Tag: 2024 preview

Pre-spring bold predictions for the 2024 Big Ten football season

What are your bold predictions of Wisconsin’s 2024 season?

Welcome to March, the time when spring practice begins and focus is officially turned toward the upcoming season.

This edition of looking ahead includes trying to understand what the sport will look like. The Big Ten now includes 18 teams, the College Football Playoff has expanded to 12 teams and Wisconsin’s place among both is unknown.

Related: Wisconsin football’s biggest questions entering spring practice

Will the Badgers ascend to the space currently occupied by Penn State? Will the program become a Playoff regular as the field continues to expand? Head coach Luke Fickell has questions to answer entering year two of his tenure in Madison.

Looking ahead to the season, we’ve already ranked all 18 programs in the Big Ten, ranked the 18 starting quarterbacks, ranked all 18 head coaches, predicted each Big Ten team’s 2024 record, looked at the early College Football Playoff tiers and checked in on the Las Vegas win totals for each team in the conference.

Now, here are our pre-spring bold predictions for the 2024 Big Ten football season:

Wisconsin’s latest ‘Dudes of the Week’ has a notable addition

Aaron Witt breakout season incoming?

Wisconsin strength coach Brady Collins released the program’s latest ‘Dudes of the Week’ on Saturday, this offseason’s fifth edition of the honor.

Included on the list: transfer OLB Leon Lowery, S Kamo’i Latu, transfer LB John Pius, DB Max Lofy, TE Mike Cerniglia, C Jake Renfro, RB Gideon Ituka, transfer WR Tyrell Henry, TE Riley Nowakowski, QB Nick Evers, DB Amare Snowden and veteran OLB Aaron Witt.

Related: Big Ten starting quarterback rankings for 2024

We are focusing on the last addition: Aaron Witt — a talented outside linebacker who has played in just two games since Wisconsin’s Duke’s Mayo Bowl win over Wake Forest in December 2020.

The veteran defender’s only action came in the Badgers’ last two games of the 2023 season. He recorded just one tackle against LSU in Wisconsin’s narrow ReliaQuest Bowl loss.

For those who remember the Duke’s Mayo Bowl well, all we need is a hint that Witt may be healthy and effective entering the season. Because when he’s seen the field, this has happened:

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Are the 2024 Wisconsin Badgers faster than they were in 2023?

The Luke Fickell era at Wisconsin included an initiative to share more content and insights on social media, and use alternative media as

The start of the Luke Fickell era at Wisconsin included an initiative to share more content and insights on social media, and use alternative media as a tool to increase interest and discussion around the team.

From mid-January to when spring practice begins in March, these insights mostly come from the weight room and the team’s work with strength coach Brady Collins.

One other initiative is team speed.

As Fickell works to transition the program into its new era, a heavy emphasis has been placed on increasing the team’s speed and athleticism. The step forward is necessary for what offensive coordinator Phil Longo wants to do with his unit, and the same said for Mike Tressel on defense.

Related: Big Ten starting quarterback rankings for 2024

Wisconsin releases updated top speed numbers almost weekly during this winter conditioning period. WOZN’s Zach Heilprin compared this year’s updated numbers with those from one year ago.

There were 21 players above 20 miles per hour on last week’s list — led by wide receivers Quincy Burroughs and Will Pauling at 22.14 and 21.70 miles per hour respectively.

The same list from February 20, 2023? Only five players above 20 miles per hour.

This is not a scientific look nor a projection of on-field success. But the college football offseason is for reading the tea leaves and trying to use any piece of information to gain insight. So, I think it’s safe to say Wisconsin will be a faster team in 2024 than it was in 2023.

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Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes, and opinion. Follow Ben Kenney on X.

Wisconsin football one of Josh Pate’s ‘mystery teams’ entering 2024

Wisconsin football one of Josh Pate’s ‘mystery teams’ entering 2024

CBSSports’ Josh Pate labeled Wisconsin one of his ‘mystery teams’ entering 2024 on his podcast Sunday night.

The Badgers were included along with Texas A&M, Arizona and Syracuse — all three programs with new head coaches entering 2024 (Mike Elko, Jedd Fisch and Fran Brown respectively). The Badgers have more stability than the other programs but also have a high bar which the 2023 results fell well short of.

Related: Which Big Ten football team has the toughest conference schedule in 2024?

“Wisconsin is a big mystery team in 2024,” Pate said on his show. “They were 7-6 last year, it was a lot of internal transition, first-year staff going from Paul Chryst to Luke Fickell, that’s understandable. Their key offensive numbers were not good enough. They were in the 60s and 70s in terms of national rankings of key offensive metrics…So now they’ve brought in Tyler Van Dyke at quarterback, they’re 20th in returning production, they return 70% of a top-40 defense. It’s year two under Luke Fickell…I feel very, very comfortable in betting on a program in year two under that guy and under his staff.”

Wisconsin’s season can certainly go one of a few ways. The gauntlet schedule may lead to struggles and a poor record, or that schedule could become a stellar resume if the Badgers pick off big wins.

Either way, it should tell us a lot about what the future holds under Fickell and his staff.

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Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes, and opinion. Follow Ben Kenney on X.

Wisconsin football omitted from ESPN’s way-too-early top 25

Is Wisconsin a top-25 team entering 2024?

Wisconsin football is not a top-25 team entering the 2024 season, according to ESPN’s recent ranking.

The Badgers are fresh off back-to-back 7-6 seasons and are without a 10-win season since 2019. Head coach Luke Fickell was hired to turn that trend around, though it may be a slower build than some thought.

Not only does Wisconsin no longer get the benefit of playing in the Big Ten West, but the Badgers face a gauntlet schedule in 2024 and have a projected win total of only 6.5.

Related: Way-too-early record predictions for every Big Ten football team in 2024 

Wisconsin has not entered a football season unranked since 2016, when the program went from unranked to finishing No. 5 in the nation. The last time before that was 2009. In short: the Badgers, traditionally, are always ranked entering the season.

Nearly 200 days still separate us from Wisconsin’s first game of the season. But where things stand at the moment, the industry does not view the Badgers as a top-25 team.

Related: Where Wisconsin football stands in 2024 transfer portal team class rankings

Looking ahead to Wisconsin’s 2024 football schedule

Wisconsin’s 2024 football schedule is a gauntlet:

The new era of Big Ten football is here and with it comes gauntlet schedules for everybody in the conference.

That is especially the case for the 2024 Wisconsin Badgers. The program hosts a perennial powerhouse in out-of-conference play before facing at least three legitimate contenders in the conference slate.

For season ticket holders in Madison, Wisconsin, this new schedule means more intrigue and better environments on gameday. For Badgers fans across the country, however, it also likely means 2-3 more losses per year. That is, of course, unless Luke Fickell raises Wisconsin to the tier that Michigan and Ohio State currently inhabit.

The 2024 season is a critical one for that purpose. The Badgers are off a disappointing 7-6 2023 campaign and need tangible momentum in Fickell’s second year. As noted, it needs to be done against one of the tougher schedules in the nation:

Wisconsin has one of college football’s toughest schedules in 2024

Wisconsin has one of college football’s toughest schedules in 2024

Wisconsin enters the calendar year 2024 with hope and optimism that the results will be better than those in 2023.

Yes, the program is technically 0-1 so far with its ReliaQuest Bowl loss to LSU. But the focus is on the 2024 season, one that will either show progress from the team’s 7-6 performance in 2023, or continued stagnation.

Some things are guaranteed to be different. Wisconsin hired a new offensive line coach, Luke Fickell reshaped the roster through the transfer portal and former Miami quarterback Tyler Van Dyke will lead the team under center. It is those changes people point to as big reasons for a bounce-back campaign.

But the biggest thing to me is continuity. It was clear from the start of last year that Phil Longo’s new offense would take time to work fully — one could argue it wasn’t until the bowl game that we truly saw the offense excel for four quarters. The return of Longo and veterans across the offense means good things for 2024, as at least the team knows what to expect.

Now there is one big issue: the schedule. Wisconsin faces a gauntlet this year with an out-of-conference bout with Alabama and a tough conference schedule.

247Sports recently ranked the toughest schedules for 2024, with Wisconsin among the top 10:

Wisconsin ‘just missed’ The Athletic’s way-too-early 2024 top 25

Wisconsin ‘just missed’ The Athletic’s way-too-early 2024 top 25

The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel released his way-too-early 2024 top 25 earlier this week. The Wisconsin Badgers were among the ‘just missed’ category after a disappointing 7-6 season under first-year head coach Luke Fickell.

Wisconsin’s future is tough to predict, especially entering the new Big Ten landscape. The team sees massive turnover on offense including incoming quarterback Tyler Van Dyke, but that could be a good thing given the unit’s struggles in 2023. Meanwhile, Fickell and his staff have brought in six linebackers, several corners and a defensive lineman in the portal with the hope of reworking a defense that fell short of expectations.

2024 feels like a year that could be a ‘boom’ for Fickell and his staff if every offseason move hits. But it could also bust, given how much is reliant upon the performance of transfers, plus the schedule is much tougher than 2023.

Notable Big Ten teams in Mandel’s top 25 are Oregon at No. 3, Ohio State at No. 4, Michigan at No. 6, Washington at No. 7, Penn State at No. 18 and Iowa at No. 22.