Wisconsin Football: 3 takeaways from Big Ten West win over Iowa

1. Jack Coan succeeded by not doing too much

At Wisconsin, there is a well-established and time-tested formula that says the Badgers quarterback need not be anything more than a solid game manager. While the one year of playing with Russell Wilson spoiled Badgers fans and showed them what it might look like to more regularly play beyond that formula, the foundation laid by Barry Alvarez remains the standard operating procedure in Madison.

Jack Coan has not beeen called upon to do too much for the Badgers as the starter, and that is honestly a good thing. Coan threw for 173 yards in the win against Iowa as he completed 16 of his 25 attempts. He did throw touchdown passes to Quintez Cephus and Danny Davis III, with Cephus serving as his favorite deep target.

Coan was hardly perfect, throwing an interception early in the fourth quarter as he threw an errant pass into double coverage hoping to thread a needle that had already closed. But he also showed a veteran ability to change the pace of the game, leading the Badgers on a 10-play, 64-yard drive that killed more than five minutes off the clock late in the game and resulted in a field goal that put Wisconsin up by eight.

The coaches could have tried to unleash Coan to go for the kill on that drive, but instead they depended on the formula that has won so many games at a seemingly overmatched program like the one inn Madison. They didn’t mess with the formula, and it paid off in a big win over Iowa on Saturday evening under the lights in Wisconsin’s capital.