Wisconsin – Nebraska Hype
We’ve finally arrived at the much-anticipated Nebraska week, Nebraska’s first Big Ten conference game (next week they’re at home for Ohio State). A quick check of Stub Hub today found tickets available from $200 to $5,000. Big game. ESPN College Game Day will be in Madison and it’s a prime time, 8:00 Eastern start on ABC with Uncle Brent Musberger.
The Badgers are ranked #7, Huskers #8. Nebraska is currently #8 in the nation in rushing offense. QB Taylor Martinez, 6-1 200 lbs., has averaged 105.2 yards per game and I-Back Rex Burkhead, 5-11 210 lbs., is at 105.0 yards per game. Wisconsin is ranked #22 in rush defense, but they’ve stopped running quarterbacks twice so far in Northern Illinois’ Chandler Harnish and South Dakota’s Dante Warren. Wyoming and Washington both managed to slow down Martinez’s running (combined 29-120, 2 TD) but Burkhead ran wild against them.
If Wisconsin has a weakness, it’s in the secondary, but Martinez has not shown he can exploit it. The Huskers have averaged just 167 yards per game through the air against Tennessee-Chattanooga, Fresno State, Washington and Wyoming and Martinez has been just 10-21 in each of the last two games.
Offensively, Wisconsin has been stellar so far against weak competition, while Nebraska’s Blackshirt defense has been surprisingly weak, allowing 29 points to Fresno State and 38 to Washington.
Nebraska leads the nation in kickoff returns behind Ameer Abdullah and they are also solid in the rest of the special teams. Wisconsin has had few punts, but Brad Nortman has been solid when called upon. Kyle French continues to kick field goals for the injured Philip Welch and he is 2-4, with both misses from beyond 50 yards.
I’m calling a rout. It’ll be Russell Wilson’s first chance to shine in prime time for the Badgers and an opportunity for him to get into the Heisman race and get Wisconsin into the national title discussion. It’s time to show the nation if we belong with LSU, Alabama, and Oklahoma. It’ll be Badgers 52-24.
Tags: Badgers, College Football, Wisconsin Badgers
This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 28th, 2011 at 2:01 pm and is filed under College Football, Wisconsin Badgers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.