luke fickell

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]

Last week I looked at changes in the rosters in the B1G East so far in the offseason. Today we will do the same for the B1G West. The NFL Draft declaration date has come and gone, so we have some more clarity, though transfers are still in the process of deciding. As I said with the East piece, my plan is to come back through in a couple months and take a look at how the dust settled on these respective rosters. 

Purdue

EXITS

The Boilermakers have had a busy offseason, with their most notable exit being coach Jeff Brohm. With a new regime in, you'd expect quite a bit of turnover and there's plenty of it. Graduation/the NFL has taken all three of their stars in the passing game, QB Aidan O'Connell, WR Charlie Jones, and TE Payne Durham, as well as a huge chunk of their pass defense, starting corners Cory Trice and Reese Taylor, as well as HSP Jalen Graham and LB Kieren Douglas. They will be returning most of the OL and lead back Devin Mockobee, but that's a lot of experience and production to make up, before we even get into the portal subtractions.

To the portal the Boilermakers lost Spencer Holstege, a starting G for this year's team, as well as three useful pieces on the defensive line, Lawrence Johnson and Branson Deen, who were starter-ish rotation pieces at defensive tackle, and starting DE Jack Sullivan. All four of those players opted to pack their bags for warmer weather, with Deen opting to head to Miami, Johnson to Auburn, Holstege to UCLA, and Sullivan to rival USC. Reserve RB Kobe Lewis bailed for FAU as well, and then an assortment of bench names I am not familiar with are in the portal as well. It's going to be a pretty different Purdue team that shows up in Ann Arbor to play the Wolverines in the fall than the one we saw in Indianapolis a month ago. 

ACQUISITIONS

Well we can start with the new HC Ryan Walters, who is replacing Brohm. Walters, who turns 37 tomorrow, is considered a top young mind in coaching circles after presiding over elite defenses back-to-back seasons at Illinois, where he had minimal talent to work with. Seemed like a smart hire to me and he's reshuffled the coaching staff, bringing new DC Kevin Kane with him from Illinois (he was the associate head coach and OLB coach) and hiring new OC Graham Harrell, of Texas Tech QB fame from the late 2000s, away from West Virginia. Kane will help him rebuild the Purdue defense, while Harrell will ensure continuity with Brohm's Air Raid scheme. All three of these coaches are under the age of 40, so this is an exceptionally youthful staff. 

The biggest question for the Boilermakers with Aidan O'Connell leaving is what will happen at QB. Their big add out of the portal was QB Hudson Card from Texas, a high 4* prospect in the 2020 class who got passed over for Quinn Ewers in Austin, but played some when Ewers was injured this past season and did fine. Card seems to be the favorite to start, though Purdue managed to keep Brady Allen, their Class of 2022 QB who was a solid 4* himself, in the fold. Allen originally had his name in the portal, but pulled it out to return to Purdue, suggesting there will be a legitimate QB competition here. 

Elsewhere Purdue has added a few supplemental pieces, Isaiah Nichols (DT) and Anthony Brown (S) from Arkansas, the former being a middling rotational piece on the DL, while the latter got a redshirt as a true freshman this past season. They also got interior OL Jalen Grant, a two year starter at Bowling Green, to jump on board. None of these strike as particularly high impact additions, and I would expect them to add some more as the next few months roll along and the new staff gets their feet under them properly. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: more or less chaos]

Events. There are some. If you're in NY or DC I'm sorry to report that I'm unable to make it out this year for various reasons. All the things that happened this summer plus two small people mean that I'm scrambling to catch up on season preview stuff and can't take four days in August. Next year there will not be a coaching search and College World Series. Probably. Also I've been told that once children turn four you can sell them? Is that true? Don't look it up, it's probably true. 

A graphed history of Michigan football. Most of it, anyway. Bill Connelly's S&P+ graphed and annotated:

The Schembechler era is even a little more bonkers because the only negative outlier in there is when Harbaugh broke his arm and they went 6-6.

Also here's West Virginia, the Tweek of college football:

I'm getting queasy just looking at this thing.

Also also, give it up for Charlie Weis:

xoxo miss you big guy.

[After the JUMP: BTN visits! Nothing happens.]