Dishing on Wisconsin: Need-to-know info on the Badgers, plus Luke Fickell on Penn State’s ‘D”

Three years ago, Penn State opened its season with a 16-10 victory over Wisconsin in Madison.

If you remember what happened at Camp Randall on that day, it would be accurate to call the Nittany Lions’ victory “unlikely”.

Still, it was a courageous effort keyed by the PSU defense, which made Wisconsin quarterback Graham Mertz look bad.

Mertz was intercepted twice, and the hosts also lost a fumble. PSU was outgained 365-297 and the Badgers held a 29-11 edge in first downs.

It could be a fairly low-scoring game on Saturday night when unbeaten Penn State (6-0) and Wisconsin (5-2) meet again in Madison.

The Badgers have won three consecutive games. But do they have the horsepower on offense to keep up with a PSU team that is averaging 471 yards per game?

A few quick notes on Wisconsin before we get Luke Fickell’s thoughts on the Lions’ defense.

Tawee Walker’s emergence. Since taking over the feature back role for Wisconsin, Walker is averaging 139.3 yards per game. He has eight rushing touchdowns.

Discipline has been a Wisconsin trademark. When it comes to penalties, the Badgers rarely make those kind mistakes. Fickell’s team is averaging just four penalties per game for an average of 26.9 yards.

Braedyn Locke is not perfect. In dominating victories over Purdue and Rutgers, the Badgers’ quarterback has passed for a total of 599 yards and four touchdowns. Locke also tossed three interceptions.

Hard to play on homecoming. Wisconsin has won its last 10 games on homecoming weekend.

At his weekly press conference, Fickell was asked about the problems that Penn State’s defensive front could cause for the Wisconsin offensive line (and Locke).

The Lions starting D-line features three disruptive players – ends Abdul Carter (9.5 tackles for loss) and Dani-Dennis Sutton (four tackles for loss, four quarterback hurries) and tackle Zane Durant (5.5 tackles for loss).

“It’s going to be a little bit different than it was the past week (against Northwestern), right?” Fickell said, referring to the Badgers’ 23-3 road win in Evanston.

“Last week, you knew where the guys were going to be. They were going to be big; they were going to be physical, there were going to be strong, they were going to be square.

“This week, it’s a little bit different in the sense that, you don’t know exactly where they’re going to be. They’re going to move all around. They’ve got really, really good athletes. … That’s where the strength of their team is.”

Fickell added: “When you really kinda start to break those guys down, it’s different to prepare for because they’re going to be in a lot of different places, they’re going to do a lot of different things.”