Wisconsin Football will lean on offense for success in 2018

The Wisconsin Football program has become a defensive powerhouse over the years. That may not be the case this year.

Wisconsin Football has been known as a dominant running team for years. The Badgers produce great running backs and offensive linemen and overwhelm their opponents with one of the most persistent ground games in the country.

As that trend continued, a new one developed. Wisconsin has quietly become one of the best defensive programs in the country too. Last year was perhaps the peak of its defensive powers. Under first-year defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard the Badgers were one of the best defenses in the country and actually leaned on the defense to win games. As great as Jonathan Taylor was, the offense struggled to get going at times. The defense helped keep teams like Purdue, Illinois, Michigan, and Iowa at bay while the offense got itself together.

Wisconsin won three games last year while scoring 24 points or less. That total isn’t too concerning, but seeing as how the defense only allowed opposing point totals of 10, 10, and 9 in those games, it’s safe to say the defense more than did its part.

The current state of the Wisconsin defense suggests that may not be the case in 2018. The defense still has playmakers like T.J. Edwards, D’Cota Dixon, and Andrew Van Ginkel ready to go, but there are a lot of question marks swirling around them. The cornerback position is going to be dominated by underclassmen, the defensive ends won’t have really any game experience and neither will the outside linebackers besides Van Ginkel. To add to that, we aren’t even sure who’s going to be taking most of those snaps. There are some great candidates with mild game experience, like Madison Cone and Tyler Johnson, but they’re all wild cards.

Luckily for Badger fans, the offense shouldn’t be anything short of dynamite. The only two starters not returning are tight end Troy Fumagalli and fullback Austin Ramesh. Those are important positions in Wisconsin’s offense, but they’re positions the Badgers typically replace with ease.

The entire starting five on the offensive line returns as well, though it’s unlikely the same group will start as last year’s left tackle Michael Deiter is kicking inside to guard for his senior season opening up a spot for a new starter to emerge at left tackle.

Alex Hornibrook has yet another season under his belt and all of Badger Nation hopes he can make a leap forward and improve on his numbers from 2017.

The receivers Hornibrook is throwing to this year are talented and plentiful. A group of underclassmen from last year return while several incoming freshmen have made noise in camp. Aron Cruickshank is the one to keep an eye on in this group as he could also be a large part of the return game.

Last, but not least, is Heisman Trophy front-runner Jonathan Taylor. If you haven’t heard his name dozens of times by now it’s because you’ve been living under a rock. Last year, the true freshman ran wild on defenses for over 1,900 yards. This year, he’ll have one of the best offensive lines in the country blocking for him and has serious expectations to improve on last season’s incredible totals.

The Badgers aren’t a team that typically rides the offense to high-scoring, shootout victories, but that may very well be the case in 2018.