The Wisconsin Badgers, looking to win their fourth Big Ten title in the last five years, are headed to Indianapolis to take on Urban Meyer’s Ohio State Buckeyes. Here are five things to watch as the Badgers try to capture their first conference championship under Gary Andersen and spoil the Buckeyes’ dreams of making the inaugural College Football Playoff.
1. Replacing J.T. Barrett
Without question, the biggest storyline heading into Saturday’s game is how Ohio State will recover from the loss of starting quarterback J.T. Barrett, who suffered a broken ankle in the fourth quarter of the Buckeyes’ win over Michigan last weekend.
Barrett had been one of college football’s best stories in 2014, taking over for Braxton Miller before the beginning of the season after the latter was redshirted due to a season-ending shoulder injury. Barrett proved to be a more than serviceable replacement, throwing for 34 touchdowns and running for another 11 to guide the Buckeyes to a Big Ten East title.
Now, it will be sophomore quarterback Cardale Jones who will lead Ohio State against the Badgers.
Jones has seen very limited action this year, throwing for two touchdowns and 118 yards on 10-17 passing. He had not played in the three games prior to the win over Michigan, so it will be interesting to see how he performs on such a grand stage against a tough Wisconsin defense.
2. Melvin Gordon’s march toward Manhattan
Let’s be clear: The Heisman Trophy is Marcus Mariota’s to lose at this point.
The Oregon quarterback has been phenomenal this season, accumulating 3,470 yards on 68.6 percent passing. Mariota has also passed for 36 touchdowns and just two interceptions.
But if there is any player that has any chance of seizing the Heisman from Mariota’s grasp, it’s Melvin Gordon.
Gordon has already ran for a Big Ten-record 2,260 yards this season, surpassing the previous mark set by Wisconsin legend Ron Dayne, and has a chance to reach Barry Sanders’ FBS-record total of 2,628 yards, set in 1988, over the next two games. Sanders also ran for an additional 222 yards in Oklahoma State’s bowl game, but bowl statistics didn’t count toward season totals at the time and the NCAA won’t retroactively count this toward his total that season because it’s the NCAA.
Gordon has already punched his ticket to the Heisman Trophy ceremony in New York, but it would take a tremendous performance Saturday and a poor showing from Mariota in an Oregon loss for him to have a realistic shot at winning college football’s greatest individual prize.
3. Trying to avoid another slow start
While Wisconsin is 10-2 and riding a seven-game winning streak into Indianapolis, it has had a penchant for getting off to agonizingly slow starts this season.
Despite playing a relatively easy schedule, Wisconsin has only managed to outscore opponents 69-67 this year in the first quarter, and has trailed or been tied after 15 minutes on six different occasions.
Of course, the Badgers have been able to shake off these sluggish starts and have outscored opponents 381-128 in the final three quarters of the game. Wisconsin has been able to overcome deficits of 17-3 against both Nebraska and Minnesota in the last three weeks, and the Buckeyes being without Barrett obviously helps the Badgers, but another stagnant start could spell trouble against a team like Ohio State.
4. Andersen-Meyer reunion
Eight of Urban Meyer’s former assistants are currently head coaches at the FBS level, including Wisconsin’s Gary Andersen.
In 2004, Andersen served as Meyer’s defensive line coach at Utah. That year, the Utes went 12-0 and won the 2005 Fiesta Bowl, becoming the first-ever non-BCS conference school to win a BCS bowl game.
Meyer has gone 5-1 in head-to-head matchups with his former assistants, with the lone loss coming in 2010, when Dan Mullen’s Mississippi State Bulldogs went into Gainesville and knocked off Urban Meyer’s No. 22 Florida Gators.
Meyer and Andersen have already squared off once before, just last year, when the No. 4 Buckeyes defeated No. 23 Wisconsin 31-24 in Columbus.
Now, the two coaches will meet once again with a conference title hanging in the balance.
5. Ohio State vying for Playoff spot
The loss of Barrett was a blow to not only the Ohio State offense, but also the Buckeyes’ hopes of grabbing one of the four spots in the inaugural College Football Playoff.
Ohio State finds itself fifth in the selection committee’s latest rankings, and will need some help if it’s going to make it to the Playoff. No. 1 Alabama squares off against No. 16 Missouri in the SEC championship game; No. 2 Oregon will look to avenge its lone loss of the season when it takes on Arizona in the Pac-12 championship game; No. 3 TCU plays host to 2-9 Iowa State; and No. 4 Florida State will face No. 11 Georgia Tech in the ACC championship game; and No. 6 Baylor will welcome in No. 9 Kansas State.
If the Buckeyes are to make the College Football Playoff, they’ll need Cardale Jones to play well in a win over the Badgers, Kansas State will have to knock off the Bears and one of the top-four teams will also need to be upset.
Anything less and Ohio State will be left on the outside looking in.
