BadgerBlitz.com's weekly feature, "The 3 Cs," returns for the 2024 season. The staff takes a look at one thing we're curious, confident and concerned about heading into Wisconsin's Week 2 tilt with South Dakota.

Staff writers Seamus Rohrer and Donnie Slusher each give their thoughts on the aforementioned topics for this week's contest.

ROHRER: I'm curious as to what Wisconsin's offensive game plan will be against South Dakota.

Against Western Michigan, the Badgers wanted to run the ball down the Broncos' throat. The results were...mixed. Wisconsin managed to hold the ball and sustain long drives, but the Badgers' struggled to finish drives in the red zone and the longest play the running game produced was a whopping 12 yards.

Head coach Luke Fickell mentioned how he wanted to get the tailbacks and offensive linemen going as a reasoning for the run-heavy approach. The running backs certainly played with passion, but the offensive line's performance was less inspiring. Against another lesser foe, do the Badgers again try to impose their will and physicality, or do they attempt to air the football out and get the passing game in rhythm?

There's an argument to be made for both philosophies. On one hand, Wisconsin is bigger and stronger than South Dakota in the trenches. On average, the Badgers' offensive linemen weigh 31 pounds more than the Coyotes' defensive linemen. That practically screams run the football. On the other hand, does offensive coordinator Phil Longo really want to wait until it's the Crimson Tide on the other side of the line of scrimmage to try to get his passing game in rhythm?

SLUSHER: I’m curious to see if the defensive line can bounce back from a rough debut performance.

After James Thompson’s season-ending injury removed the best player from an already thin defensive line, expectations for the room essentially dropped to the floor. Against one of the weakest teams on their schedule in Western Michigan, fears were only validated.

The Broncos ended up rushing for just 120 yards on 3.6 yards per carry, but there were multiple drives (notably the first two) in which they seemed to waltz up the field without breaking a sweat.

“I’m not gonna say they did a great job, I’m not gonna say they didn’t do their job. But when the game gets methodical like that, it takes a lot of discipline. We played a lot of guys, we rolled some guys through there. Maybe we didn’t play as many or the numbers at which we needed to,” Fickell said about the defensive line after the game.

We know that South Dakota will at least try to establish the run against Wisconsin. In Week 1, they only attempted 13 passes but ran the ball 38 times. That was perhaps in large part due to their massive physical advantage over Northern State, a Division II school, but their offense under head coach Bob Nielson has been run-centric for years. There’s not gonna be much of a break for the defensive line before Alabama comes to town next weekend.

If the front line doesn’t quickly improve, it’s difficult to imagine them stopping any competent rushing team.

They significantly improved everywhere else on defense, but we saw against Western Michigan that none of it really matters if the opponent is content to rush for five yards at a time and kill the defense with 1,000 paper cuts.

ROHRER: I'm confident that Trech Kekahuna will see his snap count spike.

Regardless of which route Wisconsin goes in the game plan department, you simply can't keep this guy off the field. Say what you will about this coaching staff, but one thing they've done consistently well is identity and deploy the young talent on the roster (see: Christian Alliegro, Xavier Lucas, Jonas Duclona, ect).

Meanwhile, Kekahuna looked excellent as a receiver in Week 1. On his two-point conversion, he climbed the proverbial ladder in the back of the end zone and snagged the pass out of the air, making sure to land in bounds. On a third down conversion, he displayed great concentration on a laser from Van Dyke while a defensive back tried to make a play on the ball. Simply put, he looked like Wisconsin's most dangerous receiver.

Fickell isn't one to offer unsolicited praise if it's not warranted. That's why when on Monday, speaking of Kekahuna he said "when there's an opportunity and the ball’s in his hand, he can be electrifying," it stood out. The staff knows what it has in Kekahuna, and that's an extremely talented, dynamic slot receiver.

SLUSHER: I’m confident that this game will look similar to last week’s, at least early.

Like Western Michigan, South Dakota will try to run the ball down the Badgers’ throats, take away big play opportunities and create as ugly of a game as possible. That’s at least what they expect.

“I think in a lot of ways, it’s gonna be very similar. It's gonna be a hard fought battle. This team's gonna have a plan to come in here and do a darn good job at slowing the game down. I don't think there's any mystery about that. They'll be physical, they'll run the football, they'll take shots, but they're probably going to be in a similar type of game plan of what Western Michigan was, and our job is to not allow that to happen,” Fickell said during Monday’s press conference.

The Coyotes went 10-3 last year and are coming off of a 45-3 Week 1 win. It may have been against a Division II school, but the players don’t care. They’ll walk in with their chest out, expecting to beat a Badger team that didn’t look ready for such a physical game in their debut.

Based on Wisconsin’s slow start issues dating back to last year, I’ll need to see a strong first quarter before it feels realistic for them to come out and dominate a lesser opponent. And like last week, I still expect the Badgers to win comfortably, but it’ll be after an hour of absolute chaos and calling for heads on social media.

ROHRER: I'm concerned that Wisconsin's pass rush remains stuck in the mud.

This is more of an overarching concern, whether or not it rears its ugly head against South Dakota. Even if Wisconsin tallies four or five sacks, I'll still be concerned that the Badgers won't be able to replicate that production against FBS competition.

Against Western Michigan, the Badgers' edge players managed to blow up some runs but couldn't log a quarterback takedown. Broncos' quarterback Hayden Wolff was pressured on eight of his 21 drop-backs, per Pro Football Focus. That coupled with just one sack isn't up to par with the heat Wisconsin's defense needs to be able to bring.

In my mind, the pass rush is the biggest key to this defense right now. The talent, particularly at linebacker and defensive back, is there to field an elite unit. If opposing quarterbacks have all day in the pocket, however, it's all for naught.

SLUSHER: I’m concerned that Tyler Van Dyke will remain in his shell.

Based on everything I mentioned in the “confident” section above, it’s looking like we’re in for another ugly matchup. The Badgers won’t care about the aesthetics of their offense as long as they win, but Longo should consider shaking the dust off of Van Dyke before the schedule heats up and he’s needed.

Last week, it seemed as if the game plan was to always lean on the run. That’s certainly what the first few drives indicated. But it also didn’t help that Western Michigan’s sole purpose was to take out big play opportunities.

“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.

This week, it doesn’t matter how South Dakota plays. A Big Ten offense led by a multi-year starting quarterback should be able to generate a few big passing plays against an FCS defense. I’m not asking for the world.

In two weeks, Alabama is coming to town, with a Kalen DaBoer offense that takes shots. And if the Badgers’ offense sputters early and they fall down 14-0 in the first quarter, Van Dyke is gonna have to throw 35 passes to even think about winning. He, and Longo, better be ready for that possibility.

_________________________________________________

*Chat about this article in The Badgers' Den

*Check out our videos, interviews, and Q&As on our YouTube channel

*Subscribe and listen to the BadgerBlitz.com podcast (as seen on Apple, Google, Spotify and wherever you listen to podcasts)

*Follow us on Twitter: @McNamaraRivals, @TheBadgerNation, @RaulV45, @seamus_rohrer, @DonnieSlusher_

*Like us on Facebook