You don’t need me to tell you that this is a weird and challenging year in college football.
With limited or no fans at games, contract tracing protocols, constant COVID-19 testing, altered schedules and more, there is one word to accurately explain the situation: chaos.
During a normal year Camp Randall Stadium would be packed with 80,000 fans and the team would already be through the first quarter of their season.
Related: Three true freshmen who will make an early impact for Wisconsin football
So why, in a chaotic year, are the Badgers actually benefitting from all of this? Because in times of chaos the most buttoned-up and well-prepared people, teams, etc. are the ones that find the most success.
This is obviously about the product on the football field, but it’s also about crisis management and leadership.
You look around the college football landscape thus far and what do you see? Sloppy play, bad clock and game management, blown coverages on defense, bad turnovers and more.
Not that other programs aren’t coached well or have bad leadership, but if there’s one team in the country that brings consistency to the football field, is tremendously-coached, and is fit to deal with chaos more than anybody else it’s the Wisconsin Badgers.
Yes, they have a redshirt freshman in Graham Mertz at quarterback after starter Jack Coan injured his foot. But while teams around them struggle to execute and play under the current circumstances, the Badgers’ consistency and identity will end up playing a huge role in their success.
As Joel Klatt beautifully said last week on The Herd with Colin Cowherd:
“If you’re asking me about which team, fanbase, administration knows themselves better than anybody else in the country, it’s Wisconsin. They know who they are, how they have success, why they have success, and that’s why they do have success year, over year, over year.”
The team and program know exactly who they are, what they need to do to succeed and how to go out on the field and do it.
So while Auburn loses games because of turnovers, UNC gives up 31 points to a bad Florida State team and Oklahoma and Texas look like dumpster fires, it will be Wisconsin, their style of play, their coaching and their identity that deals with the current chaos better than anybody and has one of the more impressive seasons in their program’s history.