Wisconsin Football: Top 3 performers vs. Western Kentucky

#2 – Alex Hornibrook, Quarterback

His final statline certainly won’t blow you away, but Badger fans have to be encouraged by what they saw from Alex Hornibrook last night against Western Kentucky, as it is evident that he has taken a big step forward in his game.

The Hornibrook-led offense did start off a bit sluggish and its performance at multiple positions was off and on for much of the game, but much of that can likely be attributed to working out kinks in the first game of the season.

Hornibrook finished the game 17-29 passing for 257 yards and two touchdowns, good but certainly not fantastic numbers. However, it is the absence of  a certain statistic that is most encouraging.

He did not throw an interception.

Some may scoff and say that this should be expected against a bad defense like Western Kentucky’s, and they are right. However, keep in mind that there were only four games last season in which Hornibrook did not get picked off, and it would not have been all that surprising to see him make a mistake like that in the first game of the season.

In addition to taking care of the football, the other exciting takeaway from Hornibrook’s performance against Western Kentucky was his much-improved mobility in and out of the pocket.

Throughout the first two seasons of his career, his pocket presence left much to be desired. When the pass rush would come and begin to collapse the pocket, Hornibrook struggled with staying calm and making the right decision by either stepping up and delivering a throw or escaping and making plays with his legs.

Based on his performance last night it appears as though those struggles just may be behind him, as there were several instances of him successfully escaping the pocket under pressure and hitting his receivers on the move, with this beautiful second quarter touchdown strike to Kendric Pryor serving as a prime example.

Again, the catch here is obviously that Western Kentucky’s defense isn’t exactly stellar, so we will see how he performs once he faces some of the talented units further along on Wisconsin’s schedule. That being said, it appears as though Hornibrook has made a major evolution in his game. If he can continue to demonstrate that mobility as the season continues, the ceiling of this Wisconsin offense will skyrocket.

Overall, this was a solid start to the 2018 campaign for Hornibrook. Again, the numbers weren’t overwhelming and he did make a number of ill-advised throws, but this was a performance he can build on moving forward and that should give him a great deal of confidence.