Wisconsin Football: 5 reasons why Badgers will win 2017 national title

The Wisconsin football team has high expectations heading into the 2017 season. Is there a title on the horizon?

The 2017 Wisconsin football team has a lot of new faces entering this season, while the returning members and veterans are ready to put the roller coaster that was 2016 in the past and gear up for another championship-chasing season.

Fresh off a 24-16 Cotton Bowl victory over then-undefeated Western Michigan, the Badgers flirted with the College Football Playoff all throughout the 2016 season, and some could argue they were one or two big wins away from getting their first ever berth in the final four.

Three losses last year, all by seven points, have Wisconsin fans eager to get started on the 2017 season. Some of you may recall the brutal schedule the Badgers endured last season, with more than half their games versus preseason top 17 teams.

We can also recall FOX Sports‘ Colin Cowherd bashing the Badgers and calling them a 6-6 team prior to the year.

While expectations were much lower last year thanks to the severe difficulty of their schedule, the team’s 11-3 mark through it all had the Wisconsin program and its fans raving for next year, which is now just a few weeks away.

On paper, the Badgers’ schedule appears to be lighter than last year’s slate, but then again, almost anything would look more appealing. With no return game against Ohio State, and Michigan at home, it might be time to start considering Wisconsin not only Big Ten champs, but national champs as well.

Here are five reasons why the Wisconsin Badgers can, and will, win the 2017 national title.

5. Schedule

As mentioned, the Badgers play a somewhat favorable schedule this year, with some of their more difficult road games last season back in Madison, where we all know the Badgers are very good at.

2017 Schedule (Opponent record last year):

• vs. Utah State (3-9)
• vs. Florida Atlantic (3-9)
• at BYU (9-4)
• vs. Northwestern (7-6)
• at Nebraska (9-4)
• vs. Purdue (3-9)
• vs. Maryland (6-7)
• at Illinois (3-9)
• at Indiana (6-7)
• vs. Iowa (8-5)
• vs. Michigan (10-3)
• at Minnesota (9-4)

Obviously, there are some tough games on there and no conference game is ever a guaranteed win, but if you are looking for reason to think the Badgers can breeze through this year’s schedule, remember how they did last season through the gauntlet of matchups they had week in and week out.

Simply glancing at the lineup this year, it is pretty clear that the toughest games the Badgers will endure are their road games, specifically BYU, Nebraska and Minnesota.

The Cougars of BYU always prove to be a tough matchup for power conference teams, especially with how tough the Cougars’ schedule usually is every year, proving they are used to these types of tests. Add the home crowd into that early season showdown and you could be looking at one of the toughest games for any power conference team during the non-conference.

Of course, Nebraska and Minnesota are huge rivalry games and with them both being on the road, the opposing team would love nothing more than to not only spoil the Badgers’ season, but also put themselves in a position to make a run at a Big Ten West title.

Remember, though, Nebraska has only beaten Wisconsin once since coming over to the Big Ten from the Big 12 and Minnesota — well, it’s been a long time since they have regained the axe (over 5,000 days).

4. Preseason recognition

With any championship-caliber team or season, there is going to be a bit of luck involved and other factors that need to fall a team’s way. For instance, look at Penn State last year. The Nittany Lions finished the year hot, won their conference and had a great resume, but still it was not enough.

Unfortunately for the Badgers, they started out the season unranked last year — which put them in a bad position CFP-wise due to the fact that they not only needed to win to claw their way up towards the top, but needed many teams in front of them to lose and lose often.

Whereas looking at eventual national champion Clemson, it started the season ranked No. 2 and hovered around the top-tier of teams, despite having a bad loss at home to Pittsburgh.

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This year, the Badgers are in much better shape when it comes to national respect leading up to the beginning of the season. While the official preseason rankings are not out, there are many sports media outlets that either predict the Badgers to be ranked or have them ranked high in their own personal lists.

For example, Athlon Sports has the Badgers ranked No. 12 in their preseason projections.

Safely projecting the Badgers’ preseason rank would say they would be somewhere in the 10-15 range, but could also likely be the third, even fourth, Big Ten team ranked. Many publications have Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan somewhere near the top ten or higher.

With the Badgers getting a higher preseason notice, it opens up for a larger margin for error and makes it possible for the team to get a playoff berth if it takes care of business in the regular season, for the most part.

Once you’re in the playoff, anything can happen.

3. Running Back U

Throughout the years, the Wisconsin Badgers have enjoyed multiple successful running backs and have grabbed on to a reputation that when you think Badgers football, you think of a tough, gritty running attack that wears you down.

While the program has seemingly become more balanced in recent years, the notion that Wisconsin will be strong in the run game is more than likely true again this year.

Of course, the Badgers will be without their main tailback this year and last year’s starter as they lose Corey Clement, along with their main third-down back and notable contributor Dare Ogunbowale.

Returning for the Badgers is sophomore phenom Bradrick Shaw, who saw significant action behind center last year and was even listed as running back No. 2 for some games, moving Ogunbowale to strictly situational plays.

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Shaw ran for 457 yards last year for an average of 5.2 yards per carry. He also saw a lot of the red zone opportunities with Clement having some injury problems throughout his career and Ogunbowale being the more speedy, outside the tackle type back. Shaw ran for five touchdowns last year as a freshman.

Joining Shaw in the backfield fun this year is Pittsburgh-transfer Chris James. After spending two years at Pitt, James decided to leave to Wisconsin to join former Pittsburgh coach and now current Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst. After sitting out last year, James will likely be the second part of a one-two punch in the backfield. He averaged 4.8 yards per carry during his two years at Pittsburgh.

While there aren’t a lot of tangible stats to show Shaw and James will live up to the hype they are given, both offer speed, quickness, and toughness on the field and are a whole package when it comes to contributing on offense.

Another thing Wisconsin has prided themselves on in terms of the running attack is the depth of the position. Whenever a big-name running back comes into Madison, he is usually followed by someone just as talented. When there was Montee Ball, he was backed up by James While and Melvin Gordon. When White was the starter, he was backed up by Gordon and Corey Clement. The list never stops of big-time backs.

Projected depth chart (RB)

1. Bradrick Shaw (So.)
2. Chris James (Sr.)
3. Taiwan Deal (Jr.)

Wisconsin also welcomes in another Pittsburgh transfer Rachid Ibrahim and highly recruited freshman Jonathan Taylor.

2. The defense could be elite

Perhaps the most important and critical factor for the Badgers’ success this year is their defense. No one expected them to be amongst the best nationally last year, especially after bringing on a new defensive coordinator in Justin Wilcox after seeing  Dave Aranda leave for LSU.

The Badgers are in a similar boat again this year, as Wilcox has booked to take the head coaching position at California, leaving Wisconsin with its third leader of the defense in many years. But as the old saying “third time’s a charm” goes, the Badgers and their fans believe the new guy in charge is going to bring this defense to new heights.

Earlier in the year, back in February to be exact, the Badgers promoted defensive backs coach and former Wisconsin player Jim Leonhard to take over as defensive coordinator. Leonhard enjoyed great success at Wisconsin, coming on as a walk-on, and experienced a long, illustrious NFL career before joining his alma mater not too long ago.

The Badgers’ defensive makes it easy for him to take over, as he will be inheriting one of the best in the country from a year ago with a lot of returning talent.

Unfortunately for the Badgers last year, they were never able to experience their defense at 100 percent healthy. Linebacker Chris Orr sustained a season-ending injury during the first play of the first game of the year last year, while Jack Cichy and Vince Biegel alternated injuries throughout the year. The good news still from all of that is the unit still managed fourth in the country in points per game and second behind only Alabama in rushing yards per game.

Wisconsin did end up losing Biegel, along with T.J. Watt and Sojourn Shelton to the NFL, but are still poised to have one of the best defensive units in the conference and NCAA.

Cichy, a senior this year and famously known for recording three sacks in three straight plays in the 2015 Holiday Bowl vs. USC, was named to preseason honors by the Big Ten this year. He also was ranked No. 60 on Sports Illustrated’s top 100 players entering the 2017 season. The Badgers’ secondary will also be led by returning captain D’Cota Dixon and will fueled by Derrick Tindal and newly acquired Hawaii transfer Nick Nelson.

Add in other returning players in Garrett Dooley, T.J.Edwards, the entire defensive line, oh and of course Ryan Connelly, there is no reason the Badgers won’t be a top ten defense again this year.

As the old adage goes: defense wins championships.

1. Strong aerial attack

As previously mentioned, the Badgers have normally been a run-dominant program in the last couple decades and despite all the big named talent they have seen with Ball, White, Gordon- it has not been enough to push them over the hump and get in position late in the year to compete for a national title.

The bad (let’s call it not-so-good) news of the Badgers’ passing game this year is that they will be starting a sophomore with only a half of a season (maybe a little more) of experience under his belt. Alex Hornibrook, a true freshman last season that took over in the third game of the year for the struggling Bart Houston, saw sparks and flashes of brilliance, but also times where his age and experience could not be hidden. He also saw a rough end to the year, experiencing an injury and overall losing his job back to Houston.

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The good news of the not-so-bad news is that despite all the struggles and inconsistency last year at quarterback, the Badgers still managed to get to a Big Ten Championship and win a New Year’s Six Bowl Game.

Despite some speculation this offseason about Notre Dame transfer quarterback Malik Zaire joining Wisconsin, the Badgers ultimately lost out on his sweepstakes, making it abundantly clear that this is Hornibrook’s offense moving forward. Eliminating the uncertainty and inconsistency from last year will do wonders for his confidence and be nothing but a positive feeling moving forward.

The even better news heading into next year is that Hornibrook has a very talented group of receivers to throw to, perhaps one of the best groups in recent memory.

While the Badgers have enjoyed surprising walk-ons such as Jared Abbrederis or big tight ends like Owen Daniels, it never really seemed to happen where they had more than one weapon to go to. This year, there are multiple- and that is what makes the Badgers a dangerous team and a favorite go far this season.

Senior wide receiver Jazz Peavy will return and be the Badgers’ No. 1 wide receiver this year. Not only did he put up 635 receiving yards and five touchdowns last year, but his 318 rushing yards and 15.1 yards per carry also provided a surprising boost to the offensive. An athletic and smart route runner, Peavy will be huge in the Badgers’s success this year and offers a double-duty threat on offense.

Joining Peavy at receiver will be a couple of speedy athletes in A.J. Taylor and Quintez Cephus. Taylor was primarily special teams a year ago and saw some action as kick returning from time to time, while Cephus saw limited action in a crowded group, but made the most of it with four catches for 94 yards. He also had five rushes on the year for 41 yards. Taylor and Cephus, along with George Rushing, will need to help compliment Peavy and step us as a second, third, and fourth option when all the attention is on him.

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Perhaps the biggest aerial threat the Badgers have is returning tight end Troy Fumagalli. Named a preseason All-American by Athlon Sports, Fumagalli came up huge in the team’s Cotton Bowl victory over Western Michigan with six catches for 83 yards and one touchdown.

Oh, and this catch:

Pairing a much improved and high-expectation passing game with the sound defense and exciting rushing attack, the Badgers are in great shape to make a playoff push and win the 2017 National Championship. Don’t be surprised if you see the Badgers on top of the college football world come January.