MADISON — The Wisconsin Badgers played their second game of the 2024 season on Saturday afternoon, beating the South Dakota Coyotes, 27-13.

Here are my three biggest takeaways from Wisconsin’s win.

On a team full of intriguing weapons who are either new or drastically improved from last year, Cade Yacamelli’s name was likely forgotten in the minds of most fans. But after rushing for 73 yards on just eight carries and providing all three of Wisconsin’s 10-plus yard runs, it seems like he’ll be a regular member of the rotation for the foreseeable future.

Last season, he only received significant snaps after Braelon Allen injured his left leg and missed two-and-a-half games. And when he did play, it became clear why he wasn’t playing much before that.

So much so, that when the Badgers acquired a few capable running backs in the offseason — Tawee Walker, Dilin Jones, Darrion Dupree, etc. — it seemed like Yacamelli would return to his position deep in the reserves.

“Last year, my thought process was more, ‘I’m gonna do my job to the best of my ability.’ But now it’s like, ‘Screw that. I’m gonna go out and make plays,’” Yacamelli told reporters after the game.

The difference in mentality has been palpable. Few players on the roster improved as much as he did over the offseason, and we’re already seeing early returns.

“Cade might be one of the most unselfish kids we have in this program. From about the middle of spring ball and on, Cade has done nothing but impress every coach and every single player in that locker room,” Luke Fickell said after the game.

“I’m not saying he takes a back seat, but there’s Chez Mellusi and Tawee and the slew of other running backs everybody talks about, the young kids. Then there’s Cade, and he just continues to battle and fight and work and takes every role that you give him and just accelerates at it.”

The absence of Walker definitely contributed to Yacamelli’s level of involvement, but he’s shown enough to earn more snaps even with a healthy room.

Through two games, I’m having a tough time broadly assessing the passing game.

In the opener against Western Michigan, the Broncos took away big play opportunities and made it feel like a game from the Paul Chryst era.

Against South Dakota, Tyler Van Dyke put up better numbers and made a few big throws, but the passing game has yet to show real consistency.

Players and coaches were vocal about the need to create more big plays, and it showed in their early drives. His first three completions of the game went for 32, 22 and 50 yards, with the third being the touchdown to C.J. Williams. Yet those three passes ended up covering 104 of his 214 yards for the game. Only two of his remaining 14 completions went for double digits.

“That was definitely an emphasis, for sure. We definitely got off to a hot start with that, but I wish we could carry that on throughout the game,” Van Dyke told reporters after the game.

At times it feels like Phil Longo is unsure of the type of offense he wants to run. The first two drives were reminiscent of his Air Raid roots. Then, apparently somebody reminded him that he was at Wisconsin.

I understand tweaking your strategy up 14-0, but this level of disparity feels like a product of poor coaching.

But to be fair, Van Dyke isn’t blameless, either. There were multiple plays in which wide receivers were streaking down the field, covered only by the sunlight, but were simply not seen by Van Dyke. But it’s probably hard to build a sense of comfort and consistency when Longo is changing the offense’s identity every drive.

When Alabama comes to town next weekend, their offense could easily make it a shoot out. It doesn’t seem like Longo and Van Dyke are ready.

When looking at the team on paper compared to last season, it’s hard to conceive that they haven’t significantly improved on the field. They’re deeper, more athletic and have the added confidence of a second season in the system.

Despite the closer-than-expected scores of the first games, they have generally looked better. But it seems that they can’t go three or four plays without making some sort of befuddling mistake.

On the defensive side of the ball, they have better athletes who can get to the ball much faster, but then they struggled to tackle on Saturday. Many of the Coyotes’ biggest plays came as a result of one or multiple missed tackles in the open field.

Or, sometimes, they tackled too aggressively. In the third quarter, with the Coyotes driving down the field, Jake Chaney put his helmet down and hit Javion Phelps in a way that was deemed targeting, disqualifying him from the remainder of the game as well as the first half of next week’s.

Shortly after, Vinny Anthony muffed a punt that would’ve given the Badgers the chance to go up two scores. Instead, the Coyotes had the ball inside the 10-yard-line with a chance to tie the game. But the Badgers held strong and forced a field goal, which ended up being the emotional boost they needed.

“It was a momentum-breaker. A lot of situations happen, adversity happens, targeting and different calls, then we come out and stop them and the offense gets the ball and they go down,” Jaheim Thomas said after the game.

Like last week, the fourth quarter was their cleanest and most focused. That could’ve been from the natural urgency of realizing that they might lose to an FCS school, but their perseverance should give fans more confidence.

As the schedule toughens up, especially next week, they simply can’t afford to wait until the fourth quarter to tighten up.

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