CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - “It’s the next man up.” This quote has been uttered by head coach Paul Chryst, offensive coordinator Joe Rudolph, redshirt senior quarterback Joel Stave and on Saturday night in Champaign, Ill., redshirt junior quarterback Bart Houston was the next man up to say the phrase.
Late in the first quarter of Wisconsin’s (3-1 Big Ten, 6-2 Overall) 24-13 win over Illinois (1-2, 4-3), Stave was sacked by junior defensive end Carroll Phillips, who beat redshirt senior left tackle Tyler Marz to the inside. The Badger quarterback was slammed to the ground, and his head whiplashed into the hard Memorial Stadium turf.
Stave would come back in for six plays on the team’s last drive of the first quarter before ultimately being ruled out of the game with a head injury. It was the Bart Houston show from there.
The Stave sack and injury was the culmination of a first quarter of terrible offensive line play. On the ground, redshirt junior running back Dare Ogunbowale could only amass seven yards on five carries in that opening period, and Stave was under pressure on nearly all seven of his pass attempts.
“It’s always the next man up,” Houston said. “The second string guy always has to be as prepared as the first string guy.”
While the cliché certainly applied to the quarterback situation, it also reflected the offensive line changes. The guys up front have gone through constant rotation, with a new right tackle and swapped guards seemingly every couple of weeks.
Even during the game, changes had to be made. Late in the third quarter, redshirt junior center Dan Voltz went down with a bad looking knee injury, so redshirt freshman left guard Michael Deiter moved back to center and fellow second-year guard Micah Kapoi took his old spot.
“We have a lot of guys who have seen playing time, just because of the injuries, and it makes it easier because of all the weird combinations we have had,” Deiter said. “Dan [Voltz] goes down, Micah [Kapoi] comes on, and I go to center. We’ve done that before, so it doesn’t make it quite that hard.”
Even before the injury, another change seemed to happen with the offensive line. After that porous first quarter, the offense came out in the second with Houston under center, and all of a sudden, the quarterback had time to throw and the ground game gained a little traction.
So what happened? For one thing, Chryst and Rudolph seemed to put an emphasis on moving the pocket to try to neutralize the Illini pass rush.
On the Badgers’ second drive of the second quarter, the first three passes that were called were play action rollouts that got Houston out of the pocket and away from the Illinois front seven. The first two went for completions and got the Wisconsin offense going on a 12-play, 59-yard drive that ended up stalling in the redzone.
Moving forward from there, the rollouts seemed to come each and every drive, and Houston used his legs to create time to throw and find receivers down field. UW hadn’t shown it much in previous games, but Chryst insisted it was all a part of the plan.
“It wasn’t anything we went to [specifically for Houston],” Chryst said. “We were able to keep the same game plan with Bart that we had for Joel.”
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That game plan didn’t have a chance to come to full fruition with Stave, but it seemed to work pretty well for Houston, all things considered. Once the protection shored up, the offense found consistency, and save for the new quarterbacks’ questionable turnovers, this unit found a way to get it done.
The Illinois defense definitely deserves some credit for their performance. They gave the Wisconsin offensive line fits and really slowed them down again in the third quarter. Houston got the ball moving quickly in the fourth, and his attack ultimately put the game away.
“We just need to start faster as an offensive line,” Marz said. “I think they’re probably the best we’ve seen thus far, especially at D-end. They had some long guys, some strong guys, and they were pretty quick.”
No matter who is at quarterback next week, the team will be trying to start fast, something they’ve really struggled to do all season. Regardless of where the changes come, it will be “next man up,” and that next man will surely get their chance to join in on the cliché.
