Badger of Honor
Fansided

Inside the Game: Wisconsin Utah State

By Noah Seligman

MADISON, WI - NOVEMBER 26: Corey Clement
MADISON, WI - NOVEMBER 26: Corey Clement /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
3 of 4
Next
MADISON, WI – OCTOBER 15: Alex Hornibrook
MADISON, WI – OCTOBER 15: Alex Hornibrook /

Wisconsin has to take care of the football to avoid giving Utah State a foothold or hope in Friday’s game

Wisconsin’s 2016 turnover margin was a robust +12 good for second in the Big Ten conference.

  • Fumbles recovered: six
  • Interceptions: 22
  • Fumbles lost: six
  • Interceptions thrown: 10

Alex Hornibrook had nine of the 10 interceptions from a season ago to go with just seven TD passes.  He’ll need a better ratio to keep a lock on the job for the entire 2017 season.  On Friday, Hornibrook’s passing should be purely complementary practicing routes and progressions for tougher opponents in the future.  That means some safe high percentage throws and good decision-making overall.

Of course the ball security obligations extend to the running game as well.  Wisconsin appears to be going with somewhat of a running back by committee sort of approach.  Thus, if a Wisconsin RB puts the ball on the ground that could banish them to the bench.

Again, similar to the previous slide and penalties, the Badgers don’t want to give Utah State an extra help.  Winning the turnover battle by a large margin is almost certainly required for Utah State to pull off a massive upset in Madison.  So again, playing a clean game on balance is advantage Wisconsin.