By Colton Clark The Spokesman-Review 9/9/2022
MADISON, Wisconsin – Washington
State is a major underdog, playing on the road against a well-established
program in a famous venue on national television.
The Cougars’ coach is quite familiar
with his team’s coming opponent. A win this weekend would mean a great deal to
him – and boost his team’s reputation considerably.
“What an opportunity,” Jake Dickert
said. “In life, you only get so many opportunities, and you gotta take
advantage of each and every one of them. This is a unique opportunity.”
Dickert is returning to his home state
and the Cougars are looking for a signature win when they meet the 19th-ranked
Wisconsin Badgers at 12:30 p.m. Saturday in front of over 80,000 fans at Camp
Randall Stadium. The game will air on Fox.
“These are the moments,” Dickert said. “I love
these challenges. To do it, it’s going to take something really special, but
it’s not going to take an out-of-body experience. It’ll be in a different
environment, and we just gotta make sure we’re focused on one play at a time.”
The Badgers (1-0) are 17.5-point
favorites over WSU (1-0), which survived a mighty test from Idaho in Week 1.
WSU, eager to prove itself after an uninspiring opener, has a chance to
introduce itself to the college football world. The Cougs could also secure a
particularly important victory for their first-year head coach, who grew up
rooting for the Badgers and will have hundreds of loved ones in attendance.
If the Pac-12’s Cougars hope to pull
off an upset in their most significant nonconference matchup in recent history,
they’ll have to shrug off a hostile Big Ten environment, contain a powerful run
game and play much cleaner offense than they did last week.
“Our team is ready for this
environment and what it’s gonna mean, going on the road and trying to win
against a really good football team,” Dickert said.
“We can talk about the outside and
the environment and all this stuff, but what matters is what’s in the arena,
how we play and how we perform and execute.”
WSU’s new Air Raid offense operated
to mixed results in its debut.
“We know we weren’t our best, not
even close to it,” slot receiver Renard Bell said. “We know we can only go up
from there.”
The Cougars’ ground game functioned
well, save two fumbles. Quarterback Cameron Ward and his pass-catchers found a
groove on only a few drives against the FCS Vandals. Wisconsin has been one of
the top 10 defensive teams in the FBS “for the last 10 years, it feels like,”
Dickert noted.
“I have the utmost respect for
(eighth-year Badgers coach Paul Chryst) because it isn’t just getting a program
to a certain level that’s hard, it’s sustaining that success,” Dickert said.
“They play hard, they play physical, they play tough. They’re as advertised.
They’re as big as we’ve seen, probably as big as you can get in our league.”
Last season, the Badgers owned the
nation’s No. 1-ranked total defense (239 yards per game) and rushing defense
(64.8 yards). They were among the five best in the country in passing defense
and scoring defense, too.
Wisconsin lost several key pieces to
graduation, but restocked and seems primed for another impressive defensive
campaign, spearheaded by stellar play up front. Expect the Cougs to take an
up-tempo approach and try to use speed as a counter to Wisconsin’s defensive
strengths.
Offensively, the Badgers thrive on
the ground. Their program is known for producing elite running backs and
offensive linemen. This year, they have a pro prospect in the backfield and a
few NFL hopefuls blocking for him. Sophomore tailback Braelon Allen, one of the
nation’s most productive ball-carriers and a Doak Walker Award watch list
player, is “maybe going to be the best (running back) to ever come through
there,” Dickert said.
“He just bounces off guys,” he
added. “The thing that makes him unique is his patience. He hit a 96-yarder
(last weekend versus Illinois State), but it wasn’t just up the hole and gone.
He was patient to the left and cut it all the way back. It’s very rare to have
that size (6-foot-2, 235 pounds) and speed to take it to the house like that.”
Few teams have managed to limit
Allen so far in his young career. But the Cougars, boasting depth and talent in
their D-line and linebacking corps, feel well-equipped for the challenge. On
the brightest stage WSU has seen in some time, the team will lean heavily on
its most proven group: the defensive front.
“It’s a different test, a different
task – the way (the Badgers) play the game,” Dickert said. “They’re OK with a
punt. They’re OK with grinding yards and 4-yard runs over and over. It’s the
mentality stuff – we gotta make sure we’re doing our jobs, and when the
opportunity comes, we gotta take advantage of it.
“When we get the opportunity to make
a play, we gotta go make a play against a good football team, because we are a
good football team and we gotta go prove that this week.”
