Football
After a frustrating loss at Northwestern last weekend, head coach Gary Andersen had an important message as UW looks to bounce back at home against Illinois Saturday.
“A year ago we sat in this exact same spot, if I’m not mistaken. So the sky has not fallen completely for sure,” Andersen said. “So these kids I truly believe will be able to come back, and being 0-1 in conference is not the end of the world.”
Despite the loss, Andersen is excited to see more great games out of running back Melvin Gordon after his career-high 259 yards last Saturday.
“Melvin, unbelievable game again, and I’m sure there’s more to come. Excited about the level of play and where he is and the situations that he’s putting us in to be able to have an opportunity to win games,” Andersen said.
The Badgers (3-2) will also add a new wrinkle to their offense with the current quarterback situation with redshirt juniors Tanner McEvoy and Joel Stave.
“We’re best served to be able to play both quarterbacks to help both Joel … and Tanner,” Andersen said.
“You’ll have a flavor. Tanner can run our offense, and he can also give us the flavor of some of the option stuff that he’s done, which is great. And Joel, on the flip side of things, can get that ball down the field like we hope he can,” Andersen said.
The most important factor for the Badgers to win this week will be for them to play their game.
“The key is this week for the Badgers to take care of the Badgers on offense, defense and special teams. If we do that, we’ll have a good opportunity,” Andersen said.
Volleyball
After two victories against Northwestern and Illinois this past weekend, Wisconsin (12-2) will face Rutgers and Maryland this week, the two newest members of the Big Ten.
“We’re excited about this week, first of all, to get a full week of practice. We haven’t been able to do that the past couple weeks because we’ve been playing on Wednesday night,” said head coach Kelly Sheffield. “Second of all, we’re excited to play Rutgers and Maryland for the first time, and to have them in the Field House.”
Coach Sheffield told his team they have to stay focused against Rutgers and Maryland, even though neither team has won a conference game yet this season.
“We haven’t seen Rutgers, but we saw two matches of Maryland when they were out there in Seattle. They’re very athletic, very talented,” Sheffield said. “They gave Purdue all they could handle the other day. Purdue is the only team in the conference that hasn’t lost yet, so I think they’re going to have our attention.”
Men’s hockey
The Badgers are excited for a new season as they get set to travel to Alaska this weekend to play Alaska and Alaska-Anchorage. No. 10 Wisconsin will have a lot of young talent this year, with 11 freshmen on the team.
“I feel a little bit like a farmer planting his fields, getting the seed in the ground,” said head coach Mike Eaves. “We have a checklist of things that we’re trying to get through, and just introduce it to the kids, get some reps in practice, film it, get some feedback that we just covered and move on to the next thing.”
Even though the Badgers have a young team, they have two goaltenders returning which should greatly benefit the younger players.
“We feel that having those veteran goaltenders will buy time for our young kids both on the blue line and up front to get their feet underneath them, and get their feet underneath them and learn in a positive light,” Eaves said.
Eaves said traveling to Alaska will help the young team’s chemistry.
“You go into somebody else’s backyard, and you’re battling them, and it brings you closer together,” Eaves said. “The fact that we’re going to be together from Wednesday until Sunday, just us, we’ll get to know each other a little better.”
Women’s hockey
The Badgers came away with two victories against Minnesota–Duluth this past weekend as they head towards conference play.
“We came out strong and played well and earned a really strong victory Friday night. As a coach early in the season what are you going to get on the second night?” said head coach Mark Johnson. “Again, very pleased with a lot of different parts of our game.”
Johnson is also encouraged about the depth on this roster.
“I think from last year’s team to this year we’re probably a little deeper. So we added a couple pieces and we had quite a few bodies coming back,” Johnson said. “So the pieces we added from a scoring standpoint adds a little depth, adds a little more chemistry to some lines. It’s still early, so it’s a work in progress.”
