Wisconsin Football: Importance of the Bye Week for the Badgers

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Wisconsin football has a much needed weekend off this Saturday after running a tough gauntlet in the first five weeks of the season. The Badgers have taken on three top ten opponents in five weeks and have came out of the stretch with a record of 4-1. After a loss last Saturday, Wisconsin turned to the bye week at the absolute perfect time. With time on their side, what should the Badgers accomplish during the bye week to set them up for another tough stretch?

. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

Get Healthy

No Team has struggled with injuries more than the Wisconsin Badgers. With the latest being star linebacker Vince Biegel, the Badgers have had a plethora of injuries so far this season. In addition to serious injuries i’m sure that there are a lot of guys playing banged up that we’re gutting out games simply because a teammate had a worse injury and they needed someone to play. Overall, the bye week comes at a perfect time for the Badgers because everyone gets a chance to rest up, small or big injury. As a result, the Badgers will hope to have guys like Bradrick Shaw, Taiwan Deal, and Jon Dietzen back by the Ohio State game. The Badgers could also get nickel corner Natrell Jamerson back by October 15th, but Biegel still looks doubtful t despite working vigorously to get back to playing shape.

Mandatory Credit: Mike Carter-USA TODAY Sports

Open Up the Playbook

Another struggle for Wisconsin football has been their offense. It just has not clicked like its supposed to so far this season. Part of it is likely that Freshman Alex Hornibrook has only been introduced to very little of the playbook. When preparing for teams like Michigan and Michigan State its important to not over feed information to young quarterbacks, but now the opportunity is there to put in new wrinkles of the offense. With a bye week Chryst and company not only has an extra week to prepare, but also to implement new schemes that they haven’t been able to all season. I look for the offense to be much better against Ohio State than it was against Michigan as Hornibrook and the rest of the offense will get to gel with one another and become familiar with other parts of the playbook that they may not have been exposed to yet.

Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Turn the Page

T The LSU and Michigan State wins were nice, but the focus can no longer be on them. They look great now but won’t matter at the end of the season if they do not finish they way that they want to. It’s time to turn the page on the first five weeks, there was some ups and some downs but now they have the opportunity to make more happen going forward. They can look back to correct mistakes over the course of this week, but after that the book needs to turn to a new chapter in the Wisconsin Football season. Focus needs to turn to Ohio State after this bye week as they get more and more time to prepare for them. The season is still very much in front of them and the Badgers have the opportunity to make it a season to remember going forward.

Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

Get Mentally Prepared

I think many people have overlooked the Badgers playing three top ten teams in 5 weeks simply because they won two of the games. However, this can be really draining. Playing those high caliber games week in and week out and being talked about the way the Badgers have been talked about is a struggle to endure. It seems easy to say just go play football, but outside distractions and talk has definitely had an impact on this team and it won’t go away any time soon. But with the bye week the Badgers have the ability to quiet the noise over this week and then ramp it up as it leads up to kickoff next Saturday where they will get to play a top team at HOME. Something they have not been able to do so far this season. This will be a huge impact for both the Ohio State and Nebraska games as they finely play in front of 83,000 screaming Badger fans.