By Mark Pszonak
It isn’t easy to establish an identity in sports, especially a positive one. It generally takes years if not decades and a great deal of success to accomplish this. Wisconsin football managed to do this and then seemingly threw it out the window overnight.
When Wisconsin football had been mentioned, it always involved the thought of a powerful running game and a dominant offensive line. And this was all started in the early 1990s by Barry Alvarez.
Coach Alvarez took over the Badgers prior to the 1990 season and after a few growing pains led Wisconsin to a surprising run to the Rose Bowl in 1993. Until he handed the reigns over after the 2005 season to Bret Bielema he took the program to 10 more bowls, including two more Rose Bowls. Prior to his arrival, the program had only played in three bowl games in the previous 27 seasons.
The success flourished under Coach Bielema, who in his seven seasons took the Badgers to seven bowls, including three more Rose Bowls. Gary Anderson and Paul Chryst followed, which resulted in 10 seasons and 10 bowls. No matter who the coach was during this time, the offense remained the same, the wins piled up and the identity was created.
In the middle of the 2022 season the Badgers decided to part ways with Coach Chryst, which came as a surprise to many outside of Madison. Badger legend Jim Leonhard took over for the remainder of the season and led the team to a winning season and a bowl victory. However, once the season was concluded Wisconsin’s administration decided to go outside the program for a fulltime coach and hired Luke Fickell from Cincinnati.
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Fickell was a winner with the Bearcats, having gone 57-18 in six seasons, so the hire was considered a victory for the program. Considered a tough hard-nosed coach, the thought was that he would continue with the identity that had brought Wisconsin 30+ years of success. However, that changed with his decision to hire offensive coordinator Phil Longo.
Coach Longo is a talented coach who had success at previous stops (UNC, Ole Miss, Sam Houston) but there is one problem. Longo has long been known as an “air raid” coach, who is a disciple of Mike Leach’s offensive philosophies. That is basically the exact opposite of what Wisconsin had been known for since Coach Alvarez’ hiring.
Now entering season two of the “air raid” experiment, there have been more questions than answers. Yes, the Badgers once again qualified for a bowl last season, but after finishing 7-6, are they closer to proving the change in offensive philosophy was the right one? After last night’s 28-14 victory against Western Michigan, that answer is no.
New transfer quarterback Tyler Van Dyke flashed occasionally, but similar to his time with Miami-Florida, he lacked consistency. He completed only 58.3% of his passes, while averaging 5.3 yards per attempt. Completing only 58% of 5-yard passes is not going to promote much optimism in Madison that the offense has found its groove.
Also, as I’ve said since the “air raid” was implemented, why is this offense being run in Wisconsin? And I mean the actual state. If nobody has noticed, the weather during October and November doesn’t scream “let’s open up the offense”. Do you know what it does scream? Let’s ground and pound the ball like the program had been doing successfully for 30 years.
Next for the Badgers is a home game against FCS South Dakota before reality quickly sets in with consecutive games against Alabama and USC. And when they’re 2-2 by the end of September, questions about the offense will multiply, the fans voices will get louder and there will be growing concern that the program is heading in the wrong direction.
