Wisconsin football vs. Alabama: What's at stake for the two programs?
The Badgers released their two-deep depth chart ahead of their matchup with Alabama.
The Wisconsin football team will enter Week 3 as an underdog for the first time this season as they hit the road to take on an SEC power in the Alabama Crimson Tide, who are currently ranked No. 19 in the country.
Many fans, including most Alabama and Wisconsin fans, see the upcoming matchup and assume Alabama will take care of business and roll over Wisconsin. While this very well could be the case, there’s a lot more to this game for both programs. This isn’t just a game on their schedules.
Let’s talk about what’s at stake for both programs heading into the Alabama-Wisconsin football tilt this Saturday morning.
Is Alabama a declining program?
Alabama is coming off a monstrous 73-0 victory over UL-Monroe after falling to Florida State in its opening game. They are certainly a program trying to show that their Week 1 loss was a misstep rather than a sign that they are a program in decline.
The Crimson Tide needs a convincing win over the Badgers. A close win or, worst-case-scenario, a loss to Wisconsin, would all but cement the perception that the program is not a serious College Football Playoff contender, let alone a title contender.
Kalen DeBoer took over for Nick Saban. Not an easy thing to do. He came in with impossible expectations to keep the program at the lofty heights they have been accustomed to for over 15 years under Saban.
He came in with some momentum, however, coming off an appearance in the CFP Championship Game against Michigan in 2023. In his first two recruiting cycles, Alabama ranked second and third in consecutive seasons.
But even though he came in with a ton of recruiting momentum behind him, he is losing games Saban wouldn’t have. The Tide lost a stunner to Vanderbilt, the program often viewed as the doormat of the SEC for as long as anyone can remember, last season. Opening the 2025 season with a loss to Florida State, who finished just 2-10 last season and last in the ACC, was a very bad look.
So now the Crimson Tide gets another whack at a Power 4 school in Wisconsin. The Tide are currently 21.5-point favorites over the Badgers. The Tide needs to dominate this game to be taken seriously around the country again. If the Badgers, who we all know have been down the past few seasons, can hang around or even upset Alabama, things are going to get ugly in Tuscaloosa.
Is Wisconsin making progress, or is it more of the same thing?
I’m not going to sit here and say I believe in moral victories, but I do believe in using games as a barometer to see where you really stand. This is the best ‘test’ to see where the 2025 Badgers really stand. You can’t look at the Miami (OH) and Middle Tennessee games and tell me you know exactly what this team and how good they are.
After two games, the Badgers are still somewhat of an enigma. What are they? Who do they want to be?
Well, for starters, I think they want to be a team that relies primarily on the running game, or at least have some balance. So far, the only success we’ve seen in the running game is not with the running backs, but with wide receivers on end arounds and reverses.
That’s not to say our running back group, one that has been talked about positively leading up to the season, hasn’t been good. They just haven’t had a chance to really do anything. The offensive line is the clearest problem on the team right now. Without a line that can control the line of scrimmage, the running game can’t get going. In turn, play-action becomes almost ineffective. The offense get’s predictable.
Kevin Heywood’s injury in the spring was a concern at the time, but it has become an even bigger problem than many initially thought. In the past the Badgers would be able to replace a starter along the offensive line without skipping much of a beat. That’s not the case this year. Using Davis Heinzen as a band-aid was so ineffective, the coaching staff moved Riley Mahlman from right tackle to left tackle by the second game. The offensive line shuffle ended up helping the pass protection, but it certainly didn’t help the interior line with run blocking. Through two games against Group of 5 opponents, the Badgers haven’t had one 100-yard rusher yet, and their schedule isn’t getting any easier.
The defense has been a bright spot so far this year. They were extremely stout against Miami (OH), not allowing a third down conversion all game in a shutout. Middle Tennessee was able to move the ball better on the Badgers, but the defense did a great job of bend but don’t break. The lone touchdown the unit has surrendered this season was after Danny O’Neil’s interception at the end of the first half that gave the Blue Raiders starting field position in the redzone.
That Badgers are 2-0 and depite not necessarily putting together a full game yet, they have looked better than they did last year. So that begs, the question: are the Badgers actually getting better, or have they played bad competition so far?
The Alabama game will tell us where Wisconsin is.
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