Wisconsin Football: What the Badgers Should Be Thankful for in 2014
After a couple of early season slip-ups including blowing a 17-point lead in the opener to LSU, the Wisconsin football team is 9-2 and 6-1 in the Big Ten with a home date against Minnesota to determine the Big Ten West winner. A trip to Indianapolis hangs in the balance.
The Badgers have plenty to be thankful for this season. It looked like it could have been a doomed year after one of the largest and most productive graduating classes departed last season, leaving the Badgers with no starters left from their front seven. Plus, the team had to cope with the graduation of its best receiver in Jared Abbrederis.
Let's take a look at four things the Badgers have to be thankful for as Thanksgiving rolls around, which includes people, places and things on and off the field, starting with one that's entirely out of the control of the team: the schedule-makers in the Big Ten.
The Big Ten Schedule-Makers
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Being in the Western half of the Big Ten, the Badgers schedule was sure to be easier than if they were in the East. No Ohio State, Michigan State, Michigan or Penn State definitely helps, but that's not to say there's a dearth of good teams in the West.
The Badgers know they are going to play Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota every year along with two teams from the East—one at home and one on the road. Thankfully this season, they lucked out just about as much as they could.
In the West, their road games were at Northwestern—where they haven't won in the 21st century—at Purdue and at Iowa. Going into Ryan Field is no walk in the park and neither is going to Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, but if you have to play road games, these three are not too bad.
In their cross-divisional matchups, they got the two Big Ten newcomers in Maryland and Rutgers. Playing at Rutgers, the Badgers welcomed the upstart Scarlet Knights to the Big Ten with a 37-0 thumping in which their defense completely asserted their will.
In their other cross-divisional game, they played arguably their most complete game against a talented Maryland team. Maryland was categorically bad against the top of the Big Ten—0-3 with a point differential of minus-95 against Ohio State, Wisconsin and Michigan State—but will likely finish 8-4 and third in the Big Ten East.
With the Badgers getting two of their three toughest Big Ten West games at home—Nebraska and Minnesota—they are thankful for whomever created this schedule. It gives them a home game against Minnesota to take the Ax for the 11th straight year and get back to Indianapolis.
Defensive Coordinator Dave Aranda
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Lose your entire front seven including Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and get better? That doesn't add up, but somehow defensive coordinator Dave Aranda made it happen.
Aranda has put together unbelievable defenses wherever he's gone, with Utah State finishing in the top 15 in the four biggest defensive categories—scoring defense, rushing defense, pass efficiency defense and total defense—in 2012.
Last season, he was given a bounty of riches on defense as Bret Bielema had cycled through a number of top coordinators on defense, all of whom were good recruiters and put together one of the top units in the country; however, the pieces didn't really fit the 3-4 style Aranda wanted to run.
No worries as Aranda's defense at Wisconsin in 2013 finished in the top 20 in the four aforementioned categories including in the top seven in scoring defense (sixth), total defense (seventh) and rushing defense (fifth).
With everyone gone, it gave Aranda a clean slate to work with. While some of the pieces still aren't perfect for the 3-4, Aranda has been a miracle worker, with the Badgers currently sitting in third in total defense, third in passing defense, fifth in run defense and third in scoring defense.
While it is unclear how long the Badgers will be able to retain the services of Aranda as his work rebuilding the Badgers defense into a top unit certainly will cause his phone to ring with head coaching jobs across the country, Badgers fans must be very thankful for his work this year to get them to 9-2 with a shot at the Big Ten West crown.
Joel Stave's Psychologist
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After losing the starting quarterback job in fall camp, Joel Stave developed a case of the yips, which put a mental block on his ability to throw the ball. Tanner McEvoy, who was selected as the starter coming into the season, struggled.
While McEvoy's legs have been an incredibly valuable asset to the Badgers, his arm has been a huge problem. In the first game against LSU, McEvoy went 8-of-24 for 50 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions, completing only two passes for more than 10 yards with his long going for 14 yards.
McEvoy has a 58.0 percent completion percentage, but that number dips significantly when you look only against FBS teams. McEvoy went 23-of-28 for 283 yards, three touchdowns and an interception against FCS Western Illinois. Against FBS competition, he is completing only 50 percent of his passes with two touchdowns and five interceptions.
Stave was able to return just before halftime of the team's game against Northwestern and struggled, going 8-of-19 for 114 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. Since then, as the starter, he has been exactly the game manager the Badgers need him to be.
Stave as a starter is completing 60.6 percent of his passes for 713 yards, five touchdowns and an interception while leading the team to a 6-0 record. Whoever his psychologist is should get an invite to any Badgers fan's Thanksgiving celebration.
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The Return of Melvin Gordon
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Let me start this with a small disclaimer: Corey Clement is an incredibly talented back, and there's no question the Badgers, with their defense this season, would still be having success if he was their feature back.
With that being said, the Badgers are playing for the Big Ten West crown on Saturday because of the decision by Melvin Gordon to return to college for his redshirt junior year. Gordon was probably a first- or second-round pick if he had declared for the draft, but he instead came back to work on some facets of his game.
Gordon had 1,609 rushing yards last season on just 206 carries to go along with 12 rushing touchdowns, which put him in the upper echelon of running backs in the country. However, he could improve as a pass-blocker and receiver, as he only caught one ball for 10 yards last season.
This year, Gordon has made tremendous strides as a pass-blocker and as a receiver in addition to refining his game as a runner. As a receiver, he has 15 receptions for 147 yards and two touchdowns, including four receptions for 64 yards to carry the Badgers to victory over Iowa.
As a runner, he has cemented himself as a Heisman candidate and a likely first-round pick by taking the ball 254 times for 2,109 yards; he is tied for the Big Ten and school record with Ron Dayne's freshman year in 1996. Gordon has also rushed for 25 touchdowns.
Badgers fans should be incredibly thankful for Gordon's decision to return to the team, as he is easily the biggest reason why the Badgers are 9-2. He almost willed Wisconsin to victory against Northwestern with 259 rushing yards despite a terrible day from both quarterbacks.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
