MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Chez Mellusi’s grandfather died on Friday, but he didn’t tell Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell until the conclusion of Saturday’s game.

By that point, Mellusi had delivered a performance that would have made his grandfather proud.

Mellusi rushed for two touchdowns, Tyler Van Dyke threw for another and Wisconsin beat South Dakota 27-13. Mellusi told a few people earlier this week – but not many – about his grandfather’s situation.

“I didn’t want any sympathy,” Mellusi said. “I need to do a better job letting my guys know what I’m going through. That’s on me.”

Van Dyke completed 17 of 27 passes for 214 yards and a touchdown for the Badgers (2-0). Mellusi had 16 carries for 60 yards and Cade Yacamelli rushed for a team-high 73 yards on eight attempts.

Mellusi said that he was close to Cesare Mellusi and took the situation hard. Mellusi’s father Mario Mellusi didn’t attend Saturday’s game.

“It’s life,” Chez Mellusi said. “I know what he would’ve wanted for me is to play the best version of myself. And I have to be better. Today, I did all right. I left some things on the field, for sure.”

Fickell said that this season, in particular, Mellusi’s impact has grown within the program.

“It’s the best I’ve seen him — as a leader, as a guy that can provide some energy and provide some spark,” Fickell said. “It’s a great reminder to us, especially us that understand this landscape of college football is changing, that even the older players can truly grow.”

Cade Yacamelli rushed for a team-high 73 yards on eight attempts.

Wisconsin raced to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter on a Mellusi 9-yard touchdown and a 50-yard scoring strike from Van Dyke to CJ Williams.

South Dakota (1-1) cut the lead to 17-13 in the third quarter but couldn’t get any closer.

Nathanial Vakos’ 50-yard field goal made it 20-13 late in the third period. Mellusi’s 1-yard touchdown run with 7:35 remaining put the game out of reach at 27-13.

Vakos also had a 24-yard field goal in the second period.

South Dakota’s Charles Pierre Jr. rushed for 83 yards on 12 carries and Aidan Bowman completed 12 of 23 passes for 114 yards. Keyondray James-Logan scored South Dakota’s lone touchdown with a 35-yard run early in the third quarter.

South Dakota creeped into contention in the third after a muffed punt by Wisconsin’s Vinny Anthony. But the Coyotes failed to get a touchdown and settled for Leyland’s 32-yard field goal to cut Wisconsin’s lead to 17-13.

South Dakota coach Bob Nielsen said that the Coyotes couldn’t keep up with the Badgers in the fourth quarter.

“We left a lot of points on the board,” Nielsen said. “And against a team like (Wisconsin), you can’t leave points on the board. They wore us, they leaned on us a little bit. We had one drive with the three penalties, and they did a good job of scoring late in the game to make it a two-score game.”

The takeaway

Wisconsin: The Badgers had four gains of at least 22 yards in the first half, an encouraging sign after they had no plays longer than 17 yards in their season-opening 28-14 victory over Western Michigan. The biggest plays were Williams’ 50-yard touchdown and a 32-yard catch by Anthony.

South Dakota: The Coyotes lost the game but made some big plays on defense and special teams. Nyle Dickel recovered a Wisconsin muffed punt in the third quarter. Mi’Quise Grace and Mosai Newsom got one sack each against Van Dyke.

Up next

South Dakota: At Portland State on Sept. 14.

Wisconsin: Hosts No. 4 Alabama on Sept. 14.

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More: Wisconsin 27, South Dakota 13: Tyler Van Dyke’s first touchdown, Cade Yacamelli breaks out: Recap, highlights, box score

The recent arrest of a suspected Venezuelan gang member in Wisconsin may give former President Donald Trump, who has long stoked fears of migrant crime, fodder at his upcoming rally in the state on Saturday.

Trump, the GOP presidential nominee in November’s election, is set to hold a rally Saturday afternoon in Mosinee, Wisconsin, which is about a three-and-a-half-hour drive northeast of Prairie du Chien where Alejandro Jose Coronel Zarate, a 26-year-old Venezuelan, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Thursday, following allegations of physical and sexual violence.

The Prairie du Chien Police Department wrote in a Facebook post on Friday that Zarate had allegedly been “physically and sexually violent” toward a woman in an altercation that also left a girl injured. Zarate was arrested and taken to the Crawford County Jail. ICE was notified and placed a detainer on Zarate.

Zarate is suspected of being affiliated with the transnational gang, Tren de Aragua, who are known for criminal activities including murder, kidnapping, extortion, as well as drug, weapons, and human trafficking.

He was booked into jail for domestic disorderly conduct, two counts of domestic battery, strangulation/suffocation, physical abuse to a child, disorderly conduct and two counts of second-degree sexual assault. Zarate also had warrants through Dane County, Wisconsin, for strangulation/suffocation, false imprisonment, battery and disorderly conduct.

Trump—who has amplified anti-migrant rhetoric since his first run for president during the 2016 election cycle when he called Mexican migrants “rapists” who are bringing in drugs and crime—may use Zarate’s arrest to back up his continued claims that migrants are dangerous criminals that the U.S. needs to keep out as his campaign has done before.

Meanwhile, the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan law and policy institute, said in a May 2024 article: “Numerous studies show that immigration is not linked to higher levels of crime, but rather the opposite…When looking specifically at the relationship between undocumented immigrants and crime, researchers come to similar conclusions.”

Newsweek reached out to Trump’s campaign via email for comment on Saturday afternoon.

On July 24—three days after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, who is now the Democratic presidential nominee—Trump campaign senior adviser Danielle Alvarez blamed Harris for the massive influx of illegal immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border seen in recent years.

“Border Czar Harris owns the bloodbath at the southern border, including the rape, murder, and brutal assault of women like Rachel Morin and Laken Riley. Try as they might, Kamala and her allies can’t change reality: she is responsible for the flood of migrant crime and deadly fentanyl into our country, and Americans will hold her accountable when they vote for President Trump in November,” Alvarez said in a statement.

Laken Riley was a 22-year-old nursing student who was killed in Athens, Georgia, while on a run last February. The suspect in her murder, José Antonio Ibarra, is a Venezuelan illegal immigrant. Meanwhile, Rachel Morin, a 37-year-old mother of five from Maryland, was allegedly raped and murdered by 23-year-old undocumented migrant Victor Martinez Hernandez while out for a run in August of 2023.

In 2021, Biden tasked Harris with leading the administration’s diplomacy with Central American countries—El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras—to address the “root causes” of migration. However, she never was in charge of border security. While illegal immigration has gone up significantly under Biden, it also increased in Trump’s last months in office after hitting a low from the COVID-19 pandemic.