Wisconsin Football: Early 2020 game-by-game predictions, Part 2
By James Bowers
The Minnesota Golden Gophers have defeated the Badgers only thrice in the new millennium. Last season saw the Gophers in the midst of their finest season since the 1930s, and looking forward to hosting Wisconsin after shellacking them the previous year.
Wisconsin responded to this hype by running the plucky Gophers out of their own stadium, clinching for themselves the Big Ten West title in the process. Minnesota will remember this ahead of the next battle for the Floyd of Rosedale, and look to repeat what they did the last time they were in Madison. This is not a matchup the Badgers will take lightly .
Decorated Gopher quarterback Tanner Morgan returns to lead PJ Fleck’s maroon and gold. He will lose a little help, as runners Rodney Smith and Shannon Brooks will no longer be there for him to hand the ball to. Tyler Johnson also said goodbye to the twin cities. Rashod Bateman will be back to catch Morgan’s passes, giving Minnesota some reprieve on that side of the ball.
The defense will sorely miss Antoine Winfield, Jr. Wisconsin knows this is a trap game, and will prep pretty hard for it. Jack Coan was able to do some impressive things against a Minnesota defense that did have Winfield and Co., and he will certainly try to replicate them.
Rivalry games are tough to predict, so we could label this one a toss-up. Tanner Morgan’s thirst for revenge could give the Gophers a slight edge.
Final Score: Toss-up, but slight edge to Minnesota (5-1)
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To be continued…
Wisconsin will take Oct. 17 off before heading to College Park to face a Maryland team that to date has yet to threaten anyone during their time in the Big Ten. Halloween brings a team that frightened Wisconsin with a 24-23 upset last year. Then they will head to yet another historic landmark, Chicago’s Wrigley Field, to take on the local Northwestern Wildcats. We’ll take a look at those three games in the next installment.