BadgerBlitz.com brings back its All-Out Blitz weekly series for the 2024 season, where you can find everything you need to know about Wisconsin's upcoming opponent. We look at UW's second opponent of the season in the South Dakota Coyotes, who the Badgers will face Saturday afternoon at Camp Randall, 2:30 p.m. on FS1.

QUICK PROGRAM FACTS

Head Coach: Bob Nielsen (43-38, eighth season at South Dakota)

South Dakota All Time Record: 229-125-1 (.555)

2023 Record: 10-3

Rankings: N/A

Series vs. Wisconsin: First meeting

Like Western Michigan did last week, the Coyotes will likely keep this game on the ground. The run game is South Dakota’s greatest strength, and their best chance at keeping the Badgers on the sideline.

Thus, they’ll live and die with their offensive line. All five are above 300 pounds and their two tackles — Joe Cotton and Bryce Henderson — are 6-foot-7 and 6-foot-8, respectively. Cotton and starting center Joey Lombard each finished with over 700 offensive snaps last season, according to Pro Football Focus, while Henderson logged 575.

Yet their work will be for naught if the Coyotes’ running backs behind them don’t produce. Travis Theis was the lead back last season and is listed as the starter on the two-deep, but Charles Pierre Jr. is coming off of a 136-rushing-yard, two-touchdown performance. We can expect a healthy dose of each back as the running game will be paramount to controlling the game.

It’ll be up to the Badgers to ensure their run defense dramatically improves from last week, when an inferior team stayed in the game for far too long because they seemed to pick up five yards whenever they wanted.

They primarily used four defensive linemen last week — Curt Neal, Ben Barten, Cade McDonald and Elijah Hills — while also giving Dillan Johnson six snaps. Luke Fickell expressed his desire to give Johnson more snaps, while also using six linemen, which would suggest that Brandon Lane should see the field after logging zero snaps last week.

Based on Fickell’s assessment of the defensive line’s debut performance, we can expect to see some sort of change up front.

“I’m not gonna say they did a great job, I’m not gonna say they didn’t do their job. But when the game gets methodical like that, it takes a lot of discipline. We played a lot of guys, we rolled some guys through there. Maybe we didn’t play as many or the numbers at which we needed to,” Fickell said.

“I think all-in-all, those guys continue to hold up, they continue to do what we ask them to, and we know this — we have to find some ways to create negative yardage plays, so that the game doesn’t become as methodical as it is.”

Starting inside linebackers Jake Chaney and Jaheim Thomas looked great last week, but we could see more of backups Christian Alliegro and Tyler Jansey, two bigger bodies who would provide reinforcement against the run.

As for South Dakota’s passing game, they didn’t need much from them last week as they ran all over Division II school Northern State on their way to a 45-3 victory. Quarterback Aiden Bouman’s stat line is proof of how easy his job was — completing 9-of-12 passes for 85 yards.

But this wasn’t totally out of character for their offense. Last season, Bouman finished in the lower half of the MAC in pass attempts, yards and touchdowns. He has a capable receiving option in Carter Bell, a shifty, 5-foot-10 sixth-year senior who finished with a team-high 51 receptions and 896 receiving yards last season.

Against a higher level team in Wisconsin, the Coyotes better be at least prepared to pass the ball. Bell will be at the center of those plans.

Regardless, this shouldn’t be a tough challenge for Wisconsin’s secondary, who are coming off of a stellar debut performance. Starting perimeter cornerbacks Ricardo Hallman and Nyzier Fourqurean logged 19 and 17 coverage snaps, respectively, but were only targeted once each. The defense’s best player, Hunter Wohler, will likely have his mind focused more on helping stop the run.

While the Badgers ultimately shouldn’t struggle against an FCS defense, South Dakota had one of the better defenses in the subdivision last season, holding their opponents to single digits in six of their 10 wins. Yet they did lose a few of their best players over the offseason and only played a Division II school in Week 1, so their current defense is ultimately untested.

Still, the strategy should remain the same, which is to limit passing and keep everything on the ground for their front seven to take care of.

Blake Holden and Mosai Newsom are the central cogs of the defensive line. Holden, a senior, is one of the most experienced players on the defense and provides some necessary leadership for a unit that lost multiple veterans.

Behind them sits a rather inexperienced linebacker unit, led by one of the most interesting players on their team. Mi’Quise Grace is somewhat of an inside/outside linebacker hybrid, capable of both manning the inside of the field and wreaking havoc off the edge. The other starters, Teven McKelvey and Gary Bryant III, have their work cut out for them, especially because they’re still reeling from the loss of Brock Mogensen, one of last season’s defensive leaders who now plays for the Dallas Cowboys.

Ultimately, they shouldn’t pose too great a challenge for Wisconsin’s two-back punch of Chez Mellusi and Tawee Walker. Mellusi is coming off of a 19-carry performance, which is the most he’s had in a game since November 2022. He rushed for 74 yards and a touchdown, while Walker ran 15 times for 66 yards and a touchdown. Behind them, Cade Yacamelli rushed four times for 35 yards and looked worthy of more involvement, so expect to see him again.

The running backs should make it so that the Badgers rarely-if-ever have to pass. But it would still be worthwhile to shake off some of Tyler Van Dyke’s rust before Alabama comes to town next weekend.

It would also be worthwhile to involve more receivers. Last week, Will Pauling received 13 targets, which was more than double the next highest targeted receiver (Bryson Green, 6). Trech Kekahuna impressed in his limited snaps after a strong offseason, so there’s a good chance we’ll see more of him as early as Saturday.

The receivers are lucky to go against a mixed bag of cornerbacks who are reeling from the loss of Myles Harden, one of their best players last season who was taken in the seventh round of the NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns. They brought in Mike Reid from Monmouth, who was a two-time all-conference player in the CAA (Colonial Athletic Association) and also brings 31 games of starting experience. Behind him, it’s a group of question marks.

The corners are supported by their safety group, which is perhaps the strongest unit on the team. Dennis Shorter and Josiah “JoJo” Ganues started every game last season and now return for their senior seasons. The two backups, Tim White and Clayton Denker, played in all 13 games last season and still feature prominently.

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