The No. 6 Wisconsin Badgers (2-0) will take on the BYU Cougars (1-1) on Saturday afternoon at Camp Randall Stadium, so to get the inside scoop on the Cougars we spoke with Jared Lloyd of the Provo Daily Herald and asked him a few questions - his answers are included below.
What should we make of BYU's win over Arizona in week one and their loss to California in week two? Was a 1-1 start about what this team could reasonably have expected after a down season in 2017, or have they outperformed pre-season expectations?
LLOYD: Expectations in Provo have been wildly fluctuating over the last couple of years, so it's not really surprising they have been all over the map in the last few weeks. The pessimistic folks expected BYU to be 1-4 at best while the optimistic ones thought 3-2 was attainable. Only the really, REALLY optimistic supporters thought the Cougars would be better than that in September. The reality is that both the road game at Arizona and the home game against Cal were winnable. BYU only played well enough to win one of those, while the Bears took advantage of a Cougar team that made a lot of costly mistakes.
When we spoke last we talked about BYU's offensive struggles in 2017 - what changes did they make to their coaching staff and offensive scheme in the offseason, and how has that side of the ball performed in the first two weeks of the season?
LLOYD: BYU changed up virtually the entire offensive coaching staff at the end of last season, bringing in LSU's offensive line coach Jeff Grimes to run the Cougar offense. He brought a scheme that more closely resembles what Boise State and LSU have done in the past, with elements of other offenses as well. BYU was very physical against Arizona and at the start of the Cal game but failed to maintain it through 60 minutes in the 21-18 loss. The Cougar pass game has been mediocre but part of that has been because receivers to this point haven't made plays when they've had chances.
The Cougars didn't have quarterback Tanner Mangum available for their game against Wisconsin last year. What does he bring to the BYU offense when he's under center? And how firm is his grip on the starting job at this point in the season?
LLOYD: This is a question that many Cougar fans wonder as well. Mangum came into BYU with high expectations and performed well as a freshman, but in many ways has struggled to take his game to the next level. He likes to move around, although he's not a dangerous runner, and isn't afraid to throw while rolling out. He hasn't consistently made the right reads or thrown the ball with confidence, which has hurt the BYU offense. The main backup right now is a freshmen, however, so turning the offense over to him poses its own set of risks.
What should Wisconsin fans expect to see when the BYU defense is on the field? What kind of scheme do they run, and who are the key players to watch?
LLOYD: BYU converted to a 4-3 scheme before 2017, although it is common for the Cougars to have a linebacker drop in coverage and almost make it a 4-2-5. BYU has a very strong nose tackle named Khyiris Tonga who often pushes opposing linemen into the backfield but the key guys are the linebackers. Seniors Sione Takitaki, Butch Pau'u and Zayne Anderson are somewhat undersized but are athletic and aren't afraid to be physical. BYU also rotates in a lot of different players, so don't be surprised to see quite a bit of shuffling.
Finally, what is your score prediction for the game? How do you see this one playing out?
LLOYD: I'm going to reserve me actual prediction for our weekly GameDay publication (also available online at CougarBlue.com) but frankly I don't think the Cougars have improved enough to drastically change the script from what happened when Wisconsin came to Provo in 2017. BYU struggled to fill the gaps at times against Cal and now they face a Badger team who may be the best in the country at taking advantage of those types of openings. That means the Cougar offense has to be able to put up quite a few points for BYU to have any shot at the upset and since the Cougar offense is only averaging 19 points per games so far (one of the touchdowns against Cal was a defensive score), it seems unlikely.
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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.
