there is also plenty of mutual respect.

‘We have a ton of respect for their program,” Rudolph said. “We are both programs that are built in similar ways and the teams truly take pride in that.”

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