Opponent View: Wisconsin

Will the misery ever end? That’s Purdue’s hope vs. Wisconsin, which visits West Lafayette having beaten the Boilermakers 16 times in a row dating to 2003.

The Badgers haven’t lost in Ross-Ade Stadium since 1997, Joe Tiller’s first season at Purdue. Since then, Boilermaker coaches Danny Hope, Darrell Hazell and Jeff Brohm all tried–and failed–to beat Wisconsin. Now, it’s Ryan Walters‘ turn, as Purdue takes the lid off the start of Big Ten play after going 1-2 in non-conference action.

Wisconsin (2-1) leads the all-time series between the two schools 52-29-8 and holds a 23-16-3 record in West Lafayette.

The Badgers are led by a first-year coach in Luke Fickell, an Ohio State legend who most recently was head coach at Cincinnati.

Matt Lepay, the long-time voice of the Badgers, offers insight into Wisconsin in advance to kickoff on Friday night at 7 p.m. ET on FS1.

GoldandBlack.com: What can we expect from the Wisconsin offense?

Lepay: I think the general way to describe this team is “work in progress.” Offensively, as I’m sure you are aware, it’s gone through a pretty significant philosophical shift from what we have seen for 30-plus years to what they’re terming the “Air Raid.” There are different versions of it.

This version of the Air Raid, they will run it if they think that’s the best way to go about their business. But clearly they’re trying to throw the ball around a little bit more. They’re trying to spread you out, trying to make defenses defend sideline-to-sideline. So, in theory, that should create a little less traffic in the box for running backs Braelon Allen and Chez Meullusi.

But this has been an offense that’s been slow starting. The third quarter has been great. They just need to bottle that up and find a way to get that formula working earlier in games. They’ve been in a couple of dogfights already this season in games where that’s probably surprised people. Still trying to work through kinks, but I think it has the makings of being a pretty good offense and certainly one that’s fun to watch.

GoldandBlack.com: What can we expect from the Badger defense?

Lepay: We have talked with Mike Tressel, the defensive coordinator, and he gets labeled a certain way as a 3-3-5 (scheme coach). And, really, it varies. You’ll see two down linemen, you’ll see it’s a lot of three-safety looks, which I think has been good for safety Hunter Wohler, in particular, the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week. Had a couple of interceptions last week. He’s had double-digit tackles each of the first three games.

But, again, I’m wearing out the term already, I think that this unit a “work in progress.” They are giving up some big plays in the passing game. But the one thing that they’re getting better at, particularly in the last game-and-a-half, is getting pressure on the quarterback. Luke Fickell will tell you that it’s not just sacks, it’s pressures, it’s disruptions and I think you’ll look back at the interceptions that they got last week — they had five of them — you could safely say that four of them were led in large part by pressure on the Georgia Southern quarterback.

I think there are enough differences from what (former coach and DC) Jim Leonhard used with his defenses that worked so well to what Mike Tressel wants to use. And those defenses worked really well for him in his previous stops (Cincinnati, Michigan State of late), so there’s still a bit of an adjustment period going on. I do think they have the talent to be a pretty good defense, but they also know they’re going to be tested again on Friday night against a team that can throw the ball around pretty well.

GoldandBlack.com: How do you see this game unfolding?

Lepay: I’ll be really curious to see whether Wisconsin can start better. That’s been the question of the week in this early portion of the season for the Badgers. I mentioned that in the third quarter, they are outscoring opponents, 48-7. That’s the good news. The bad news is they’re being outscored in the first half of games so far. So, that’ll be important to see if they could get into a rhythm offensively earlier in the game.

And then, defensively, Purdue is going through some transition, as well, but it’s hard not to notice Deion Burks. It’s hard not to notice of Abdur-Rahmaan Yaseen. I mean, they’ve got some talented receivers. And this freshman tight end looks awfully impressive, too, Max Klare. So, I’m gonna be eager to see how Wisconsin’s defense holds up in general, but is it going to continue to be able to get some pressure on the quarterback, make Hudson Card uncomfortable?

If it doesn’t result in turnovers, at least it could result in some incomplete passes to get the defense off the field. They had trouble getting off the field last week. Georgia Southern was pretty good on third down. So, we’ll see if Wisconsin can shore that up a little bit Friday night.

MORE: First look: Wisconsin | First and 10: Wisconsin at Purdue | Three Thoughts From The Weekend: Three-game assessments, Purdue basketball and more | Gold and Black Radio: Purdue looks for fixes ahead of Wisconsin visit | Turnovers, penalties must be reduced if Purdue wants to end 16-game skid vs. Wisconsin | 3-2-1: More Deion Burks, please | Number Crunching: Week 3

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