Wisconsin at BYU: Preview, predictions, and live stream

Wisconsin Football has their first true road game of the year in Week 3 as they travel to Provo to take on the offensively challenged BYU Cougars.

The Wisconsin Badgers are being brave enough to do something no other Big Ten team has ever done: play at BYU.

Many teams in the conference have scheduled the Cougars in the non-conference slate, but every game was played at the venue of the Big Ten team.

Back in 1992, the Penn State Nittany Lions traveled to Provo to play BYU, but fell 30-17. This was before the Nittany Lions joined the Big Ten as they were independent at that time.

Wisconsin and BYU have met just twice before in their history, but only once since 1980 as the Badgers took care of the Cougars in Madison back in 2013 by a score of 27-17 under head coach Gary Andersen. Of course, Andersen is no longer with the program, but fortunately for the Badgers- head coach Paul Chryst has been very successful on the road during his short tenure as head man in Madison. The Badgers under Chryst are 11-3 in games away from Camp Randall, including 8-1 in true road games. Their only loss came last year at undefeated Michigan 14-7.

Date: Saturday, Sept. 16
Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
Location: Provo, UT
Venue: LaVell Edwards Stadium
TV: ABC
Live Stream: WatchESPN

Keys to Victory

Despite rolling out over 500 yards of offense in their win over Florida Atlantic this past weekend, the Badgers struggled to score the ball. Yes, 31 points and a victory is nothing to hang their hat on, but a couple of interceptions and fumbles on threatening drives ended up being costly in the grand scheme of things.

Saturday holds a much tougher challenge for the Badgers and one they cannot afford to be careless with the ball in. Freshman running back Jonathan Taylor joined elite company last game, rushing for over 200 yards on the ground. The Badgers will need to continue to dominate the ground game in order to open up the aerial attack with young quarterback Alex Hornibrook and a very young receiving core, minus Jazz Peavy and Troy Fumagalli.

BYU’s defense has looked solid for most of the year, so it is their offense that will need to pick up the slack against the Badgers. Wisconsin’s defense is among the best in the country, so keeping on the field and tiring them out would be huge considering they are a bit depleted after losing Jack Cichy and Zack Baun. If the Cougars can control the time of possession and eliminate turnovers, they could hang around for a while.

Prediction

With regular starter Bradrick Shaw likely to be back this weekend, the running back trio of Shaw, Taylor, and Chris James should be in full effect for the Badgers this weekend. Expect Provo to come out rocking and Alex Hornibrook and company to maybe show a bit of jitters in their first road game.

Next: New Year's Six Bowl projections after Week 2

Expect a low scoring, grind-it-out game in the first quarter before the Badgers get a couple timely turnovers in the second half to ice the game and escape the state of Utah 3-0 heading into Big Ten play.

Final score: Wisconsin 27, BYU 13