Wisconsin Badgers Stock Up, Stock Down: Week 4

BadgerBlitz.com returns the weekly 'Stock Up, Stock Down' for the 2023 season. In this series, we'll offer evaluations of players on Wisconsin's roster in the context of their 'stock.' Performance, playing time and opportunity are all factored into the movement of a player's stock.

Hunter Wohler continues to be the most impressive player on Wisconsin's defense by a mile. After his ten tackle, two interception and one sack performance on Saturday, the safety took home Big Ten defensive player of the week honors.

Wohler has been the rudder for a defense that's found itself in disarray far too often. He's a steadying presence as he racks up tackles and seeks out the football. Wisconsin's defense may be struggling overall, but as long as Wohler is on the field, they have a chance.

What makes Wohler so valuable to this defense, besides his obvious natural instincts and physicality, is his versatility. Through three games, Wohler has lined up at free safety, box safety, slot corner, wide corner and even along the defensive line, according to Pro Football Focus. Mike Tressel plays him anywhere and everywhere, and if Wohler keeps up this level of play he'll be a household name in no time.

Before the season started, there was lots of speculation as to who would be the alpha at outside linebacker. That question is still yet to be answered, but after a breakthrough two-sack performance against Georgia Southern, Darryl Peterson appears to be getting hot.

It took until game three for Peterson to log a sack, but the outside linebacker leads his room in total pressures (12) and hurries (9). That's a sign of good things to come, and now the question becomes can he string together a second good performance against Purdue this Friday.

The Badgers' pass rush had its best game of the season against Georgia Southern with five sacks. The going gets tougher as Big Ten play opens, but it's clear that Peterson, alongside sixth-year senior CJ Goetz, have been given the keys to the pass rush. We'll see if they can build off their performance against the Eagles.

Skyler Bell has now made this list for two weeks in a row, and for good reason. Don't look now, but Bell is second on the Badgers in catches with 13, third in receiving yards with 105, and has one of the two passing touchdowns Wisconsin has scored.

The slot receiver deserves a lot of credit for carving out a role in an extremely crowded receiving room. The fact that he plays the slot, Phil Longo's favorite position, certainly helps, but Bell is starting to get more shine than Will Pauling. Against Georgia Southern, Bell played 15 more snaps than Pauling and has surpassed him in catches.

It's safe to say Longo is one of the best things to happen to Bell in his collegiate career. He's been getting the ball in space, which allows him to display his innate twitch and wiggle. Bell has made several defensive backs miss over the past few weeks, and besides his egregious dropped touchdown in the opener has shown a very reliable pair of hands. It's early, but Bell's emergence is one of the biggest stories on the Badgers' offense this season.

Despite what was a largely efficient outing through the air, Tanner Mordecai's legs were the catalyst for two of Wisconsin's touchdowns against Georgia Southern on a day where he didn't get any through the air.

His first touchdown, the first of the game for Wisconsin, came on a somewhat broken play. The snap was muffed, but Mordecai took matters into his own hands and powered ahead for the score. His second was more graceful, as he scampered in from 18 yards out essentially untouched.

In game three, Longo utilized the designed quarterback run the most we've seen from his scheme thus far. Part of what made Longo's offense so effective at North Carolina, particularly last season with Drake Maye, was the constant threat of a running quarterback. If Longo continues to implement elements of mobility into Mordecai's repertoire, it should help in opening up the offense more while keeping defenses honest.

Davis Brin can't throw for nearly 400 yards on your defense if you expect to compete for a Big Ten title. He just can't. But that's exactly what Georgia Southern's quarterback did Saturday in Camp Randall Stadium.

It's one thing if your cornerbacks are simply getting beat in one-on-one situations. It's another thing entirely if opposing wide receivers are running wide open, gobbling up yards off of miscommunications and blown coverages. Wisconsin's coverage has to be better as the Badgers enter conference play.

In the defense of the starting trio of corners, the blame doesn't fall entirely on them. Offenses have been spreading out Wisconsin's defense and finding matchups with linebackers and safeties as well. Still, Ricardo Hallman, Alexander Smith and Jason Maitre are all allowing reception percentages of at least 65 percent. That's far too high, and those numbers need to drop drastically before the Badgers face higher-powered offenses.

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