The Oregon Ducks and Wisconsin Badgers aren’t in the 2020 Rose Bowl Game by accident. These are potent teams with a powerful running game anchoring their potent offenses. When these two teams collide, they’ll bring with them a vaunted running attack and a memory of their last meeting in 2012, which was a Rose Bowl win by the Ducks in a dramatic fourth quarter. The Ducks scored 10 unanswered points in the fourth to complete the victory.
The history between the two teams in the Rose Bowl will surely provide them ample motivation to be prepared for this game, even if they both felt there were higher ambitions to pursue and fulfill prior to the 2019 season. Let’s look at the rushing attacks for both the Ducks and the Badgers.
On the Oregon side, the Ducks are loaded with talent carrying the football. Lead by C.J. Verdell, Oregon has 2,382 rushing yards on the season. Travis Dye, Darrian Felix and Cyrus Habibi-Likio round out the cast of talent the Ducks have at their disposal. It’s an embarrassment of riches for the Ducks, and it doesn’t even include the very mobile quarterback the Ducks have at their disposal: Justin Herbert. The Badgers certainly face a daunting task of preventing the Ducks from running the ball all over the Wisconsin defense.
One the Wisconsin side, the Badgers have almost 2,000 rushing yards from one man alone, Jonathan Taylor. The 5-foot-11 junior tailback is second in the nation with 1,909 yards. The one man in front of him, Chubba Hubbard, has 1,936 yards. The Badgers have hogs up front paving the way for Taylor, who has only three games on the season in which he did not rush for at least 100 yards — Minnesota, Michigan State and Ohio State. Taylor is a workhorse the Badgers can ride while their increasingly efficient quarterback, Jack Coan, provides a steady hand for the rest of the offense. Nakia Watson and Garrett Groshek give the Badgers’ running back room a number of valuable outlets as receivers.
Groshek has 187 rushing yards on the season but he also has 270 receiving yards on just 26 receptions. This gives him an average close to 10.4 yards per reception. He also has a long of 70 yards receiving and 23 yards rushing. After the scripted plays go out the window, guys such as Groshek give head coach Paul Chryst a unique and dynamic playmaker he can use to keep the Badger offense going in the right direction either through play design or improvisation. Finding a way to incorporate him into the offense without forcing the ball to him is a way the Badgers can keep Oregon’s defense off balance and gain leverage in Pasadena.
The Ducks will by relying heavily on touchdown machine Cyrus Habibi-Likio and C.J. Verdell, who have a combined 18 touchdowns on the season so far (10 for Habibi-Likio, eight for Verdell). Verdell is the team leader in rushing yards with 1,171. That’s enough for 6.5 yards per carry, with a long of 89. He also has another 125 yards as a receiver and an 8.9 yards-per-reception average. Habibi-Likio may have only 337 rushing yards and 32 receiving yards, but his 10 touchdowns on the year make him the team’s leader. It’s the equivalent of a Jerome Bettis special in the city of Pittsburgh. The Ducks have plenty of diversity on the offensive side of the ball, so they may not feel as pressured as the Badgers to rely on one player the way Wisconsin does with Taylor.
All in all, the Ducks and Badgers present a very interesting case for a compelling bowl watch. The Rose Bowl has been hit or miss with its level of competition over the best few years, but it has mostly consisted of hits. Since 2000, the game has been lopsided in only seven matches. Every Wisconsin Rose Bowl played this century has been close. The players on both sides of this game on the first day of 2020 indicate that the latest Granddaddy has the potential to live up to the hype.