The Wisconsin Badgers closed out their abbreviated 2020 season with a 42-28 victory over Wake Forest in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl on Dec.30.

In a year where COVID dominated the headlines, BadgerBlitz.com looks back at the season that was, breaking down the bright spots and low points at each position, with an eye toward the future.

The hype for the 2020 opener had been building for an extraordinary amount of time already with the season being downsized, canceled and finally rescheduled. The excitement for some perhaps increased more when senior Jack Coan injured his foot, costing him the season, and opening the door for highly-touted Graham Mertz to take the reigns as the starter.

He didn’t disappoint. Mertz finished with 248 passing yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions in a 45-7 crushing of Illinois. He set a school record for completion percentage (20-for-21, 95.2 percent) and completed his first 17 passes, the only miss coming when he threw slightly behind tailback Garrett Groshek and had the throw go off his hands.

“I thought he had good poise,” Wisconsin coach Paul Chryst said. “I thought he saw the field well. You never know quite how someone’s going to react in their first start, but I thought he was himself.”

One of the highlights was Mertz running the two-minute drill was the poise of a veteran, delivering on a five-play, 72-yard drive that didn’t use up any timeouts. And when the Badgers got the ball back with 36 seconds left and their full allotment of timeouts, Mertz hit a wide-open Danny Davis for a 53-yard score that was a backbreaker.

The only previous Wisconsin quarterbacks to throw five touchdown passes in a game are Darrell Bevell against Nevada in 1993 and Jim Sorgi against Michigan State in 2003.

“I’m just happy the guys in the locker room are pumped right now,” Mertz said. “We’ve got to keep building on that.”

The problem with momentum is that it can be gone in an instant, which was the case with Wisconsin. The Badgers lost their two games after the Illinois win because of COVID and Mertz – who contracted the disease – barely practiced between the opener and the Michigan win. Even though UW put up 49 points on Michigan, thanks largely to prime field position, there were some warning signs. Michigan’s defense stunk and left receivers open underneath the coverage. Mertz misfired on his only pass attempt over 30 yards to Davis and his longest completion was 20 yards to Kendric Pryor. It would be the last time those two receivers were on the field at the same time.

It’s hard to pick just one of the three losses Wisconsin had because they all reveal a similar theme of Mertz’s inability to hit open targets, go through his progressions, recognize pressures and maintain ball security against complex defenses with good pass rushes.

In a loss at Northwestern, Mertz forced passes, missed open receivers and was off-balanced with his feet, resulting in three interceptions, fumbled and led no scoring drives in the second half. Against Indiana two weeks later, Mertz finished with 202 yards through the air, no touchdowns and an interception. He also lost a fumble in the first half that led to Indiana’s first touchdown, as the Badgers didn’t score a touchdown for the first time in 67 games. Against Iowa, the Badgers had only 225 total yards, committed two turnovers and went 5-for-22 on third and fourth down.

Even though he looked like it in the opener, Mertz wasn’t Superman and would go through typical first year growing pains. Without key weapons at receiver, running back and on the offensive line during the three-game losing streak, those pains were amplified with little margin for error.

It’s a funky year for stats considering the varying number of games teams played. Even so, Wisconsin finishing 108th in the country in average passing yards (181.0), 87th in passing efficiency and 81st in third-down percentage (38.0) is a representation of an offense that didn’t function consistently at a high level.

With Coan entering the transfer portal and committing to Notre Dame, Mertz is the favorite to be Wisconsin’s starter for the foreseeable future. After the roller coaster he experienced in 2020, how will Mertz evolve and grow from his failures and become a more well-rounded quarterback? More importantly, can he work his way out of ruts to breathe confidence within the offense?

Against Illinois, the Badgers eased Mertz into the game with high-percentage completions. Chryst eventually called more complex things, and Mertz responded favorably by calmly going through his progressions when the pocket allowed him to and moving when pressure started to creep in. As the defenses UW faced got more complex and things went awry, Mertz had trouble getting the offense back on track unless the defense bailed him out with a great starting field position.

UW will need time to evaluate what they have in Chase Wolf, too. Wolf threw a critical third-down touchdown pass against Minnesota on his first snap, needing to step in after Mertz was knocked from the game with a mild concussion. His ability to move allowed the coaching staff to put in some run-pass options for him in the final two games of the season. However, Wolf hung two deep ball throws that were intercepted. Wolf arguably has as much talent as Mertz but has struggled to display it on the field, making spring important for both young quarterbacks to improve their arsenal.