With the start of the season quickly approaching, Badger of Honor’s contributors came together to give their thoughts and predictions on the Wisconsin football schedule.
Wisconsin football is back at last, and here at Badger of Honor, we couldn’t be more excited to cover the season for you. Wisconsin is coming off of a 2018 season that can best be described as incredibly disappointing, but, as you will see, we are expecting the Badgers to bounce back in a big way this year.
With that said, here are our predictions on how Wisconsin’s 2019 season will play out, on a game by game basis.
Week 1 at South Florida
Sam Land
Charlie Strong’s squad looks as though it could be especially explosive on offense this season under new offensive coordinator Kerwin Bell, who comes over from Division II Valdosta State after masterminding an offense that averaged over 50 points per contest last year. He will have some talented toys at his disposal this season, including quarterback Blake Barnett and running back Jordan Cronkite.
This definitely could be a significant early test for the Wisconsin defense, but look for Jonathan Taylor to run rampant in this one. The Bulls allowed opponents to average almost 250 rushing yards last year, and they lost their leading tackler, as well as some other top contributors at linebacker. USF’s offense can’t score if its defense can’t keep Taylor and company off the field.
The home-field advantage will make this matchup closer than it would be otherwise, but as has been the case many times in the past, Wisconsin starts to pull away early in the second half and rides to victory on the wings of a huge day from its superstar ball carrier.
Wisconsin 35 – South Florida 21
Christian Borman
Wisconsin football opens up the 2019 campaign at South Florida to take on the Bulls. Last season, the Bulls allowed 248.2 rushing yards per game, the 8th most in the country. They lost two of their three top tacklers to graduation from last season. Wisconsin will look to take advantage of that with their Jonathan Taylor-led rushing attack.
The heat may be tough for the Badgers to deal with, but they will be looking to prove last year’s down season was a fluke and they are worthy of their ranking in the preseason top-25. Expect Jonathan Taylor to run free and fans to get a good look at which quarterback will be running the offense this season. Wisconsin takes game one of the season.
Wisconsin 31 – South Florida 17