Wisconsin Badgers Football: End of Season Grades

2013 SEASON OVERALL

Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

With a new coaching staff in Wisconsin, it was tough to gauge how well the 2013 Badgers football team would do. They showed early after what happened at Arizona State the kind of poise this team had. The big story of the season was obviously the duo of Gordon and White and how well the running game was. Coach Andersen said before the season that they would not waver from typical, smash-mouth Badger football and they did not.

And honestly they couldn’t with how poorly the passing game was at times. I think they did the best they could with what they had when it came to the quarterback situation. There were a few new wrinkles in this offense with the way they used Jared Abbrederis and others which was nice to see.

The defense was a hard-nosed group that was typical of a Big Ten type defense. Linebacker Chris Borland was the heart and soul of the defense and played at a high level in his last season in Madison. Freshman Sojourn Shelton showed flashes of brilliance, but at times made freshman-like mistakes.

Special teams were average at best. There was a reason they faked a field goal against South Carolina. They just were not comfortable with their shaky kicking game and you could tell throughout the season. The return game was alright and I expect that to improve as well.

The Badgers finished with a 6-2 conference record, good enough for second in the Big Ten-Leaders Division, and an overall 9-4 mark on the season. Leading up to their regular season finale, the Badgers were on the fringe of qualifying for an at-large BCS berth. Wisconsin finished 22nd in the final AP poll. Not horrible but they know it could have been so much better.

2013 OVERALL SEASON GRADE: B