With only two exceptions (2010: UW 70, NU 23 and 2013: UW 35, NU 6) Wisconsin vs Northwestern football has been an extremely close series this decade. Yesterday, Northwestern football Coach Pat Fitzgerald pointed out how this series is 13-13 over the last 26.
It’s also a series where the games have been very low scoring, so it’s a bit of a surprise to see Las Vegas put such a big spread on this contest.
TV SEGMENT PREVIEW:
I discussed the current state of Northwestern football during my segment this week on WGN, CLTV Sports Feed with Jarrett Payton, have a watch below:
KICKOFF: 11 am Saturday
SPREAD: Northwestern football +15
RADIO PREVIEW: Tuesday on KOZN 1620 The Zone, Omaha on Sharp and Benning in the morning.
https://soundcloud.com/user-614766533/sep-26-seg-7-paul-banks-illinois-expert-with-the-sports-bankdotnet#t=0:00
Wisconsin Football Preview:
The enormous success of Paul Chryst, a man with a lot of substance, but very little style is extremely refreshing given where we are as a society right now. Chryst is all steak, but no sizzle and yet he succeeds anyway. The Wisconsin football coach, who is extremely painful to watch and listen to in interviews and press conferences, has kept the big red machine in Madison rolling along despite his severe lack of public presentation skills.
Superficiality is valued above actual results, experience and qualifications these days, so when someone like Chryst is making it -that’s something you got to root for.
Pat Fitzgerald broke down the Badgers thusly:
“You’re playing an enormous, athletic offensive line, the best tight end in the country, great stable of backs, and Hornibrook. What did he go, 18-of-19 against BYU? That’s unheard of. We’ve gotta execute fundamentally, execute our calls and get ready for a physical battle.”
Yes, quarterback Alex Hornibrook comes in with 8 touchdown passes and just 1 interception, 70% completion for 700 yards. In other words this Wisconsin team can sling it, just like they did in the Russell Wilson years. It’s not just the Wisconsin football of “playing in a phone booth,” keeping everyone in tight together, to ground and pound.
As this is Wisconsin, you already know the offensive line and tailbacks are elite. This year the running back’s name is Jonathan Taylor, and he’s got 438 yards rushing (on an eye catching 8.3 yards per carry) and 5 TDs in just three games.
Troy Fumagalli by the way is that TE Fitz was praising, and his numbers have been spectacular too. He has first round NFL Draft stock in abundance. In the receiving corps don’t sleep on Jazz Peavy and Quintez Cephus.
Northwestern Football Preview:
Northwestern entered the season with “sleeper” status to win the B1G West division. Almost every single college football pundit who made a prognostication on the division picked the Wisconsin Badgers to win it. Northwestern football was essentially the consensus pick to finish second, with some predictors going out on a limb to peg the Wildcats as eventual division winners.
If it is to be a two horse race, then it’s interesting how the season began in such similar fashion for both teams.
Both struggled with a Mountain West team (who coincidentally even wear the same colors) early, but then pulled away late. It was the cliched “tail of two halves” for both teams, with Wisconsin obviously being much more emphatic in the second 30 minutes than the Cats, but that’s why the Badgers are the reigning champs of the division, and the favorites to end up in Indianapolis for the B1G Title championship game.
Since then, things have diverged a bit.
As Fitzgerald humorously admitted in his weekly press conference yesterday “yeah, we got our asses kicked” at Duke in week two while the Badgers have continued to look sharper each and every week.
The Cats rebounded nicely from their Duke destruction by accomplishing a Bowling Green Massacre their last time out in week three. Northwestern football has had mixed results thus far, mirroring the ups and downs of their run defense.
Northwestern’s pass rush hasn’t really taken effect much this season either. A lot was expected of the NU defensive front, so it’s a been a bit disappointing and it could see some matchup issues in this one.
Maybe some of the issues are do to youth and inexperience, as Fitzgerald has played 13 true freshman this season.
“I think every year guys are getting more prepared in terms of strength and conditioning,” he said.
“I’ve been really impressed by this group as a whole. It is one of those years. We’ve had injuries that have forced us to play more guys across the board. I’m going to try to play the best eleven guys on every rep.”
Prediction for novelty purposes only: Wisconsin 22, Northwestern football 13
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now and Minute Media. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
Follow him on Twitter, Instagram, Sound Cloud, LinkedIn and YouTube.