Previously: Wisconsin Offense 2021 Welcome back to this week's edition of Fee Fi Fo Film. Yesterday we took a gander at Wisconsin's beleaguered offense and tried to dissect the problems and explain what has gone wrong. The feel of this post, looking at the Badger defense, will be quite different. Great defenses have been rolling out of Madison for a long time now, and this year doesn't look to be much different. They held PSU to 16 points, EMU to 7, and Notre Dame to 20 (Irish got 21 on special teams/defense). This is a very good unit and it will be leaned on heavily to beat Michigan. So what's it like? Well, as you'll see, much of the same.
The Film: We're using the Penn State game for this, as we did for the offense. Penn State is a decent comparison for Michigan offensively, with their really good running back group similar to Michigan's, but PSU plays with more WR's and in a more spread manner, formation-wise, than Michigan does, which we'll highlight below. If you read the offensive piece, Wisconsin held the ball forever on offense, which limited Penn State to ~17 minutes time of possession and just a shade over 50 plays. It's not a ton of film, but there's plenty here to get an adequate feel for the Wisconsin defense, even if this may be a shorter article than normal. Personnel: The chart.
Wisconsin looks like the Wisconsin defense that we know so well. They still run their 3-4, just with some new names and faces in the front seven and the same old faces in the secondary. The defensive line (the three down linemen) has changed around a bit since last year but is still pretty solid, with NT Keeanu Benton as the headliner in the middle, bookended by veteran Matt Henningsen on one side and Isaiah Mullens on the other side. The DL's objective is to eat up offensive linemen and open holes that their murderous LB corps can come screaming through to either stuff the run or sack the QB. Backups along the DL are not used heavily, but Bryson Williams is on the two-deep at NT and Rodas Johnson is the first off the bench at either DE spot. Those murderous LB's are 4/4 in receiving stars, which is not surprising given Wisconsin's track record at developing LB's. Their outside LB's often line up at the line of scrimmage as seen on Seth's diagram, and then they may rush or they may drop back into coverage. Nick Herbig is a fresh face opposite Noah Burks, who has paid his dues in the Wisconsin program, as the starting OLB's. Burks plays what Seth calls the "WATT" role, which is the pass-rushing OLB job, whereas Herbig plays the "SCHOBERT" role, which requires dropping into coverage more. Both guys can do both roles, but generally Burks rushes more than Herbig and Herbig drops into coverage more than Burks. The backups at that position include Spencer Lytle and CJ Goetz, but the two starters get the bulk of the work. The ILB's are a pair of studs, Jack Sanborn and Leo Chenal. Unfortunately, Chenal tested positive for COVID-19 prior to week one, so he doesn't appear in any of the footage in this post, but he's a very good football player (you'll probably see that Saturday). Sanborn gets the shield as a borderline-All American and you'll hear plenty about him in this post. Both ILB's have to be able to cover and tackle, as a typical linebacker would, but they are also used heavily in rush packages, especially Sanborn. Mike Maskalunas is the third option at ILB to know about, and I saw quite a bit of him in the PSU game with Chenal out. The secondary is very veteran, with all four starters being at least fifth year players. Caesar Williams and Faion Hicks, the latter of whom played at Flanagan with Devin Bush and Josh Metellus, are the starting CB's. Scott Nelson and Collin Wilder are the two safeties, and both can come up into the box and run stuff, or play a deep safety role in Wisconsin's Cover 2 alignment. Dean Engram is the nickel that Wisconsin used a decent bit in this game, while John Torchio came on as a reserve safety in the PSU game too. Deonte Burton and Alexander Smith have also gotten snaps at corner. [AFTER THE JUMP: The LB's are gonna get ya]