Wisconsin Football: Badgers stick to ground game to avoid upset

2. What happens when Alex Hornibrook has to throw the ball?

Wisconsin won on the ground against New Mexico. That in itself isn’t surprising. The Badgers are a team that is going to try and impose their will with their big guys up front and run downhill. More often than not that’s going to work, but eventually quarterback Alex Hornibrook is going to have to do more than hand the ball to Jonathan Taylor.

The Wisconsin schedule, like most other Power 5 teams, has a mix of cupcake games and heavyweight battles. Hornibrook needs to prove he can move the ball through the air against the New Mexicos of the world before he’s asked to throw into the teeth of the Michigan defense (on Oct. 13) or the Penn State defense (on Nov. 10).

Hornibrook threw for 148 yards against New Mexico. To put things into perspective, Hornibrook’s paltry passing total would have been outside the top 30 among all FBS passers against non-Power teams in Week 1. It would have been lower than J’Mar Smith (Lousiana Tech) vs South Alabama, AJ Bush Jr (Illinois) vs Kent State and Zack Annestad (Minnesota) vs New Mexico State — not the sort of company Hornibrook wants to keep.

He needs to get meaningful work in through the air before someone bottles up the ground game. At that point, Wisconsin’s College Football Playoff hopes will rest on him. That didn’t work so well last year.