MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin Badgers are more than halfway through their 2016 season, sitting at 5-2 (2-2 Big Ten) after weathering what has been one of the nation’s toughest schedules. Their defense has been stellar, for the most part, and their offense has had its moments with redshirt freshman quarterback Alex Hornibrook under center.
At first glance, they do not fit the profile of a team that needs to use more than one signal-caller. But that didn’t stop head coach Paul Chryst from mixing things up a bit at quarterback last week against the Iowa Hawkeyes, when he substituted senior back-up Bart Houston for Hornibrook as part of a plan to get Houston involved in the offense.
Houston got one series in the first half and one after halftime, and it was hard to argue with the results: the Badgers scored a touchdown on Houston’s first drive (on a 18-yard pass from Houston to tight end Troy Fumagalli) and Houston led a multi-play drive in the fourth quarter that ate up 4:08 of game clock and flipped the field position for the Badgers.
That’s well and good for one game, where they caught the Hawkeyes off balance with the new look. But where the Badgers go from here with their “system,” if you can call it one, is hard to say at the moment. Chryst said at his weekly press conference on Monday that he does not have a concrete plan for when he might sub in Houston for Hornibrook going forward, but added later that he’s always wanted to get both of his quarterbacks involved in the offense after it was clear they could both help the team.
“The first part was to try and make sure both Alex and Bart could be ready for the season,” Chryst said Monday. “That they could give us something, add value to the team. And I thought they did that- particularly coming out of fall camp. And then I thought both have done some good things. I thought both have, even this last week, I thought both really contributed positives. And both did some things where we could clean it up.”
“Part of me is like, ‘You know what, don’t put it all on one guy. Let them share it.’ I think it might be good for this team.”
It very well could be, but it will require Chryst, his coaching staff and their two quarterbacks to walk a fine line if they want to keep using both Hornibrook and Houston. Teams usually prefer to have one player take the reins at quarterback and run with them, fearing that to play the ‘mix and match’ game might interfere with an offense’s rhythm or hamstring the development of chemistry between a quarterback and his receivers.
When teams use two quarterbacks, for the most part it’s because they have two players with different but complementary skillsets: a pocket passer and a more mobile option, for example. The Badgers dabbled with an alternate package for quarterback-turned-safety Tanner McEvoy after Joel Stave replaced him in 2014, but the Badgers almost never threw the ball out of that look, preferring to give the athletic McEvoy a chance to make big plays happen on the ground.
But at first glance Hornibrook and Houston do not have the kind of contrasting styles you’d expect to see out of a group that uses more than one person. Hornibrook throws the better deep ball and has shown better touch on his passes than Houston, but Houston has better arm strength and is more willing to try and make plays with his feet- even if you wouldn’t describe him as a dual-threat player.
For his part Houston likened the new system to a pitching staff in baseball, where teams will call in a relief pitcher to take over for the starter. The difference here is that the rules (and the game scenario) don’t allow for the starter to return to the game like Hornibrook did against Iowa. But Houston said he thinks this arrangement can work because the Badgers have the right personnel to do it, from a physical standpoint and from a mental standpoint.
“This team is full of a bunch of cats who aren’t selfish,” Houston said Tuesday after practice. “Whoever’s in at quarterback, it doesn’t matter. We had eight offensive linemen too, this past game. That didn’t strike anybody, either. Eight guys catching the ball. It’s whoever on the team can help the offense and move the ball, that’s really all that matters.”
It’s an unconventional move for the Badgers, to be sure. But Chryst after the win over Iowa Chryst seemed to think that it might benefit Hornibrook (and Houston) to not have all the weight put on his shoulders. And when he was asked after the game if using both quarterbacks could open up a can of worms down the road, Chryst said (his tongue firmly planted in cheek) that he didn’t think it would be a hot topic.
“I think you guys all see it the same way and so we probably won’t have to talk about it,” Chryst said.
Don’t count on it. We’ll get a better idea of just how Chryst wants to move forward this weekend when the Badgers host No. 7 Nebraska in a pivotal Big Ten West game.
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John Veldhuis covers Wisconsin football, basketball and recruiting for BadgerBlitz.com on the Rivals.com network. Follow him on Twitter at @JohnVeldhuis.
