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PrintIf you look at the Big Ten Conference football standings, it hits you like a blitzing linebacker.
The teams that are struggling the most are the teams that have quarterback problems.
Of the three teams that are winless in Big Ten play, the University of Wisconsin will probably make a change this week from Allan Evridge to Dustin Sherer, Purdue has seen a major regression in the play of three-year starter Curtis Painter and Indiana has begun using two quarterbacks in a rotation. At Michigan, Steven Threet has been a poor fit for the new spread offense.
The lesson to be learned from this is simple: College football is getting more and more like the NFL, which has been a quarterback-driven league for years, and even in the Big Ten it has become true that as the quarterback goes, so goes the team.
"I think (the quarterback) certainly has a lot to do with it," Purdue coach Joe Tiller said of winning and losing. "I still think, however, the real strong defensive teams have a chance to be successful with less than a stellar performance at quarterback. But because of the change in the offenses that we all are experiencing and have experienced, certainly it takes an extremely talented guy at that position to be successful."
That is definitely true of teams that have switched to the spread. But even at schools such as UW, Iowa and Michigan State, which still run fairly traditional offenses, a change has taken place.
No matter how well a team runs the ball, it is no longer sufficient just to have a game manager at quarterback. These days, college teams need a playmaker at the position, someone who can make things happen with his arm, with his feet, with his mind.
"I just think in general terms — I've coached in pro, I've coached in college and I've coached in high school — that it's bad luck not to have good quarterback play," Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. "That's a pretty common denominator. It really doesn't matter what style of offense you run. Unless your players are so superior that you can knock everybody down and pitch the ball or hand it to somebody, quarterback play is imperative."
Problem is, it is harder to play quarterback in college football. In the last five years, the passing game has become extremely sophisticated and defenses have become faster and more deceptive.
That has made it difficult for a new quarterback to excel, even if you're a fifth-year senior such as Evridge.
"It's much easier (for a quarterback) to make a mistake today than it was in the past," Tiller said. "The zone blitzes started at the NFL level and have now totally infiltrated the college level. As a result, it's very challenging and it's easier for a quarterback to make an error based on the defensive changes that you're seeing after the ball has been snapped."
No matter who starts at quarterback for UW against Iowa on Saturday — and the time probably has come to see what Sherer can do — this much is clear: The Badgers had better find a playmaker at the position quickly or it will undermine everything they're trying to do.
Correction...
As much as I would like to say yes...no, we don't.
Truth is, Wisconsin will never be able to recruit with the national powerhouses. Do we compare with the USCs, LSUs, Floridas of the college football world? As much as I would like to say yes...no? We also don't have the history of Michigan, OSU, and PSU. OSU and PSU have the Ohio/Pennsylvania area which is one of the best for high school football. Illinios has Chicago and St. Louis.
Fact is the state of Wisconsin turns out maybe 10-15 D1 football players a year, much less than those other areas. UW does a good job of getting their priority of those kids. That's why Wisconsin doesn't get all of the "high star" recruits.
Not trying to downplay the importance of recruiting, I'm just saying I don't think we should expect Wisconsin to recruit with the top schools, as far as the much overrated "star" system goes. I think they do a good job of getting the best Wisconsin players, stealing a few from Ohio, Illinios and Minnesota, and plunking a few from Florida and Texas.
Here's some of the top-ranked classes by Rivals over the past few years. See how they've done on the field, since that's the best way to evaluate recruiting classes, and compare it to the Badgers. Maybe UW is the 38th best team in the country (its average ranking by Rivals over the past 5 years) and Rivals is correct. Maybe not. You decide.
2007 (bit early to evaluate but I'll humor you)
1 Florida
2 USC
3 Tennessee (they suck, losing to a pathetic UCLA team; Bielema's most obvious bad coaching job was in the second half of the Outback Bowl)
4 LSU
5 Texas
Also: South Carolina (6), Auburn (7), Notre Dame (8) and stunk before this season, Nebraska (13), Clemson (16), Miami, Fla. (19), Ole Miss (27), Iowa (28).
* UW was No. 34 with Zach Brown, John Clay, David Gilreath, Aaron Henry, Kyle Jefferson, Josh Oglesby, Blake Sorensen and Phillip Welch.
2006
1 USC (overrated class with Ausberry, Bradford and Hazelton. C.J. Gable, Havili, Stafon Johnson, Taylor Mays and maybe Shareece Wright contribute.)
2 Florida (Harvin, Tebow, Spikes class)
3 Florida State (????)
4 Georgia (Knowshon Moreno and Matthew Stafford)
5 Texas
Note: Notre Dame No. 8 (QB Demetrius Jones, remember him?); Alabama No. 11; Miami, Fla. No. 14; Ole Miss No. 16; Nebraska No. 20.
Side note: Oklahoma State was No. 22; Texas Tech was ranked No. 25 with WR Michael Crabtree and both are now undefeated.
* UW was ranked No. 42 with Bscherer, Carimi, DeCremer, Kendricks, John Moffitt, Maurice Moore, Bielema favorite Lance Smith, Culmer St. Jean, Mickey Turner and Jay Valai. Also ranked ahead of the Badgers were UCLA (17), Arizona (18), Texas A&M (27), Arizona State (28), Maryland (29), Louisville (34), Washington (35) and Willingham is about to get fired, Virginia (39) and Iowa (40).
2005
1 USC
2 Florida State (includes 5-stars DT Callahan Bright and WR Fred Rouse. Yahoo!!)
3 Oklahoma
4 Tennessee (includes 5-star DB Demetrice Morley, in and out of school)
5 Nebraska (Callahan got canned and they still stink with his allegedly good players)
Also: 7 Miami, Fla. (5-star OT Reginald Youngblood ... who?); 8 Texas A&M; 11 Iowa (best player 5-star OL Dan Doering)
Note: Ohio State with Laurinaitis, Jenkins, Hartline, Robiskie and Alex Boone was No. 12.
* UW tied for No. 33 with Mississippi State. Badgers class includes Travis Beckum, Shane Carter, Jonathan Casillas, Garrett Graham, P.J. Hill, Andy Kemp, DeAndre Levy, Jaevery McFadden, Aubrey Pleasant, O'Brien Schofield, Matt Shaughnessy, Dustin Sherer and Eric VandenHeuvel. Teams ranked higher: Maryland (16), Clemson (17), Virginia (19), Arizona (21), UCLA (26), NC State (27), Purdue (29), Ole Miss (30) and Arizona State (32).
2004
1 USC (not as good as it looks with 5-stars Scott Ware, Ryan Powdrell, Jeff Schweiger; also includes OLs Byers, Herring and Lutui, LB Keith Rivers and WR Dwayne Jarrett, though)
2 LSU
3 Florida State (with 5-star QB Xavier Lee)
4 Miami, Fla. (with Oak Creek's own Rhyan Anderson and jailbird Willie Williams)
5 Michigan (Henne, Hart, Branch, Arrington)
Note: UW class was No. 39 with Jason Chapman, Andy Crooks, Nick Hayden, Jack Ikegwuonu, Allen Langford, Taylor Mehlhoff, Mike Newkirk, Chris Pressley and Kraig Urbik. Among the schools ranked higher: Texas A&M (13), Maryland (17), Kansas State (18), Washington (19), Purdue (20), Washington State (25), Oregon State (26), Nebraska (27), NC State (28), Ole Miss (30), UCLA (34) and Iowa (38).
2003
1 LSU
2 Florida
3 USC
4 Oklahoma
5 Miami
Also: 6 Georgia (best players 5-star RB Kregg Lumpkin and DB Paul Oliver); 7 NC State (Mario Williams was a 4-star); 8 South Carolina (with 5-star RB Demetris Summers); 9 Mississippi State; 10 Texas A&M; 12 Notre Dame; 13 North Carolina
Note: The top 3 classes were unreal, but Oklahoma's was pretty weak and Miami did nothing with the likes of Devin Hester, Greg Olsen and Kyle Wright.
*UW was No. 40 with OL Marcus Coleman, QB Tyler Donovan, DE Jamal Cooper (another Bielema favorite), P Ken DeBauche, DT Justin Ostrowski (injured), DB Roderick Rogers, and some OL named Joe Thomas. Some other teams ranked higher are Virginia (20), Florida State (21), Arizona State (22), Washington (23), Stanford (25), Minnesota (37).
He cant recruit, he cant coach and he sure cant take any blame for the crap hes put on the field.
Would you (if you were a heavily recruited QB) want to come to UW if all you saw as a visiting recruit was: (Play 1)Hand off- PJ Hill up the middle (Play 2) Hand off- PJ Hill up the right (Play 3) Hand off- PJ HIll up the left (Play 4) Punt?
Wisconsin has always lacked the play-calling balance that is now taking shape all throughout college football. Until they wake up and start changing their offensive philosophies, they will always be a "middle of the road" Big-10 team that doesn't show consistency either in the standings or on the recruiting trail.
That is the topic. And if that isnt the topic then the topic should be that you have a coaching staff that has ulterior motives for the players they choose to put on the field or the coaching staff is clueless.
http://rivals100.rivals.com/viewrank.asp?SID=880&Year=2009&ra_key=2073
Where is Wisconsin's recruiting effort being focused? Why? I have sent this list to our illustrious Badger Coaches for the past 3 years with similar questions and never gotten a response.
How about a response Brett? Why is Wisconsin being beat so badly in the recruiting game? Why is it, for example, quality QBs are choosing other schools?
