Urban Meyer wanted to be very clear.
“Against Indiana, we were in a bunch of nickel,” Ohio State’s head coach said Monday during his weekly press conference. “This week we will not be.”
Meyer and his second-ranked Buckeyes travel to Madison on Saturday for a primetime showdown with No. 8-ranked Wisconsin. Two of the Big Ten’s best teams will be on the national stage yet again.
But what Meyer was referencing was in relation to the Badgers’ style. In an era of spread offenses and playmakers making plays in space, Wisconsin gets things done with a more traditional approach.
The Badgers do what they do — run the ball on offense and stop the run on defense — and don’t plan on changing for anybody.
“It’s an NFL offense,” Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano said, referring to the Badgers’ pro-style attack.
Wisconsin’s run defense ranks seventh nationally, allowing 90.4 yards per game on the ground. Conversely, Ohio State’s rushing offense is No. 3 in the country, totaling an eye-popping 323.6 yards per game.
The Badgers struggle a bit offensively, however, as they rank just 108th nationally, but through five games, over 60 percent of their offensive plays (215 out of 354) are running.
“Those games are always fun,” Ohio State senior center Pat Elflein said. “It’s a Big Ten football game where there’s big, physical guys inside, good linebackers and it’s going to come down to if we can run the ball or if we can protect and if we can stop the run.
“Those games are always fun to play in.”
The last time Ohio State and Wisconsin met was the 2014 Big Ten championship game. That contest was dominated by the Buckeyes, a 59-0 win, and sparked a national championship run.
It’d be surprising if Saturday’s game was as lopsided. Wisconsin enters with impressive wins over LSU and Michigan State on its resume, though the win over the Spartans doesn’t look as great now. The Badgers’ lone loss was 14-7 on the road against fourth-ranked Michigan.
Wisconsin certainly hasn’t faced an opponent yet with as much speed as this Ohio State team, but Meyer is prepared for his bunch to be tested.
“They’re outstanding,” he said. “It’s typical Wisconsin.”
Being “typical Wisconsin” has certainly taken the Badgers places in the past as well as this season. It will arguably be the Buckeyes’ biggest challenge of this 2016 season to date.
Pads will be popping, there will be a raucous crowd and it’s a primetime showdown between two top-10 teams battling for Big Ten supremacy.
It’s Ohio State–Wisconsin.
“It’s fun to see teams like this,” Buckeyes junior middle linebacker Raekwon McMillan said. “They try to out physical you, they try to dominate you at the line of scrimmage and it’s our job to not let that happen.
“They’re going to come in thinking they can run the ball on us and dominate the line of scrimmage. We just have to penetrate like we’ve been doing the last few weeks and I think we’ll be all right.”
