Week #1: Northern Illinois Huskies @ Wisconsin Badgers

The Wisconsin Badgers begin their 2009 season, as they usually do, with a “lower level” warm up team, to get their team ready for the Big Ten schedule. These games, to Badger fans, are considered the Wisconsin preseason schedule because they use the time they get against these lesser teams to find all of their starters. This ensures that they are in place for the start of their conference schedule. The Wisconsin Badgers begin their non conference schedule against the Huskies of Northern Illinois University. The Badgers are in desperate need for a promising season after being embarrassed in their 2008 season last year finishing 7-5 with a 3-5 conference record, and after getting trounced in the Champs Sports Bowl by the Seminoles of Florida State, 42-13. The Badgers usually have very good luck against these minor, non conference teams, which is the best news the Badgers can have because of the unanswered questions that the Badgers have in their offense and defense.

So, the best way to find out how well the Badgers are going to do is to know their opponents week by week. The Badgers kick off their four week home stand against the Northern Illinois. The Huskies come to us from the MAC West conference and sported a record close to the Badgers record at 6-7. NIU, however, did have a winning record in their MAC division, with a record at 5-3. Despite the 6-7 record, the Huskies were invited to participate in the Independence Bowl, where they took on Louisiana Tech. Unfortunately for the Huskies, they eventually fell to the Bulldogs 17-10.

The Northern Illinois Huskies are lead by head coach Jerry Kill, who is entering into his second season at the controls. Also returning for the Huskies is starting quarterback Chandler Harnish, who led the team in both passing and rushing categories. Harnish finished the 2008 season passing for 1,528 yards and rushing for 539 yards. That rushing total was only 29 yards more than their starting running back Me’co Brown. The Huskies main losses on the offensive side of the ball were their 2 main wide receivers, which leaves a large position battle at that position.

On the defensive side for the Huskies, there are a few more problems. Northern Illinois is only returning four defensive starters from their 2008 defense. That 2008 defense projected to be one of the better defenses in the nation. One key loss from the Huskies was defensive end Larry English, who was taken in the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft by the San Diego Chargers. English was the first player in school history to be taken in the first round of the NFL Draft.

The Badgers, on the other hand, have one blaring hole in their lineup. That is, who will be starting at running back? Most preseason articles had sophomore phenom John Clay as a lock for the starting spot, but for undisclosed reasons, Zack Brown will take the starting spot away and be the Badgers head bulldozer against Northern Illinois. Only time will tell how the Badgers are going to react with this last minute change at running back, but the clock is winding down with the Badgers first game of the season being Saturday, September 5 th at 7:00 pm CDT.

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