The Wisconsin Badgers pitched a shutout in their season opener, winning 17-0 to start the season with a victory over the Miami (OH) RedHawks last Thursday.
Now, it wasn’t the prettiest victory, but Wisconsin held the RedHawks to just 117 yards of total offense, while forcing two turnovers and generating quite a few negative plays up front.
The stellar defensive performance caught the eyes of many nationally, including PFSN’s Cam Mellor, who graded the Badgers as the best defense in college football
in Week 1 with a 96.4 grade.
That beat out the likes of the Oklahoma Sooners (95.5), West Virginia Mountaineers (95.1), BYU Cougars (95.1), Florida Gators (95.0), Vanderbilt Commodores (93.4), Houston Cougars (92.9), and others.
Wisconsin had a pressure rate of 44 percent, according to PFF, while keeping Miami (OH) to just 34 yards on the ground at a 1.5 yards-per-carry rate. They also didn’t allow a single third-down conversion on nine tries, one year after ranking 78th in the nation in the metric.
It was a thorough, dominant performance from the Badgers, which caught the eye of head coach Luke Fickell immediately.
“I would say that obviously, defensively, that was a heck of a game,” Fickell said after the game. “I’m not singling out any one person. I haven’t even looked at the stats. It’s easy to say, obviously, [defensive coordinator] Mike Tressel and that defensive staff did a really good job in the preparations and really made some really good adjustments. I don’t know that maybe initially we expected the quarterback [Daequan Finn] to run the ball quite as much. And I think the first couple series, he came out and showed that they were willing to run the quarterback. And I thought our guys adapted, adjusted really well to that [and] played really well on third down.
“I think hopefully that’s a great sign for us moving forward, as you can see, that we’ve done a much better job creating pressure [with] those guys up front creating havoc, whether they’re sacks or not. Sometimes that’s the most overrated stat in football. To me, it’s a little bit more about pressure, just getting the guys off the spots and being aggressive enough that those situations that you can always keep somebody not comfortable on their heels back there. And I thought that’s where the defensive front did a really good job tonight.
“And then, what can you say about Preston Zachman? I think that a guy in his sixth year, it’s sometimes tough to say, ‘well, he’s gotten a lot better,’ but his confidence level, from what I’ve seen all through Fall Camp, showed tonight, and I’m excited for him. I’m proud of him. It wasn’t just the two picks. He’s really stepped up in his leadership and really has kind of taken a great grasp. I’ve always been a guy that, in particular, the leader of the defense comes from [the] interior and usually the linebacker [room], and it still can, and we have a collective group of leaders. But, there’s definitely a guy out in Preston that has done an unbelievable job at just being a really calm but aggressive leader.”
Moving forward, the Badgers have a favorable matchup in Week 2 against a Middle Tennessee State team that had an ugly Week 1 showing in a 34-14 loss to FCS Austin Peay. That kickoff is set for 3:00 p.m. on Saturday at Camp Randall Stadium, where Wisconsin will look to build off their dominant defensive performance.
