2021 Opponent Preview: Wisconsin

Blue White Illustrated's magazine editor, Matt Herb, is taking a closer look at Penn State football's schedule this fall. With spring practice now in the rearview mirror, it's a good time to look at where each opponent stands heading into the summer. The Nittany Lions will start their 2021 season with three quality opponents in Wisconsin, Ball State and Auburn, meaning they'll have little time to adjust to Mike Yurcich's new offense. Today, we'll start the series with a look at the Wisconsin Badgers, who will host Penn State for the season opener on Sept. 4.

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2020 RECORD - 4-3, 3-3 Big Ten

COACH - Paul Chryst (56-19 in six seasons at Wisconsin; career record: 75-38)

RECORD VS. PENN STATE - The Nittany Lions have won the past four meetings and lead the series, 10-9.

MOST RECENT MEETING - Miles Sanders rushed for 159 yards and a touchdown and Jake Pinegar kicked field goals of 49, 42 and 23 yards, as Penn State defeated the visiting Badgers, 22-10, on Nov. 10, 2018.

OFFENSE - With Jack Coan off to Notre Dame, Wisconsin’s offense is firmly in the hands of Graham Mertz. Mertz’s redshirt freshman season could hardly have started better, as he completed 20 of 21 passes for 248 yards and five touchdowns in a 45-7 win over Illinois. But he tested positive for COVID the next day, and while he returned to action after two canceled games, the rest of his season was more of a mixed bag. Mertz will be looking this fall to recapture some of the magic of that opener, and the good news for the Badgers is that he’ll have plenty of help. Receivers Danny Davis III and Kendric Pryor are set to return after missing most of last season with concussions, and tight end Jake Ferguson is back, too. Injuries at wideout were part of the problem last year, but if everyone stays healthy, Wisconsin appears to have the makings of a much-improved passing game. The running game is almost always good, and the player to watch this year is Jalen Berger. A former Penn State recruiting target, Berger finished with a team-high 301 yards despite playing in just four games as a freshman. He'll benefit from the arrival of a new position coach: former Nittany Lion running back Gary Brown, who was hired in March.

DEFENSE - The Badgers got a big win in February when Jim Leonhard chose to stay on as defensive coordinator after the Green Bay Packers tried to convince him to return to the NFL, where he spent 10 seasons as a player. Under Leonhard, a former Wisconsin safety, the Badgers have fielded one of the better defenses in the country. They’ve ranked third in the Football Bowl Subdivision in scoring defense (17.0 points per game) and second in total defense (294.5 yards per game) during Leonhard’s five seasons on the staff. This year’s defense should be solid again, with Jack Sanborn back at middle linebacker after finishing with a team-best 52 tackles last season. The defensive line has some holes to fill, as ends Isaiahh Loudermilk and Garrett Rand have moved on. But Wisconsin is bringing in Oregon transfer Isaac Townsend and four-star recruit T.J. Bollers, so help is on the way.

SPECIAL TEAMS - Punter Andy Vujnovich and kicker Collin Larsh are both back. Vujnovich averaged 41.6 yards and had five punts of 50 or more yards last year. Larsh went 5 of 7 on field goals, but his longest make was only a 31-yarder.

SCHEDULE - If big crowds return to college football in the fall of 2021, as seems increasingly likely, no Big Ten team stands to benefit more than Wisconsin. The Badgers are set to welcome Penn State, Michigan, Iowa, Northwestern and Nebraska to Camp Randall Stadium this season. That’s a great home schedule, and Wisconsin would love to have a full house on hand to greet those opponents while partying to “Jump Around” in between the third and fourth quarters.

GAME OF THE YEAR - It’s tempting to pick the Big Ten Championship Game, since the Badgers have played in six of the 10 that have been staged so far, including three of the past five. But the highlight of Wisconsin’s year might not even be a conference game. On Sept. 25, the Badgers will face Notre Dame at Soldier Field in Chicago. They haven’t played the Fighting Irish since 1964, but what makes this game especially interesting is that Coan is likely to be Notre Dame’s starting quarterback.

OUTLOOK - Like Penn State, Wisconsin slogged through an uncharacteristically mediocre season in 2020. And as was the case with the Nittany Lions, it was hard to tell how many of the Badgers’ problems were tied to the unprecedented and unlikely-to-be-repeated circumstances under which the season was played. We won’t have to wait long to start getting answers to that question, though, as PSU and Wisconsin are set to face each other in one of this year’s best opening day matchups. The Badgers have gone 31-6 at Camp Randall under Chryst, so you have to like their odds against a difficult home slate. And if they can get through that gauntlet without absorbing too much damage, the road schedule – Illinois, Purdue, Rutgers, Minnesota – is favorable, making another Big Ten Championship Game appearance entirely realistic.

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