Fresh off a 17-7 loss to the No. 12 UCLA Bruins, the Wisconsin Badgers are faced with another challenge again in Week 8, as they’ll host to No. 16 USC Trojans in a primetime game at Camp Randall Stadium.
Wisconsin had a disappointing outing on the road this weekend, as their offense conjured up just seven points, while the defense had a strong run defense outing spoiled by their inability to get off the field on third downs.
Coming off the bye, it was also a better week of health for the Badgers. They
got several players cleared off the injury report, including wide receiver Jaylon Domingeaux, who made his season debut after suffering a hand injury during fall camp.
Now, with their roster looking healthier, here’s Wisconsin depth chart for Week 8 vs. USC, courtesy of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Mark Stewart.
At running back, Abu Sama was cleared, just as he was against Michigan State. The Badgers still went with Darrion Dupree more, as the snap breakdown was 31 to 19.
Wisconsin had its most success running outside the tackles in this game, with their jet sweeps and other actions in the run game working well. But the Badgers just didn’t go to them often against UCLA. It’s also notable that Wisconsin cut down the running back rotation to two in the biggest game of the season.
At receiver, Jaylon Domingeaux wasn’t listed on the depth chart. But he started. And as we said in the offseason, he’s got the chance to be Wisconsin’s true WR1 this season. I’d expect him to get more and more chances as the rest of the room struggles to consistently make plays.
On the offensive line, the Badgers had a big change. With Austin Kawecki out, Wisconsin elected to slide Stylz Blackmon over to center and insert PJ Wilkins in at guard, rather than start Ryan Cory, who played well in relief against Michigan State two weeks ago. Wilkins continues to really struggle, and I’d have to think Wisconsin evaluates this room again before facing USC. Hopefully, Austin Kawecki, who has a broken hand, has a potential shot to play with a club.
The tight end split remains the same. Ryan Schwendeman and Grant Stec will get the most reps because they’re the top blockers on the team. Then comes Jacob Harris, the team’s receiving threat at tight end, and Emmett Bork, though all four have played a considerable amount the past two weeks.
On defense, Hammond Russell was the clear No. 1 on the defensive line in a game with much higher snap counts due to the defense not getting off the field. But Wisconsin rotated in seven guys. Junior Poyser, who had the third-most snaps, was a standout on the line in this one.
This group did their job on Saturday stopping the run at a high level. And E.J. Whitlow seems to really like keeping his guys fresh with a ton of rotation.
Similarly to running back, we saw the linebacker snaps purely concentrate on Mason Posa and Cooper Catalano in a big game. They played 77 snaps each, while Jon Jon Kamara had just three.
At outside linebacker, Sebastian Cheeks and Tyreese Fearbry continue to pace the room. But Nicolas Clayton had the best game of his young career so far against UCLA. He, Justus Boone, and Aaron Witt were all a part of the picture.
At cornerback, Javan Robinson wasn’t targeted once on 55 snaps. Wisconsin did rotate in Eric Fletcher Jr., and Robinson didn’t see as high of a percentage as he usually did. The Badgers continue to live out of nickel and Bryce West played a ton. It wasn’t his best overall game, but the nickel corner remains a very physical player who sticks his nose in there at the line of scrimmage.
I also that Jai’mier Scott had a great game as a tackler. He had a couple of big open field tackles, as well as a pass breakup.
At safety was one of my bigger question marks of the day. Cairo Skanes and Marvin Burks have been splitting reps opposite Matt Jung, and the split was close to even on Saturday: 46 to 37 in favor of Burks. Skanes really struggled out there, though. He was beaten in coverage 1-on-1 a few times working as a big nickel. He had a big coverage bust at the end of the game that sealed the deal. It wasn’t the prettiest day for the sophomore corner.
Wisconsin hasn’t really committed to giving Burks a full-time role this season. We’ll see if that changes a bit this weekend.
