The Wisconsin Badgers had a tough 21-7 loss to the No. 6 Oregon Ducks on Saturday, struggling to gain momentum offensively on the road in a tough environment.
However, it was one of the defense’s best performances
of the season, as the team held a top-10 offense to just 21 points by mitigating the overall damage, despite being out several starters.
Wisconsin came into the game down linebacker Christian Alliegro and safety Preston Zachman, while cornerback D’Yoni Hill and defensive linemen Parker Petersen and Jay’Viar Suggs were questionable.
Alliegro had been one of the team’s bright spots at linebacker and fought hard to play through a broken hand last weekend, but could not go on Saturday. That meant turning things over to true freshman Mason Posa, who had been one of the top freshman contributors to start the year.
In addition, the Badgers went with another move at linebacker, benching Tackett Curtis for true freshman Cooper Catalano, meaning Wisconsin’s freshman linebacker duo was getting its first career starts.
And boy, was that a good move. On a wet day at Autzen Stadium, Posa was electric, leading the team with 13 tackles, as he was flying around sideline-to-sideline with great closing speed to make plays. He even had a pass breakup on a well-timed blitz early in the first half.
Catalano, on the other hand, had eight tackles and a pass breakup as well, continuing to show why he’s a building block for the Badgers in the future.
For Posa, it’s been a couple of weeks of shuffling, as he initially was taking heavier reps at the star position, where Aaron Witt usually plays, in order to get him on the field. But, he also took some reps at the WILL linebacker spot, which proved handy when Alliegro went down shortly last week and especially this week when he landed the start.
We’re continuing to see the confidence grow in him game-by-game, which is only a good sign for the Badgers going forward.
“I’m really hard on myself, so when I mess up, I think about it for hours and just what I could have done better,” Posa said a couple of weeks ago. “But honestly, looking at the film, I did a pretty good job. I mean, not perfect right. But I always try to chase perfection. There’s some plays where I did really good and some plays. But it’s also. I’m playing a new position as well, but bumps and bruises on the way. I felt like I did pretty good.”
“I feel like every practice and just every game that comes by and how I do. I know I belong, and I know I’m ready for this. I came here for a reason, to be an All-American, and that’s the role I’m chasing right now.”
As a true freshman, those nerves are natural when hitting the field early, especially in the environments Wisconsin has played in over the last month. But, with more experience, those nerves are starting to die down for the freshman.
“I think every opportunity I’m given, I’m blessed for. I want to give 110%. I give it 110% every practice that we have. Coaches see that. In the film room, when they ask questions, I answer them correctly, they have full trust in me. So, just playing more during this season has given me a lot of confidence to play whoever. I still get really nervous because, you know, we were playing Michigan in the Big House, right? It was 111,000 people that were there. It was just pretty crazy. So I was nervous. But then, like, once I started getting running, my feet going, all the nerves start to die down.”
Posa and Catalano have especially shared a nice bond, being in the same class and working alongside each other at the same position with the twos before being elevated to the top defense this week. That has come with a lot of growth together.
“[We’ve had] a lot of growth,” Posa said about him and Catalano. “Me and Cooper have came a long way, just by the summer, kind of not knowing our job completely or for me at least, but they feel comfortable with both me and Cooper because we’re not afraid to go out and play the No. 1 team in the nation. We don’t think about that. We just think about making a play and doing our job. So, I think this coaching staff has trusted me and him a lot since the summer.”
Catalano has also been in packages to see the field more, playing the MIKE role on base downs in practice and switching between WILL and MIKE on third downs, depending on the look, heading into this week.
As the experience has come, he’s gotten to have a better understanding of the defense, which has allowed him not to think and rather go out there and execute in the right spot.
“I would definitely say my [biggest growth has been the] understanding of the defense,” Catalano said this week. “When I got here, I was just kind of, fly to ball, see ball. But now, I’m able to know my assignment, know other guys’ assignments, get the front communicated, and yeah, I would say the overall knowledge of the defense.”
“Knowing the personnel, knowing tendencies is all a big thing, but it really comes back to us making sure we can execute our stuff, and nothing works if we can’t get our front set, get our coverage set, and get guys in the right spots.”
Earlier this week, ahead of the Oregon game, head coach Luke Fickell talked about freshmen playing and the need to earn the respect from the locker room, which he felt that Catalano had done.
“Cooper Catalano does [have the respect of the locker room],” Fickell said. “He is another freshman guy that’s playing a lot of ball that maybe gets more opportunities this week. It has a lot to do with making sure you can maintain the respect of that locker room and knowing that those guys know everything you know.
“They know how guys handle their business, they know how guys work, and they know what they want to play with and decide whether it’s going to give them the best opportunity to win or not, they got a better grasp sometimes than, I can assure you, than anybody outside the locker room.”
That came after Fickell anointed both Catalano and Posa as building blocks for the defense and the program following last weekend’s loss to Ohio State, noting the heart that they played with in a tough game.
“Guys like Mason Posa, young guys, Cooper Catalano, battled their asses off,” Fickell said after the 34-0 loss to Ohio State. “Young guys as freshmen getting thrown out there against, yes, the best team in the country, but honestly, I think as collectively as good of a team I have prepared for or played against in all phases across the board. To see some of those guys, compete and not bat an eye, [that] is the type of thing we need to build around.
“There are glaring things, of course. But, I am going to tell you the things walking out of there, that I know I am gonna continue to build around. There is no quit in me, and that is what I told them after the game. The most important thing is there is no quit in that locker room or each other. Whatever is going to happen is going to happen, but that doesn’t change what it is that we have to do, and they have to do. I think there is a nucleus of guys that are incredibly disappointed as well, that are going to continue to drive this culture as we continue to try to find ways to win football games.”
Well, they certainly looked like building blocks on Saturday. Now, the Badgers will get their second bye week to try and patch things up before the final month of the season.
It was a rough October for Wisconsin, as they were outscored 116-17 with four losses. But, there were some positives with younger players to come out of the month, namely Catalano and Posa.
