For the second year in a row the Wisconsin Badgers (7-5, 5-4 Big Ten) are looking to cap off their season with a win over the Miami Hurricanes (7-5, 4-4 ACC) - this time in New York City in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl.
Kickoff from Yankee Stadium is scheduled for 4:15 p.m. CST, with the game set to air on ESPN. BadgerBlitz.com's three keys for a Wisconsin win are included below, along with our staff predictions for the game.
The Badgers announced during the run-up to the bowl game that Jack Coan will get the start for the Badgers against the Hurricanes after Alex Hornibrook's post-head injury symptoms returned after a few weeks of practice. That means that Coan will burn his redshirt to play in a game that's about an hour away from where he grew up on Long Island. It will be important for Coan to block out the outside distractions surrounding his burned redshirt and this quasi-homecoming, because Miami's defense is the toughest he will have seen this year in the four games he saw action for UW.
The good news for the Badgers is that Coan seemed to have made some progress in his last outing against Purdue - and if they are going to beat Miami for the second year in a row Coan will need to play well enough to keep the Badgers in the hunt. He doesn't need to have the kind of game that Hornibrook had last year against the Hurricanes in the Orange Bowl, but the Badgers can't afford for Coan to regress to where he was earlier this year when he was making his first few career starts.
The Hurricanes announced on Wednesday that it will be senior quarterback Malik Rosier under center to start the game, rather than redshirt freshman N'Kosi Perry. Miami head coach Mark Richt said Perry will be available for the game, but it seems as though the explicit video that surfaced on Perry's social media has cost him the starting job for the moment. Both quarterbacks have their ups and downs - but it seems that Perry's good moments are better than Rosier's.
Miami's offense hasn't been very good this year, but the Badgers are going to need to find a way to keep them from moving the ball consistently in order to give their offense time to find some traction against Miami's tough defense. Both units - Wisconsin's defense and Miami's offense - have taken steps back from where they were in the Orange Bowl last year, but in order to win another bowl game against the Hurricanes the Badgers need to take another step forward and build on some of their successes from the end of their regular season.
On paper, Wisconsin's offense looks tough to handle, but the end results haven't been very good for the Badgers in 2018. They've been propelled by a strong running game thanks to another stellar season by running back Jonathan Taylor, who won this year's Doak Walker Award as the nation's top running back. But the UW passing game has held them back throughout the year - and the Hurricanes are going to do their best to make sure it stays that way so they can focus on shutting down Taylor.
To win this game the Badgers are going to need to find a way to move the chains and convert on third down more consistently than they did during the regular season, or else they're going to have trouble putting points on the board. They need to stay out of turnover trouble as well - Miami made a big splash with their turnover chain last year, but this year's group is almost as good at forcing turnovers as last year's team was.
JOHN VELDHUIS: MIAMI 24, WISCONSIN 21
It's easy to look at this matchup and think that it's a toss-up, or even that the Badgers might be a little underrated if they were just unlucky during a season where not much went right for them on offense. But Miami's defense appears to be as good as advertised, and I don't think the UW offense has the same juice that it did last season - especially with Coan under center instead of a healthy Alex Hornibrook. Nothing would surprise me anymore this season, but I think the Hurricanes get a little revenge for Wisconsin beating them in their own house last bowl season.
JON MCNAMARA: MIAMI 28, WISCONSIN 21
When I think of reasons why Wisconsin can come out on top against Miami, I'm reminded of the season finale against Minnesota. I just can't pick the Badgers here against a Hurricanes team looking for a bit of revenge. In a game neither team expected to be playing in at the start of the season, I'll go with Miami.
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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.