Previewing Wisconsin With A Badger Insider
The Michigan Wolverines' football team will head to Wisconsin this weekend hoping to keep its perfect 2-0 record intact and pick up what many would view as a "statement victory" against the 13th-ranked Badgers.
Jake Kocorowski of BadgerBlitz.com was kind enough to break down Wisconsin's squad, discussing its strengths and weaknesses while also giving a final score prediction at the end.
Wisconsin's Projected Starters On Offense
• Junior QB Jack Coan — He beat out freshman Graham Mertz for the starting job and has posted phenomenal numbers so far — 564 passing yards with five touchdowns, no picks and a 76.3 completion percentage. Coan's 76.3 connection rate is the best in the Big Ten, as are his 282.0 passing yards per game.
• Sophomore FB John Chenal — He has basically split the reps evenly with redshirt junior Mason Stokke at the position (45 for Chenal, 41 for Stokke), and has primarily served as a blocker (just four carries for 13 yards) for a Badger ground game that ranks third in the Big Ten with 216.5 yards per game.
• Junior RB Jonathan Taylor — His five rushing scores are tied for the most in the conference and his 118.5 rushing yards per outing are the second most, despite seeing little action after halftime in each of the Badgers' wins (49-0 over South Florida and 61-0 over Central Michigan). Taylor has also added a receiving element to his game, hauling in five receptions for 65 yards and three touchdowns (the latter is tied for the most in the Big Ten).
• Senior WR A.J. Taylor — His eight grabs and 87 receiving yards both rank second on the roster (after junior Quintez Cephus' 169 yards on nine catches), a year after he led the squad with 521 yards. Taylor hauled in 79 yards and a score when the Wolverines visited Madison in 2017, with his 24-yard touchdown reception late in the third quarter marking the go-ahead score in UW's 24-10 win.
• Redshirt junior WR Kendric Pryor — His 72 receiving yards are the third most on the team and his six grabs are tied for third. The Badgers have actually shown a tendency to hand the ball off to Pryor on end arounds over the past two years, with the veteran wideout recording touchdown runs against Michigan in each of the past two meetings.
• Redshirt sophomore TE Jake Ferguson — Though Badger head coach Paul Chryst has often employed several tight ends on a regular basis, Ferguson has separated himself as the club's clear No. 1 at the spot, evidenced by the fact that he has played 100 more snaps this season than any other tight end on the roster. The redshirt sophomore has hauled in six receptions for 71 yards, after finishing second on the team last year in both catches and yards, with 36 and 456, respectively.
• Redshirt junior LT Cole Van Lanen — Pro Football Focus (PFF) has graded him as UW's highest-rated offensive lineman through two games, checking in with an overall mark of 77.9 (a single-game grade of 64 is considered average). Van Lanen has seldom come off the field for the Badgers, with his 145 snaps standing as the second most of any offensive player.
• Redshirt sophomore LG Kayden Lyles — He actually started seven games at defensive end in 2018, but was moved back to the offensive side of the ball once the campaign ended. According to PFF, Lyles' 50.7 pass blocking grade on the year is the third worst of the 17 Badger offensive players who have been asked to pass block so far this season.
• Redshirt junior C Tyler Biadasz — He is the lone returning starter from Wisconsin's 2018 offensive line, and was tabbed as a consensus All-Big Ten first-team selection last season. PFF actually pegged Biadasz as the game's best center last year (88.7 overall grade), but has slapped him with an underwhelming 59.5 mark through the first two games of 2019.
• Fifth-year senior RG Jason Erdmann — His 146 snaps are more than any other Badger offensive player, though he he has graded out with just a 62.2 overall mark from PFF. Erdmann had played in all 41 of UW's contests over the past three years, but only had one career start under his belt entering the season.
• Fifth-year senior RT David Moorman — His 72.9 grade from PFF is the second highest of any Wisconsin offensive lineman, trailing only Van Lanen's 77.9. In addition, Moorman's 80 grade in the pass blocking department is the best on the entire team.
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