Eastern Michigan head coach Chris Creighton took to the podium earlier this week and spent a good five minutes of his press conference talking about Colton Joseph in two different places. Creighton knows how dangerous Joseph can be with both his legs and his arms, and he's not going to let one game against Western Illinois change that perception. In fact, he's working on a game plan to account for Joseph this week.
For Creighton, having a quarterback who is actively part of the run game is a problem. "When you have a quarterback that's a really effective runner." Creighton said, "It opens up just a whole can of worms."
Wisconsin fans are down on Joseph after the first couple of weeks. In the first week, he showed promise against Notre Dame, but it wasn't all that impressive. You can chalk that up to the staunch defense of the Irish. Yet, then in Week 2 at home against Western Illinois, Joseph looked worse. He was inaccurate with easy throws, was turning down opportunities to run, and simply didn't look sharp.
That performance was downplayed by Fickell, who said that Joseph, on a short week, was rusty and spent most of the week healing from getting beat up against Notre Dame. So, while Wisconsin fans weren't impressed with his 173-yard passing on 12/22 and 33 yards rushing, neither Creighton nor Fickell is changing the game plan.
Chris Creighton is working to develop an Eastern Michigan gameplan for Colton Joseph
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For Creighton and Eastern Michigan, Joseph adds an element that makes game planning really hard: having a quarterback run attack like Wisconsin. "Can spread you out. It can keep you home. It can mess with your eyes. There's a lot that goes into that, and they've got a really good plan to use him really effectively." Creighton continues, "But more and more teams offensively have guys that can, at the very least, keep you honest, but then some are really committed to the quarterback run game, and it's a whole other element."
Creighton was also able to recall Joseph's 2025 stats off the top of his head, noting that at Old Dominion he ran for 1,000 and threw for over 2,000 yards. That sort of play-making ability doesn't just go away, and this week he's fully expecting to have to account for all of that. Calling it a "tall order."
Wisconsin fans have no choice but to trust that Joseph will turn it around this week, and this will be the first week that he explodes onto the stat sheet. It's finally a full week of preparation, and Joseph didn't really take any hard hits against Western Illinois. He was sacked zero times, and the only times he was tackled were when he ran, which he did sparingly. Joseph only had four recorded carries.
Wisconsin may not need a fully explosive Joseph this week, but fans would love to see it. The next game is Penn State, and if the Badger offense still looks like it's dragging through mud from the quarterback position, it's going to be a rough go.
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