Wisconsin is once again receiving praise from a national outlet.
Mitch Kaiser of ProFootballFocus unveiled ‘One dark-horse 2023 college football team for each conference’ earlier this week. His choice for the Big Ten: yes, it was Wisconsin.
One would wonder, as I am currently, when in the continuum of national praise a team no longer becomes a ‘dark horse.’ Wisconsin sits No. 4 in the Big Ten in odds, behind Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State. But when every college outlet, preview service and talking head labels the same team as a sleeper, when does that team no longer become a sleeper? Unimportant questions.
Don’t sleep on the Badgers👀
One dark horse 2023 College Football team for each Power 5 conference⬇️https://t.co/Lym663qNKA
— PFF College (@PFF_College) July 18, 2023
Here’s what Kaiser said of the 2023 Badgers:
New head coach Luke Fickell has been busy setting up his team and coaching staff, and Wisconsin football is now set to look far different. They’ve always had a tremendous run game combined with an elite defense, but poor quarterback play has hampered the team throughout the past decade.
The Badgers are hoping that will change this year, as they’ve brought in veteran Tanner Mordecai from SMU. Mordecai is an experienced and solid player who threw for more than 3,500 yards and 30 touchdowns in each of the past two seasons. He earned an 80.0-plus passing grade in both of those campaigns. If he can show some leadership and consistency, this could be the best Wisconsin offense in quite some time.
The run game will be dominant as usual, with Braelon Allen and Chez Mellusi returning. Allen is a man amongst boys as one of the best running backs in the entire nation. He comes in as the fifth-best returning running back in college football, per PFF’s Max Chadwick.
Wisconsin was a perfect fit for Fickell, given his prior success on defense and the program’s legacy. The 2023 unit will feature Maema Njongmeta, who was PFF’s fifth-highest-graded linebacker in 2022. Wisconsin has a fairly easy path to the Big Ten championship, as they are in the weaker division and, luckily, avoid Michigan and Penn State in the regular season.
No arguments here, aside from the erasure of the 2019 season when discussing Wisconsin’s poor quarterback play and overall offense. Wisconsin hasn’t been present-day Iowa for the last decade. It was more of a Michigan-before-Cade McNamara situation.
The Badgers open their season on September 2 at home against Buffalo.