luke altmyer

Yesterday we concluded our The Enemy, Ranked series, covering the nine B1G teams who find themselves on Michigan's schedule this 2023 season. But how about the four teams not on the schedule, all out of the B1G West? As I mentioned throughout the series, some of these teams are among the stronger B1G foes and feature talent in the trenches and in the secondary/at QB missing from The Enemy series. Today we will break down each of those four teams, their strengths, weaknesses, and project out their season. 

Wisconsin

No team in the B1G underwent a larger change this offseason than Wisconsin, and I'm including Northwestern in that. The Badgers opted to abandon the DNA of what made Wisconsin Football successful for nearly three decades, not just moving away from the Barry Alvarez coaching tree by hiring Luke Fickell, but letting Fickell scrap the bully ball offense in favor of an Air Raid attack(!) led by former North Carolina OC Phil Longo. On defense, Jim Leonhard's 3-4 system that churned out star OLBs is out in favor of Mike Tressel's 3-3-5, a seismic shock to the program on par with the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Everything about Badger football is about to change and it makes Wisconsin one of America's most fascinating teams in 2023. 

Offense

It's not just that the scheme has changed... the roster looks significantly different as well. Yes, Braelon Allen is still around, a star RB who is probably the second best back in the conference behind Blake Corum. The run game he engineers in tandem with Chez Mellusi is a great balancing weapon to have next to the completely re-made passing attack headed up by transfer QB Tanner Mordecai from SMU. Over two seasons with the Mustangs after transferring from Oklahoma, where he was coached by Lincoln Riley as a backup behind Jalen Hurts, Mordecai completed 66.4% of his passes for 8.0 Y/A, 72 TD to 22 INT. The upgrade Mordecai represents over Graham Mertz is astronomical and gives Wisconsin the best QB in the B1G West. 

Rebooting the receiving corps was an area of emphasis for Luke Fickell, even though the top three pass-catchers off last season's ho-hum Wisconsin WR room return, with Chimere Dike being the top target. Fickell added four transfer WRs(!) in addition to those three established returners, two transfers from Cincy, a promising RS Fr 4* from USC, and Bryson Green, who racked up 723 receiving yards over two seasons with OKST. I'm not sure if there will be a Dude in this receiving corps, but between seven lottery tickets, at least three should be solid targets for Mordecai to throw to. 

The biggest question with the offense is the offensive line. OL Coach Bob Bostad is out (hired by Indiana), with Longo bringing Jack Bicknell Jr. with him from UNC. Bicknell's first order of business will be finding a line of five starters and then teaching them a brand new blocking system that is diametrically different from what Wisconsin has run forever. The Badger OL also declined considerably in the last years of the Chryst era, finishing only 70th in average line yards last year. The good news is 3.5 starters return and Fickell brings two former All-AAC OL with him from Cincy (Joe Huber and Jake Renfro), so experience is here, but getting five guys to gel as a unit and get a hang of a new scheme is the big question. If they can get even a decent OL, between Mordecai leading the passing game and the prowess of Allen on the ground, the Wisconsin offense could be terrific. But there are also a lot of moving parts, possible transition costs and it's not a sure thing that it all works in year 1. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Wisconsin defense and the rest of the teams]