Battle-tested linemen look to the future
The Badgers had to throw several freshmen offensive linemen in to the fire in 2015, but they're hoping their early struggles will help them improve for the years to come.
MADISON, Wis. – Even before the start of the season it was clear the Wisconsin Badgers had a lot of questions marks on the offensive line. Having to replace three senior starters will do that.
But the Badgers have had to replace experienced offensive linemen before, and they still managed to keep their powerful running game on track- the reasoning went that the Badgers would keep plugging away on the ground in part because they always had.
2015 was the exception to what had become the rule. A combination of attrition and injuries forced a young group of offensive linemen in to action- none of whom had played in a game for the Badgers before this season.
The results weren’t always pretty. The Badgers rushed for just 148 yards per game after averaging over 264 yards per game on the ground from 2010-2014, as The Badgers rushed for less than 200 yards in three of their four non-conference games, and under 100 in three Big Ten games (including -26 yards in their 13-7 loss to Northwestern).
And while losing junior running back Corey Clement for most of the season to a groin injury certainly hurt UW’s ability to run the ball, it was clear the Badgers were going through more growing pains than they might have expected at the start of the year, and they would just have to ride the highs and lows that come with relying on young players.
But after a few flashes during the regular season something clicked for UW’s young linemen in their regular season finale against Minnesota, where the Badgers rushed for 257 yards and four touchdowns behind four redshirt freshman starters on the line- their seventh different combination of starters in 12 games.
It was a big game for Beau Benzschawel, Michael Deiter and Micah Kapoi, who battled through injuries and adversity of their own to finally see things come together in the team’s regular season finale.
Maybe the seventh time really was the charm, but the consensus seemed to be that their game against Minnesota was a light bulb moment for Wisconsin’s young linemen, who finally saw what running the ball was supposed to look like in Paul Chryst’s offense.
“I think it was that we told ourselves ‘It’s rivalry week, we’ve got to step up and get back to what won those last games against Minnesota,’” Kapoi told BadgerBlitz.com. “That was running the ball, so that whole week we had a mentality that we were going to run the ball, and that’s it. We’re not going to resort to passing. We wanted to run the ball and be that Wisconsin offensive line that everybody knows.”
They certainly looked the part, with Benzschawel playing well in his first game at right guard, replacing an injured Walker Williams, where he got to play next to Deiter and Maxwell, two friends and future roommates. Benzschawel said that chemistry helped him feel right at home working with the other freshmen, at a position where familiarity and trust can make or break how well the unit performs.
“I feel like we all had great trust in each other,” Benzschawel said. “Just knowing that the guy next to you is going to do his job, and you’ve just got to do yours and you’ll be successful.”
But it took a while for Benzschawel and his fellow freshmen to grow in to their roles, especially with the ground shifting almost constantly underneath them. The Badgers had been dealing with injuries on the offensive line since the team started their spring practices, and had a stretch during fall camp where one more injury would have made it hard to put enough healthy bodies on the field to fill out a complete two-deep.
With experienced players dropping like flies it would have been easy for the Badgers’ younger linemen to fall in to a funk, wondering when the other shoe was going to drop and someone else would have to step up. But Michael Deiter said the mood in the meeting room has generally been positive, as he and the other linemen learned early on they needed to be prepared to step in at any moment.
“I thought we did a good job of keeping it positive, not ‘Ah crap, another guy goes down. What are we going to do?’” Deiter said. “We kind of embrace it and were like ‘Here we go again.’ It’s worked for the most part. The mood has definitely been positive. It’s been pretty fun.”
“You have to be ready no matter what and have a next man in type of mentality. It just made it a lot easier because everyone’s on the same page that if you’re a 2 or maybe even a 3 and you don’t know if you’re going to go or not, you should always prepare that way as if you’re going to be that next guy in.”
Deiter, too, found a new role in the season-long shuffle. Deiter took over at center for the remainder of the season after Dan Voltz left the Illinois game with a knee injury, after Deiter started the team’s first six games at left guard. It wasn’t the first time Deiter had switched spots on the line this year, either, after the coaching staff moved him to left guard when fifth-year senior Ray Ball suffered an arm injury that ultimately ended his career at Wisconsin.
Deiter’s fellow linemen gave him credit for helping them along during their first season of real playing time, even though he hadn’t played in a game for the Badgers before this season started. Deiter wasn’t just any rookie, though. He enrolled early in the spring of 2014, and Gary Andersen’s coaching staff would have been more than comfortable playing him if an injury had forced their hand.
But if Deiter qualifies as the “grizzled veteran” of the group, the Badgers might have a chance to re-establish a dominant ground game over the next few seasons. Playing so many freshmen made for a lot of growing pains, but Deiter, Kapoi, and Benzschawel have a chance to become the core part of the unit for years to come, along with Jacob Maxwell, another redshirt freshman who started the game against Minnesota at right tackle.
And while the Badgers still have a game left to play in 2015 (a tough matchup against USC in the Holiday Bowl) their young offensive linemen said it’s not necessarily a bad thing to look ahead and think about what they could accomplish if they learn the right lessons from being thrown in to the fire so early in their careers.
“We try to take it every week, but we know this line could be special,” Kapoi said. “Playing this early, I think we all know what the potential is, just from history from Wisconsin offensive lines here. It’s a big incentive for us. We want to get to that stage. We want to get to those 300-yard rushing games every game, and we just want to be that offensive line.”
“There’s no excuses now. We’ve got a year under our belts, and we’ve got to start taking leadership on this team. The offensive line has to take control of the team. In the next few years we’ve got to figure out how to be more leaders, and be that group that the team can lean on.”
--
John Veldhuis covers Wisconsin football, basketball and recruiting for BadgerBlitz.com on the Rivals.com network. Follow him on Twitter at @JohnVeldhuis.