You would think a coaching change and graduation of two classes might change the way a program goes about business. But that's not what Urban Meyer sees resting on the horizon in Ohio State's next opponent.
“Typical Wisconsin,” Meyer said on Monday.
 |
| WISCONSIN BADGERS |
|
4-1, 1-1 B1G ROSTER / SCHEDULE |
|
|
|
8:00 – SATURDAY, OCT. 15 CAMP RANDALL STADIUM MADISON, WISCONSIN |
|
|
|
ABC WATCHESPN |
Ever since Barry Alvarez took over ahead of the 1990 season, before he shifted to athletic director and hired Bret Bielema, then Gary Andersen and now Paul Chryst, the Badgers haven't really changed much. They are not shy about their intentions to run downhill behind a massive offensive line out of the I-formation and with two tight ends, a "my big bodies are better than your big bodies" approach Alvarez installed as he won the Big Ten and Rose Bowl three times.
“I think it goes back to Coach Alvarez and what he's built up there,” Meyer continued. “They have their niche. Average size is 6-foot-6 or 6-foot-8 on the offensive line, 315 pounds. I think that's what it was two years ago, and it's just consistent. They have an excellent running back, very efficient pass game.”
The Badgers always boast a stout defense too, complete with past star players like Chris Borland and J.J. Watt and now Watt's younger brother, T.J., and fellow linebacker Jack Cichy. Meyer even called it "amazing" how despite staff transitions and most recently losing defensive coordinator Dave Aranda to LSU, the product mostly remains the same.
“One of the best teams in America,” he said.
The Badgers enter Saturday's prime-time tilt ranked No. 8 in the AP Poll, their only a loss coming two weeks ago at Michigan. Wisconsin did not play last week, while Ohio State beat Indiana 38-17 at home despite only throwing for 93 passing yards.
J.T. Barrett didn't have his best day statistically, yet the Buckeyes took care of business against an improved Hoosiers squad. Chryst and Meyer have never met on the gridiron but Wisconsin's head coach is 14-4 in what is his third season leading his alma mater. And, he doesn't really see Barrett's struggles throwing the ball last week as an indication of regularity.
“He's a really good quarterback. He looks to me like has a great understanding of what they're trying to do,” Chryst said Tuesday on the Big Ten teleconference. “He's a point guard, and he's a really good one."
Tim Beck and Meyer see Barrett and the other personnel in Ohio State's passing game attacking practice this week to right the wrongs that ailed them against Indiana. The Badgers own one of the nation's top rush defenses, while the Buckeyes butter their bread with Barrett, Mike Weber, Curtis Samuel and Dontre Wilson snatching yards in chunks behind an improving offensive line.
Camp Randall Stadium has not been kind to the Buckeyes in recent memory when the stakes are high and the lights are on. Saturday's matchup holds implications to both the Big Ten race and on a grander scale, the College Football Playoff. Wisconsin's defense is the best Ohio State will have seen to date, while the Badgers' offense isn't hitting on all cylinders.
Rain is also in the forecast, so a grind it out, slugfest more representative of a boxing match could be on tap.
“We like to use the word culture around here, and I'm sure Coach Chryst and Coach Alvarez are very proud of the culture at Wisconsin,” Meyer said. “They should be.”
"We know we're playing a heck of a team Saturday night,” Chryst added.
Wisconsin Breakdown
Though the Badgers saw some of the nation's top running backs run through the program in recent memory—2014 Heisman Trophy runner-up Melvin Gordon, the NCAA's career leader in touchdowns, Montee Ball and James White to name a few—the production both last season and so far in 2016 is lacking by the usual standards. Injuries to Corey Clement and mishaps up front left Wisconsin without a 1,000-yard rusher last season for the first time since 2004.
Wisconsin's offense as a whole struggled through its first five games of this season. It averaged 360.2 total yards (161.6 on the ground) per game, 11th and 8th in the Big Ten respectively. Chryst also made the decision to bench fifth-year senior quarterback Bart Houston and turn the offense over to redshirt freshman Alex Hornibrook in his team's 23-17 victory against Georgia State on Sept. 17.
Hornibrook entered with the Badgers ahead 6-3 in the third quarter and led them on a pair of scoring drives. Hornibrook then threw for 195 yards and a touchdown in Wisconsin's convincing 30-6 win at Michigan State a week later.
But Hornibrook struggled against a stout Michigan defense, throwing three interceptions and completing only 9-of-25 passes for 88 yards. But he is Chryst's guy, and the Badgers are still going to start as they always do with running the football.
“You have to line up and face someone head on because now it's man-on-man. You have to defeat your man,” Ohio State defensive end Tyquan Lewis said on Monday. “That's the way I look at it because it's a physical offensive line. Even from the year 2014, watching them play everyone, it's a physical game because it's traditional.”
 |
 |
|||
| OFFENSE | ||||
| 53.2 | 3rd | POINTS FOR | 26.0 | 88th |
| 323.6 | 3rd | RUSHING OFFENSE | 161.6 | 78th |
| 214.0 | 86th | PASSING OFFENSE | 198.6 | 97th |
| 537.6 | 5th | TOTAL OFFENSE | 360.2 | 106th |
| .529 | 5th | 3rd DOWNS | .416 | 56th |
| .897 | 38th | RED ZONE | .789 | 97th |
| DEFENSE | ||||
| 10.8 | 2nd | POINTS ALLOWED | 12.2 | 4th |
| 97.8 | 9th | RUSH DEFENSE | 90.4 | 6th |
| 148.6 | 5th | PASS DEFENSE | 201.0 | 34th |
| 82.6 | 2nd | PASS EFFICIENCY DEFENSE | 110.2 | 21st |
| 246.4 | 4th | TOTAL DEFENSE | 291.4 | 11th |
| .289 | 15th | 3rd DOWNS | .230 | 5th |
| .583 | 1st | RED ZONE | .600 | 2nd |
| SPECIAL TEAMS | ||||
| 7.2 | 72nd | PUNT RETURN | 6.9 | 75th |
| 30.0 | 3rd | KICKOFF RETURN | 21.1 | 68th |
| 46.7 | 2nd | NET PUNTING | 33.9 | 116th |
| MISCELLANEOUS | ||||
| + 1.6 | 4th | TURNOVER MARGIN | 0.0 | 57th |
| 8.8 | 116th | PENALTIES | 3.6 | 6th |
| 15 | EDGE | 3 | ||
Gordon ran for 2,587 yards and 29 touchdowns in 2014 but Ohio State bottled him and the rest of Wisconsin's offense up while embarrassing the Badgers 59-0 in the Big Ten Championship Game. The Buckeyes went on to make the College Football Playoff and win the national championship, while head coach Gary Andersen bolted for Oregon State.
Chryst took over with an All-Big Ten caliber back in Corey Clement in the fold, but a slew of injuries and a disciplinary issue last season kept him from getting any sort of traction.
Clement is in his final season and leads Wisconsin with 319 rushing yards and five touchdowns. He suffered an ankle injury earlier this year, giving way to fellow senior Dare Ogunbowale. He has 185 rushing yards this year, and scored his team's only touchdown in its 14-7 loss to Michigan on a 17-yard pass from Hornibrook. Clement, though, is easily the more talented of the two players.
“He’s the perfect back for their offense, and they’ve had a lot of them,” Ohio State co-defensive coordinator Greg Schiano said. “He’s a downhill runner, he’s got good patience, he’s a stretch and cut kind of guy, he gets downhill, finds the daylight–all those things that you need to do, especially when you’re running behind a fullback.”
Chryst has more than capable bodies at the position and an offensive line that averages 6-foot-5 and 321 pounds.
“They try to out physical you, they try to dominate you at the line of scrimmage. It’s our job to not let that happen,” Ohio State middle linebacker Raekwon McMillan said. “They’re going to come in thinking they can run the ball on us and dominate the line of scrimmage.”
Still, Wisconsin's offensive numbers are not great. Houston did enough to beat a ridiculously talented LSU team in the season opener at Lambeau Field, a loss that served as one of the final nails in Les Miles' coffin in Baton Rouge. Chryst is cobbling together some run-pass options to help Hornibrook get more comfortable and in an effort to put his downhill rushing attack in a better position to move the chains.
“They’re a pro-style offense,” Schiano said. “They’re going to play with a fullback, which is a rarity in this age. It’s not what we’re used to seeing, so we certainly have our work cut out for us.”
On the other side of the ball, Wisconsin is as advertised despite not having the services of its best player. Linebacker Vince Biegel fractured his foot a few weeks ago and is still on the mend so his out Saturday, though Watt, Cichy and T.J. Edwards are picking up the slack nicely. Additionally, starting kicker Rafael Gaglianone is out for the season with a back injury.
New defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox puts together his defensive plans with the idea of getting the opposing offense in 3rd-and-long situations. As basic as that may sound in regards to what every other defense in the country wants to do, it is crucial to what Wisconsin does because it allows Wilcox to dial up a zone blitz from his 3-4 scheme. He often sends more than one defender from the edge to try and confuse offensive tackles and running backs in pass protection.
“They've changed defensive coordinators and it's a very similar defense,” Meyer said. “It's Wisconsin's defense.”
Ten Badgers have at least half of a sack through the first five games of the 2016 season, led by Watt, who has 5.5. Watt also has 7.5 tackles for loss and trails only Cichy (35) for the team-lead in tackles with 29.
“[They] play hard and [are] very well-coached,” Meyer said. “Their hair is on fire. It's been that way for quite a while.”
“They're a sound defense. They play together. They all fly to the ball,” Curtis Samuel added. “They don't make too many mistakes.”
Wisconsin mostly depends on man coverage on the outside with deep safety help over the top. Doing so allows it to stop the run so well—the Badgers only give up 90.4 rushing yards per game, seventh-best in the country. As such, the onus is more on Ohio State's wide receivers to create separation.
“This is a man-coverage game, now,” Meyer said. “So go beat your guy and get the ball to them.”
Corner Natrell Jamerson hasn't played since Week 2 because of an injury, replaced mostly by Lubern Figaro. He backs up Sojourn Shelton, a senior set to make his 43rd career start who played a role on the team that Ohio State stomped at Lucas Oil Stadium in December 2014. Others, like junior corner Derrick Tindal (team-leading three interceptions), were on that team too while Meyer's team is essentially brand new.
This is Chryst's team now, however, and he has his work cut out for him against a talented Ohio State defense that is the lone team in the country yet to allow a rushing touchdown. With how poorly Wisconsin's offense played through its first third of the season and especially against Michigan (159 total yards, only eight first downs), he knows it will be a challenge.
“It's a good scheme. It's a sound football scheme. They've got guys that play it well, and they're playing with confidence,” Chryst said. “They play fast and they get off blocks. They're keeping teams [out of the red zone]. They're doing things at the start of the drive to prevent teams from getting down the field. ... You can see why people are having a hard time scoring on them.”
Buckeye Breakdown
Even though Ohio State beat a solid Indiana team by three touchdowns to notch Meyer's 55th win in what is now his fifth season in Columbus, the head coach dealt with questions and concerns about his passing game all week. Even he called the fact J.T. Barrett finished that game with only 9 completions "alarming" on Saturday, and instead rode his quarterback's legs knowing he wouldn't turn the ball over to secure the win.
Meyer rescinded his "alarming" comment on Monday after viewing the tape. The issues weren't all on Barrett—play calls could have been better, the wide receivers needed to perform better while yes, the quarterback missed some throws.
“We've just got to get to practice and get it better,” Meyer said. “You never want to take credit away from the team you played. It was a good team we played.”
Indiana is much improved, though the Buckeyes likely won't be able to the same thing this weekend—run it 50 times—and win against a strong Wisconsin front seven. But each individual involved with the passing game that spoke to the media this week claims they knew full well it must improve.
“I do like the way the ball is coming out of my hand,” Barrett said. “I feel confident in throwing the ball down the field it was just there were some shots and misses where that happens and I am going to do a better job of preventing that from happening.”
“We're still dealing with young players that go out there and they try really hard,” quarterbacks coach Tim Beck added. “The key to us to just continuing to get better and keep grinding away. Just be better than you were the play before and be better than you were the week before. We obviously have to do that this week.”
And finally center Pat Elflein: “I'm not worrying about what J.T. does. I'm not worried about what the receivers do. I'm worried about my job and secondly I'm worrying about the five guys around me and them doing their jobs. I know J.T.'s going to worry about his job so if we do our job, that gives J.T. an opportunity to do his job, which he does well.”
Whether Barrett bounces back or not won't be determined until Saturday night, his track record for showing up in big-time games is terrific. Barrett has averaged 284 passing yards, 3.5 touchdowns, a 163.6 passer rating and a 6-1 record in the seven night games he started since 2014 (h/t Ben Axelrod). He also threw four touchdown passes and compiled a passer rating of more than 199 in Ohio State's 45-24 win at Oklahoma this season.
“J.T. is fine. J.T. is going to play well,” Meyer said.
“The real hard part of the schedule is surfacing. We've just gotta keep improving.”– Urban Meyer
Perhaps forgotten by many on the outside of the program is how well Ohio State's defense is playing, in addition to its rushing attack. Mike Weber leads the Big Ten with 113.2 yards rushing per game, and has four touchdowns. Curtis Samuel, while inexplicably not as involved against Indiana as he was in the first four games, is eighth with 82 yards per game.
On a broader scale, Samuel averages 10.3 yards per touch, Dontre Wilson averages 10.1 and Weber comes in at 6.6 clip. Those are some strong numbers, especially when you consider Clement only averages 3.9 yards per touch and Ogunbowale averages 4.4. Wisconsin's top three receivers are Jazz Peavy, Robert Wheelwright and Troy Fumagalli, all who have at least 16 receptions but none for more than 281 yards. Peavy is the team leader in touchdown catches, with two.
So the Buckeyes certainly own the edge in explosive playmakers, even though Noah Brown fell into his shell since catching four touchdown passes at Oklahoma and Wilson has largely disappeared from the offense recently aside from one score against Rutgers.
Weber, Samuel and Barrett each have at least 340 rushing yards and three touchdowns this season. The Buckeyes are stopping the run at an excellent rate as well, giving up only 96 yards per game. Opponents are scoring just 10.8 points per game, the second-best mark in the country only behind Michigan at 10.3.
There is a reason the Buckeyes are ranked where they are. But this is about improving with each week, as a performance like the one against Indiana—at least in terms of the passing game—won't get Meyer's team to where it wants to be at season's end. Good thing is, the game against Wisconsin marks the middle of October.
“Sometimes you get asked questions like, 'Is it the most talented team you’ve ever had?' I think so,” Meyer said. “It’s a very talented team that gets better each week. Certainly, you've seen the evolution of the defense. Offensively, we kind of stumbled a bit last week but up to that point we had been playing exceptional.”
He isn't wrong. Wisconsin poses a new and different kind of hurdle, however, with easily the best defense the Buckeyes will have faced all season.
“We were hungry this week. We know we're going into enemy territory. It's going to a real one this week,” Samuel said. “A top-10 team we're playing against, and we're just ready for it.”
How It Plays Out
Via Mike Carter-USA TODAY Sports.
Ohio State is set to travel to Camp Randall Stadium for the first time since 2012, Meyer's first season, when the Buckeyes won 21-14 in overtime. Meyer is a perfect 19-0 in true road games since taking over and with a victory on Saturday will tie Oklahoma's Bob Stoops' for the most victories by a head coach in his first 15 seasons with 160.
More importantly, however, every time Meyer has to prepare his team for travel it comes through in a big way.
“The laser-like focus to win a game against a very good team, on the road, it better be laser-like focus on the task at hand,” Meyer said. “That's just constant reminders about focus on your job description. That's for the players as well as the coaches. As well as the head coach.”
The Badgers will arguably represent Ohio State's biggest test so far in 2016, though, especially considering they should be rested after an off weekend. It is also the first of four straight night games for the Buckeyes.
“This kind of outfit is a very—they know what they do and they do it very well,” Meyer said. “It's also a concern they're two night games back-to-back on the road. Just the wear and tear.”
For Wisconsin, a victory on Saturday firmly puts its hand back in the cookie jar that is the Big Ten race. The Badgers play in the West Division and so thus could see the Buckeyes again in December at the conference championship game regardless of the outcome depending on what happens the rest of the season.
But with a hostile crowd and history of hosting a highly-ranked Ohio State team on its side, Paul Chryst senses a chance for a victory that will cause a stir nationally.
“What he has done there has been really impressive. That doesn't just happen,” Chryst said of Meyer. “Excited for the opportunity to play Ohio State at home.”
The Badgers are 7-2 all time at Camp Randall Stadium in meetings between top-10 teams, and ride a six-game winning streak in such affairs into Saturday. They have also won their last six games coming off a loss since 2014.
Meyer knows his team needs to be better as it steps away from what he described as a "speed bump" offensively in the Indiana win. Ohio State faces a challenge against Wisconsin's defense, but with all the hubbub surrounding a top-8 matchup bringing College Gameday to Madison and more, Meyer implores his team to remain focused.
“The real hard part of the schedule is surfacing,” Meyer said. “We've just gotta keep improving.”
ELEVEN WARRIORS STAFF PREDICTION: Ohio State 31, Wisconsin 13
