The Wisconsin Badgers suffered another embarrassing loss under Luke Fickell, falling 24-21 to the Maryland Terrapins on the road to fall to 6-4 on the season in their second-worst loss of the season.
Wisconsin’s offense was inept for much of the afternoon, as they had three turnovers and gifted Maryland several opportunities with prime field position, while blowing a fourth-quarter lead.
Here are the PFF grades and snap counts from the Badgers loss to Maryland on Saturday.
Quarterbacks
Ryan Hopkins – Snap Count:
[56], Grade: 61.8
Colton Joseph – Snap Count: [4], Grade: 50.6
Wisconsin went to Ryan Hopkins for his second career start, and he struggled against Maryland on Saturday. The true freshman had just 77 passing yards while completing 11 of 22 passes. He had a costly fumble while getting drilled by a free rusher in the fourth quarter that set up Maryland’s game-winning field goal.
Wisconsin’s got to figure out its quarterback situation for the 2027 season. Now, we don’t know if Hopkins will be available next weekend with just two games left and a lot of questions left.
Running Backs
Darrion Dupree – Snap Count: [41], Grade: 76.9
Bryan Jackson II – Snap Count: [12], Grade: 60.1
Abu Sama III – Snap Count: [7], Grade: 64.1
The Badgers went to Darrion Dupree as their lead back after Luke Fickell said he wanted to simplify things with the rotation this week.
Dupree had 57 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries, but he really had no room to operate at all, as Wisconsin got no traction up front at the line of scrimmage in the run game.
Sama ripped off an 18-yard run on his first carry and proceeded to see just one more carry and six more snaps in the game. Meanwhile, Bryan Jackson had four carries for one yard, as he was hit in the backfield on all of his touches.
Once again, Wisconsin has questions about the run game, but they’re much more about the offensive line than the running backs.
Wide Receivers
Chris Brooks Jr. – Snap Count: [38], Grade: 53.8
Jaylon Domingeaux – Snap Count: [31], Grade: 59.3
Eugene Hilton Jr. – Snap Count: [30], Grade: 52.0
Tyrell Henry – Snap Count: [29], Grade: 56.9
Malachi Coleman – Snap Count: [12], Grade: 50.1
Shamar Rigby – Snap Count: [10], Grade: 56.1
It was a tough day for the receivers, who didn’t separate all afternoon. No receiver topped 30 yards as the Badgers got nothing in the air in this one.
Yes, a lot of it was the struggles of Ryan Hopkins, who did not look good in this one. But no receiver graded well as the room struggled to create separation once again.
Tight Ends
Jacob Harris – Snap Count: [40], Grade: 42.8
Grant Stec – Snap Count: [28], Grade: 52.9
Ryan Schwendeman – Snap Count: [20], Grade: 35.7
Nizyi Davis – Snap Count: [2], Grade: 60.0
The Badgers went heavier to Jacob Harris, who had a drop in this one. Harris had one of his highest snap counts of the day, as the Badgers didn’t rely more on their top blockers Grant Stec and Ryan Schwendeman.
There was also the very controversial fullback dive to Schwendeman that was stuffed. Jeff Grimes probably wants that one back.
Offensive Line
Stylz Blackmon – Snap Count: [60], Grade: 61.8
Emerson Mandell – Snap Count: [60], Grade: 62.9
Colin Cubberly – Snap Count: [60], Grade: 55.7
Austin Kawecki – Snap Count: [42], Grade: 43.3
PJ Wilkins – Snap Count: [34], Grade: 76.8
Lucas Simmons-Johansson – Snap Count: [26], Grade: 57.5
Blake Cherry – Snap Count: [18], Grade: 61.9
Wisconsin rotated at right guard and left tackle. The Badgers allowed just five pressures in this one, as protection was clean for the most part. There was the late free rusher, but that seemed to fall more on Ryan Hopkins’s responsibility for shifting the protection and identifying the free rusher.
The issue here, though, remains the run blocking. Wisconsin has really struggled to be a good run-blocking team the last three years, which has been the core problem with its offense. The Badgers had just 0.43 yards before contact per rush on Saturday.
