It was a roller-coaster season for Wisconsin Football fans in 2021. UW would begin the season 1-3, leaving little to no hope for a turnaround. UW would then rattle off 7 consecutive wins and put themselves in a position to go to the Big-Ten Championship with a win in the final week of the regular season against Minnesota.
As you all know, Wisconsin would fall flat during Axe week, losing to rival Minnesota 23-13, effectively ending their Cinderella story of a turnaround.
Offensively, it took over a month into the season for Wisconsin to find an identity. Once they did, the wins started to pile up. UW averaged 25.8 points per game on offense, which is the 2nd lowest in the Paul Chryst era. This is an area I expect to see addressed this off-season.
The defense, on the other hand, was absolutely fantastic, allowing just 16.4 points per game.
Ultimately, Paul Chryst and the Wisconsin Football team would end the regular season 8-4 – and earned an appearance in the Las Vegas Bowl where they’ll match up with Arizona State.
So, without further ado, these are the end-of-season superlatives for your 2021 Wisconsin Badgers.
MVP: Braelon Allen
Pretty astonishing that the team MVP ended up being a 17-year-old running back that began the season listed 5th on the depth chart. But, as luck would have it, Wisconsin has now found their next superstar running back.
Braelon Allen ended up carrying the ball 157 times for 1,109 yards (7.1 YPC) and 12 touchdowns in route to 2nd team All-Big Ten honors. Of those 1,109 yards – 730 of them came after contact, that’s 65% of his total rushing yardage.
The Wisconsin native is now the exclusive owner of the UW freshman rushing record, totaling seven consecutive games eclipsing 100 yards on the ground.
The future is remarkably bright for this young tailback, and he’ll undoubtedly be the focal point of Wisconsin’s offense entering next season. It might be too soon to start talking Doak Walker award consideration next season, but nothing would surprise me at this point.