Wisconsin will continue out-of-conference play against South Dakota on Saturday afternoon.

As kickoff draws nearer, BadgerBlitz.com football beat writers Seamus Rohrer and Donnie Slusher will decide if they're "buying" or "selling" on various storylines surrounding the Wisconsin football program.

ROHRER: Buy.

Tyler Van Dyke's Week 1 performance left a lot to be desired. The gunslinger completed 21-of-36 passes for 192 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions. It was eerily reminiscent of Tanner Mordecai's Badger debut last season, when the transfer looked shaky and tossed two interceptions against Buffalo.

Still, I have a hard time believing Van Dyke doesn't bounce back on Saturday. Will he throw for 450 yards? Probably not. In fact, if he needs to, that's a problem. But I do think play-caller Phil Longo gives him more drop-backs and opens up his passing attack in order for the Badgers to create some cohesion through the air.

It was ugly against Western Michigan. The miscommunications with receivers, in particular, were an alarming issue. I expect the offense to have devoted significant time this week to cleaning that up, and I'd also expect Longo to dial up a few shot plays to try and create chunks of yardage for his offense.

A bounce-back game from Van Dyke doesn't necessarily mean a Heisman-level performance. Against a heavy underdog, a tame stat line from your quarterback is usually a good thing, because it means your offense rolled and your signal-caller didn't need to do much. Still, it'll be crucial for the chemistry and confidence of this offense for Van Dyke to hit on a few big plays come Saturday.

SLUSHER: Sell.

I’d be surprised if we see much of a different approach from last week, at least from the passing offense. The Coyotes will likely implement the same game plan as the Broncos — keeping it ugly, on the ground and in reach.

“They were taking [deep opportunities] away most of the game, bailing their corners back, playing one-high safety. So that really eliminated posts, it eliminated go-routes. We had to handle [passing] in a different way than we wanted to,” Van Dyke said on Tuesday.

Longo could have gone out of his way to call some big pass plays and get Van Dyke going, but what would’ve been the point? The coaches knew they were better than Western Michigan and knew they’d win as long as they didn’t make any major mistakes. And that’s exactly what happened.

“To be honest, I think he did what we asked him to do. We wanted to be physical, we wanted to run the football, we wanted to manage the game in a way that we weren’t just gonna take shots to start off with, and I think he did that,” Luke Fickell said after the game.

I can’t imagine Saturday’s game playing out much differently. The Coyotes will try to take away big plays, then the Badgers will say “ok” and run it down their throats on their way to a boring-yet-comfortable win.

ROHRER: Sell.

Just for clarification, this means that the Coyotes will sustain long drives, hold the football and shorten the game to give themselves a chance to win. I could certainly see that happening early, maybe for a quarter and some change. But this Wisconsin team is simply too talented to let an FCS school walk over them in their own house the way Western Michigan managed to do for the better part of three quarters.

South Dakota has a talented detail of tailbacks, led by Travis Theis and Charles Pierre Jr. I expect the Coyotes to find some creative ways to move the ball early on before the Badgers' defense has enough and buckles down. Ultimately, Wisconsin should be able to blanket receivers on the perimeter and even if the defensive line remains inept against an FCS offensive front, the Badgers' linebackers proved they can fly around and make plays in Week 1.

Theis and Pierre Jr. are good FCS backs, but they're not on the level of Western Michigan ball-carrier Jalen Buckley, who was a problem at times for Wisconsin in the opener. Quarterback Aidan Bouman is a good game manager for the Coyotes, but he's never had to contend with a raucous Camp Randall Stadium.

Ultimately, I don't expect Wisconsin to let South Dakota execute its game-plan with anywhere near the same level of efficiency that the Broncos' executed theirs in Week 1.

SLUSHER: Buy.

The key to this game will be in the trenches, specifically between South Dakota’s offensive line and Wisconsin’s defensive line.

If the Coyotes maintain a consistent rushing attack, they can at least keep the game in reach. All five of South Dakota’s starters are 300+ pounds and their tackles are each above 6-foot-5.

They’re coming off of a dominant Week 1 performance in which they paved the way for 266 rushing yards and four touchdowns. That may have been against a Division II school, but they’re still gonna enter with the belief that they’re a great rushing team.

And when they watched tape on the Badgers this week, they saw a defensive line let a lower-level offense run all over them.

I’m gonna need to see something — anything — from the Badger defensive line before I can confidently say they’ll stop anybody, FCS or FBS.

ROHRER: Buy

Wisconsin certainly wanted to get more true freshman involved in the opener; it just didn't play nearly well enough to do so. On defense, the positions to watch are defensive line and defensive back.

"It just was one of those situations where there's only 53 plays, and the rotation didn't allow to get as many of those guys in. Dillan Johnson's got to play more. Elijah Hills has got to play more," head coach Luke Fickell said.

He echoed a similar sentiment when discussing the absence of talented true freshman running back duo Darrion Dupree and Dilin Jones.

Something this coaching staff has readily admitted multiple times is that they didn't know their personnel well enough last fall. Through heavy rotation and positional battles in spring and fall camp, they've done a better job in the offseason of evaluating the roster from top to bottom. Now, it's time to continue evaluating depth at several positions by expanding rotations in-game.

Given my answer in the previous section, I do believe Wisconsin has its way with South Dakota for the majority of the game. A comfortable lead should allow the coaching staff to roll players significantly more than they did in the opener.

SLUSHER: Sell, kind of.

This question obviously depends on how the game plays out.

If the Badgers have it wrapped up by the fourth quarter, they’ll almost certainly roll out their bench. But I don’t feel confident in a blow-out. And in a game that should look similar to Wisconsin’s opener, why would there be a drastic difference in game plan or personnel?

I expect more depth on the defensive front, especially because they know South Dakota will run the ball as much as they can.

Based on Fickell’s expressed desire to use more defensive linemen, Brandon Lane should at least make an appearance, and Johnson should play more than six snaps.

We may also see more of the bigger, run-stuffing sam linebackers. Christian Alliegro played only 10 snaps against Western Michigan while Tyler Jansey played none.

However, I don’t think there will be much change elsewhere.

Everyone was curious about the absence of Dupree and Jones last week, myself included. But based on the success of Tawee Walker, Chez Mellusi and Cade Yacamelli, there’s no real need to play the freshmen.

Those two are the future of the room, and they know it. They’re not going anywhere.

And in a room as deep as the running backs, there needs to be intentionality with how they’re played. It doesn’t bode well for morale or chemistry if they play Yacamelli one week, then scrap him the next in favor of the freshmen.

It’s a long season, and we’ll eventually see the full cast of characters, but the coaches aren’t as anxious as the fans are.

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