When the Wisconsin secondary came out for their finals warm-ups, starting safeties Reggie Pearson and Scott Nelson came out without pads while D’Cota Dixon looked like a coach instead of a player.
With all three safeties out for the game, the question loomed on who was going to step up at strong safety for an injury riddled secondary. That next man up for this pivotal homecoming game was Madison native, redshirt senior Evan Bondoc.
“I just tried to prepare the best I could. It’s no different than the other weeks though. You’re always ready to play. That’s kind of the mindset we have in our room is that it’s always next man up if someone goes down,” Bondoc said. “You’ve got to prepare like you’re going to play because we have a standard as a room and we want to keep that no matter who is on the field.”
The whole team did look prepared as the Wisconsin Badgers (3-1 Big Ten, 5-2 Overall) comfortably handled the Fighting Illini of Illinois (1-3, 3-4) winning 49-20 on an apocalyptic weather day at Camp Randall.
As the Badgers’ offense looked to move on from the embarrassing loss against Michigan last week, they made sure there the game plan was to run the ball with Jonathan Taylor, Taiwan Deal and Garrett Groshek and go from there.
The Badgers opened with a 11 play, 75-yard drive capped off with a fullback dive from Alec Ingold for the score. Five plays later, the offense got the ball back after a senior linebacker T.J. Edwards interception put the Badgers in good field position.
On the ensuing drive, true freshman wide receiver Aron Cruickshank scored his first career touchdown on a 23-yard jet sweep to double the Badgers’ lead.
“It feels great. I didn’t know what to do but I knew I finally accomplished one of my goals of the season and big help from Jack Dunn with the block on the pancake,” Cruickshank said.
After a shaky start, the Illini defense improved partly thanks to a snowstorm that developed in the later part of the first quarter and lasted until midway through the second quarter, as they would quell the Badgers offense for the remainder of the half, not that Wisconsin’s players didn’t enjoy the freak weather.
“[The effects of the snowstorm] were real, I thought the kids embraced it, but I thought it was a factor in the turnovers and the takeaways they got,” head coach Paul Chryst said.
Illinois struggled with handling the ball in the snow and UW had five turnovers, including Evan Bondoc’s first career interception.
“Evan Bondoc who showed up and had a pick and a caused fumble that we didn’t get, he caused some noticeable fits and had some tackles in the run game,” Chryst said. “Now there’s a guy who has done a ton for this program and to see him get his opportunity and do well with it, that is awesome.”
While Bondoc had his career highlight, maybe the fan favorite was a great play by senior defensive lineman Olive Sagapolu, who had a deflection and interception that impressed Bondoc.
“I was impressed but I’ve seen him do that before in practice actually so it’s pretty cool,” Bondoc said.
Illinois scored first in the second half when Ra’Von Bonner took a handoff and beat sophomore safety Eric Burrell one-on-one to get into the end zone.
Burrell appeared upset about missing the tackle as he came off the field when defensive coordinator Jim Leonard grabbed him and exchanged a few words.
Burrell took that message back to the defensive backs on the bench, in particular freshman cornerback Rachad Wildgoose.
“He was just saying to me, to make sure we communicate before every play and just don’t lock in, because a check could be coming,” Wildgoose said.
D’Cota Dixon and Scott Nelson came over to the young secondary and helped keep the peace and focus on the game, with the senior captain Dixon mediating any conflict between Wildgoose and Burrell.
“The message that they pretty much told me was to get him down anyway you can and to just go out there and make the tackle,” Burrell said.
The secondary came back together and got energy back thanks to “coach” Dixon. While he’s been missed on the field with his injury, Dixon’s presence has impacted the young secondary, who played very well after last week’s struggles.
“He is like a coach out there on the field, anything you don’t know, or anything you have questions about, if you ask him anything he will answer whatever you want,” Wildgoose said.
The defense listened, and only allowed one more field goal this rest of the way along with those five turnovers.
Moving forward into a pivotal Big Ten West game next week against Northwestern, the Badgers will look for an ever-improving young defense to get healthier and for the offense to retain this level of intensity that they mustered up against Illinois.
