Tag: joe rudolph play calling

The case for OC Joe Rudolph to relinquish play-calling duties next season

Wisconsin Badgers football head coach Paul Chryst announced this year that offensive coordinator Joe Rudolph had taken play-calling duties

Earlier this season, Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst announced offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Joe Rudolph had been the team’s play-caller to that point and would continue to be throughout the season.

The news came as a surprise to many. Chryst had been the team’s play-caller for some time, including for the team’s impressive display of offense during the 2019 season.

Related: Final game grades, report card for Wisconsin vs. Wake Forest

With the 2020 season in the rear-view mirror after the Badgers’ 42-28 victory over Wake Forest in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, I’m here to make the case for Rudolph to relinquish play-calling duties next season.

First, a necessary disclaimer: The Wisconsin offense struggled this year in large part due to Graham Mertz’s inexperience and up-and-down play, injuries to key positions and really good defenses on the schedule.

They also struggled, however, due to some of what Rudolph was doing with the play sheet.

Related: Studs and duds from the Wisconsin Badgers’ 2020 football season

The unit opened the season with 45- and 49-point performances against Illinois and Michigan, respectively — two defenses that struggled all season.

The Badgers then endured a three-game stretch in which they scored 20 points — games where the offense had zero life. If you’re looking for patterns here, when the Badgers played a team with a real defense they were unable to find the end zone.

It would take years to go through every drive and talk about every set of play calls, so I’ve compiled a list of several to focus on when questioning Rudolph’s game plan and in-game play decisions.

No. 1: vs. Minnesota, third-and-7, first quarter, opponent’s 30-yard line.

The call? An outside zone to Julius Davis with Jack Dunn as the lead blocker.

First, this was Davis’ first collegiate carry and Garrett Groshek had been shredding the Gopher defense to that point.

Second, this is a rivalry game and the offense is churning…So why go directly away from what works?

The drive ended in a missed field goal and the Badgers came up empty.

Example No. 2: vs. Minnesota, tie game, 1:28 left in the game, Chase Wolf in at quarterback, 3 timeouts remaining, opponent’s 40-yard line.

The call? A deep ball to freshman WR Devin Chandler.

This, like the Davis run, ended the Badgers’ drive — this one obviously coming when the team was on its way to kicking a field goal and winning the football game.

Again, Groshek was unstoppable that night. But the call instead to have a third-string quarterback hoist the ball deep? Curious to say the least.

Then there’s the Wake Forest game.

I’m just going to look at this game as a whole — and also note the team scored 42 points thanks to the defense’s four interceptions, a blocked punt and a long kickoff return.

So, during the win against Wake Forest we saw:

  • Two consecutive shovel passes in the red zone when the team has an NFL-caliber tight end that is unguardable in those situations (shovel passes that led Groshek to where every defender was playing)
  • Chase Wolf enter the contest for a drive to end the half and the offense try to throw it deep

  • third-and-9 run outside zone calls to Groshek near midfield when the Badgers needed to put points on the board
  • An overall lack of effectiveness when the team had a long field ahead of it (against one of the worst defense’s the team faced this season)

Focusing on the Wolf throw for a second; Mertz was benched in favor of Wolf to lead a 2-minute drive.

I can’t decide what’s worse here: Whether Rudolph and the offensive staff didn’t have Mertz prepared to lead an end-of-half drive (due to him needing to run over and get the play calls from the sideline), or whether he genuinely believed Wolf gave the team a better chance to score points there.

It was the last of numerous head-scratchers this season that included not nearly enough carries by Jalen Berger, a lack of creativity in the red zone and stale route concepts when the Badgers need conversions.

Rudolph is one of, if not the, best offensive line coaches in the country. Don’t get me wrong: he’s one of the most important members of the Badger coaching staff.

But play-calling is not close to his strong suit. It should 100 percent be Paul Chryst calling plays for the team in 2021.

Final game grades, report card for Wisconsin vs. Wake Forest

The Wisconsin Badgers finished their season with a Duke’s Mayo Bowl victory over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. Final game grades and a…

As Wake Forest Head Coach Dave Clawson said after the Wisconsin Badgers’ 42-28 Duke’s Mayo Bowl victory, “they didn’t beat themselves, and that’s what good football teams do.”

That sentence perfectly encaptures the 2020 Duke’s Mayo Bowl, as Wisconsin played a consistent game of football and took control of the ballgame when Wake Forest Sam Hartman threw four second-half interceptions.

While there were more points scored than we see during a normal Wisconsin football game, the game followed the script of nearly every Badger game this season: the team who won the turnover battle won the game handily.

Yesterday I went through the film of the game and focused on the performances of freshman quarterback Graham Mertz, freshman offensive tackle Logan Brown, the secondary and more.

From the film, here are final game grades and a report card for Wisconsin’s win against Wake Forest:

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Studs and duds from the Wisconsin Badgers’ 2020 football season

The Wisconsin Badgers closed their 2020 season Thursday with a 42-28 victory over Wake Forest in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. Here are studs…

Alas, today is Jan. 1, and the year 2020 is finally behind is — most likely for the best in many ways.

For the Wisconsin Badger football program, 2020 began on a rough note with the team’s 28-27 Rose Bowl loss to Oregon on New Year’s Day.

As Badger fans know, it didn’t get any easier. The Big Ten Conference initially postponed the 2020 season, kickoff came in late October, the team saw starting quarterback Jack Coan break his foot before the season, three regular-season games were canceled due to COVID-19 and numerous injuries were suffered by key players.

But in the end, if there’s one word to describe the team it’s resilient. The Badgers could’ve shipped it in after a loss at Iowa capped a three-game losing streak and especially when the program experienced a COVID-19 outbreak and didn’t play for two weeks.

But the Badgers didn’t, and they finished the year two victories. That captures the resilience of the team and the football program as a whole.

Related: Meet Wisconsin football’s class of 2021, the highest-ranked group in school history

So as we look back upon the 2020 season, we do so while giving credit to everybody that worked hard to make this season happen, as well as to everybody in the locker room and on the coaching staff for battling through hardship and sacrificing a lot to successfully finish the year.

With that, here are studs and duds from the Badgers’ 2020 football season:

What is actually going to fix the Wisconsin Badger offense?

With a 6-point effort in Saturday’s loss to Indiana, the Wisconsin Badgers now have scored a total of 13 points in their last two games…

With a 6-point effort in Saturday’s loss to Indiana, the Wisconsin Badgers have now scored a total of 13 points in their last two games, that obviously coming after 45 and 49-point efforts to start the season.

There’s been talk online and in the Badger sporting world that running more jet sweeps, including creativity and handing the ball off more to Jalen Berger will be the things to lead the unit back to their early-season form.

While those factors may help, the notion that the lack of jet sweeps and touches by backs not named Berger have been the things holding this offense back is completely false.

Related: Five keys to a Wisconsin victory over Iowa on Saturday

Here’s why (which will also answer the question at hand of what truly will fix the Badger offense).

Last year we saw Jack Coan, Jonathan Taylor and the offense find consistent success all season. A part of that success was more than 450 rushing yards by wide receivers–180 of which coming from Kendric Pryor alone. What those plays did back then was take pressure off Taylor in the run game and help to spread the defense.

When you have somebody like Jonathan Taylor in the backfield those plays are able to work and the offense doesn’t normally struggle to move the football. With JT gone to the NFL, this year and the future of the offense is completely different.

While true freshman Jalen Berger is clearly the best back the team has and should be receiving more touches, he is not the single catalyst of the offense like Taylor was for three years. The catalyst of the offense also won’t be “creative” plays or jet sweeps and screens.

Right now (and all season) the catalyst has been the play of Graham Mertz at quarterback.

Maybe when Berger develops and becomes an upperclassman he can have a Taylor-like effect.

But if you’re looking for something to change in order for the offense to return to their early-season success and start connecting on big plays again the answer can be found in the play of the man under center.

In his first two starts: 32/43 passing, 375 yards, 7 touchdowns and 0 interceptions.

In his second two starts: 43/75 passing, 432 yards, 1 touchdown, 4 interceptions and 2 fumbles.

It must be said that both Indiana and Northwestern have stellar defenses and the same can’t be said for Illinois and Michigan.

But, as I outlined earlier this week, Mertz has struggled with timing, decision-making and ball placement recently and, as a result, the offense has failed to put many points on the board.

He is a redshirt freshman and has plenty of time to mature and develop as a passer–which I believe he will do. This is just purely an analysis of the main factor that has led to the team only scoring 13 points in two games.

Again, Berger touching the ball more and improved play calling are part of the story. But those two things alone aren’t going to help this offense score more points.

Mertz will need to play better. It’s that simple.