Buboltz: Big Ten West Will Come Down To The Badgers Or Iowa Hawkeyes

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BleedGopher

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per Buboltz:

Two things were guaranteed when you think about the Wisconsin Badgers and the Iowa Hawkeyes. You knew both teams were defense first and anything provided on offense was just a bonus. For the last three seasons, Graham Mertz and Spencer Petras were the signal callers for the Badgers and Hawkeyes. Most Saturday’s the fan bases were frustrated with the play from their quarterbacks. Neither player is with their program anymore. When Wisconsin and Iowa battle in Madison on October 14, not only do I think whoever wins this game heads to the Big Ten Championship in Indianapolis, but I think Iowa and Wisconsin are the two best teams in the Big Ten West.

If I were to throw in a third team, I would say it’s Minnesota. There’s reasons to believe the Golden Gophers could be the dark horse in this race. While Tanner Morgan is out now, redshirt sophomore Athan Kaliakmanis showed glimpses why there was hype surrounding him. He even went into Madison and beat the Badgers last season to keep Paul Bunyan’s Ax and played well doing so.

Minnesota also lost long time running back Mohamed Ibrahim, who is arguably one of the best to ever wear a Gopher uniform. However, they did get back receiver Chris Autman-Bell for a seventh season following a nasty season ending injury last year as well as sixth year tight end Brevyn Spann-Ford. Spann-Ford is one of the best tight ends in the league and should hear his name called in the 2024 NFL Draft. Add in the ninth overall ranked defense from last year and this is a solid team as well.

At the end of the day, I know what I’m getting more with Wisconsin and Iowa more than I’m getting with Minnesota. I know Minnesota is scrappy and tough on defense. If you can score 24 points on them, you should win 10 times out of 10. I think the offense is more of a question mark for P.J. Fleck and this team. Kaliakmanis had flashes in the limited action he saw last year, but that was only in a handful of games. Wisconsin and Iowa both have established quarterbacks with a ton of experience. Minnesota also ran Ibrahim time and time again when they needed to run the clock out or get momentum going. Do they have the running game to compliment the passing game? The Badgers and Hawkeyes do.

Defense wins in the Big Ten West and Minnesota has the defense to stay in games. There’s more to like with the Badgers and Hawkeyes. Both teams have Big Ten West championship pedigree as well. It should be a fun Big Ten West season. I just think the winner comes out of Iowa City or Madison.

wisportsheroics.com

Wisconsin Football: Big Ten West Will Come Down To The Badgers Or Iowa Hawkeyes

Two things were guaranteed when you think about the Wisconsin Badgers and the Iowa Hawkeyes. You knew both teams were defense first and anything provided on
wisportsheroics.com

Go Gophers!!
 

Minnesota will be one of the top contenders barring key injuries. I am always worried about real team depth when injuries occur.

The development of Drew Viotto is something to watch closely. He surpassed Jacob Knuth on the depth chart who decided to transfer. He has good size at 6' 4", 230 lbs. He has the potential to be as good or better than Athan Kaliakmanis after his career is over. Athan needs to hit the weights.

QB Depth:

8Athan KaliakmanisQB6' 4''2103 / 33 yearsAntioch, Ill. / AntiochR-So.
12Cole KramerQB6' 1''2055 / 52 yearsEden Prairie, Minn. / Eden PrairieR-Sr.
16Max ShikenjanskiQB6' 2''1701 / 14 yearsStillwater, Minn. / StillwaterFr.
18Drew ViottoQB6' 4''2301 / 14 yearsSault Ste Marie, Ontario / Walled Lake WesternFr.

They have Drake Lindsey of Fayetteville, AR, at 6' 5", 220 lbs. in the class of 2024.
 


key games to decide West: Iowa plays at Penn state to open big ten play, plays at Wisconsin the week prior to Minnesota visiting. Minnesota has a bye week to prepare for hawk eyes. Wisconsin plays iowa, visits Illinois then hosts Ohio state in three game stretch, and closes against Minnesota. gophers get muscle sandwich schedule of michigan, bye, then ioaw, play at Ohio state later in season and close vs Wisconsin.
I still like Gophers to go 11-1.
 

hungan1 said:
Minnesota will be one of the top contenders barring key injuries. I am always worried about real team depth when injuries occur.

The development of Drew Viotto is something to watch closely. He surpassed Jacob Knuth on the depth chart who decided to transfer. He has good size at 6' 4", 230 lbs. He has the potential to be as good or better than Athan Kaliakmanis after his career is over. Athan needs to hit the weights.

QB Depth:

8Athan KaliakmanisQB6' 4''2103 / 33 yearsAntioch, Ill. / AntiochR-So.
12Cole KramerQB6' 1''2055 / 52 yearsEden Prairie, Minn. / Eden PrairieR-Sr.
16Max ShikenjanskiQB6' 2''1701 / 14 yearsStillwater, Minn. / StillwaterFr.
18Drew ViottoQB6' 4''2301 / 14 yearsSault Ste Marie, Ontario / Walled Lake WesternFr.

They have Drake Lindsey of Fayetteville, AR, at 6' 5", 220 lbs. in the class of 2024.
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I know Shikenjanski is a legacy and is unlikely to see the field much, but talk about needing to hit the weight room. The guys in front of him are almost literally two of him. I don't remember his Dad being that small when he played BB.
 


Wisconsin resident says Wisconsin will do well.

The Wisconsin Alvarez system has been demolished and replaced. The roster hasn’t proven anything. I have close to zero idea how Wisconsin will perform this season and I’d bet a small fortune Buboltz and every other writer out there doesn’t either.

Iowa, yeah ok we know what they’ll look like.
 

I know more what I’m getting from Wisconsin—> entirely new coaching staff, scheme, etc. Makes perfect sense
McNamara hasn’t taken a snap in game action in over a year—> more experienced.
Iowa rushed for 59 yards on 28 carries vs us and averaged less than 3 yards a carry last year. We’ve hammered the rock successfully regardless of RB every year fleck has been here (people outside Minnesota forget Ky Thomas looked like a beast for us rushing for over 100 yards 5 times and he did nothing for a Kansas team that had a 1000 yard rusher and averaged almost 5.5 yards a carry)—> Iowa has the running game to complement the passing game
Iowa will be there from their defense which should be solid. You are hoping McNamara can’t be worse than Petras but their issues start with a certain coordinator who is still there.
Wisconsin you have no idea what you’re going to get this year. There are talented players on the roster but a totally new scheme and style
Nebraska also has talent but because they’re Nebraska everyone who follows the west thinks they’ll suck. They have just as much a chance as Wisconsin to jump (maybe they forgot they were 7-6 last year and 4-5 in the Big)
 

99Gopher said:
I know Shikenjanski is a legacy and is unlikely to see the field much, but talk about needing to hit the weight room. The guys in front of him are almost literally two of him. I don't remember his Dad being that small when he played BB.
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He is part of PJ Fleck's "Toos." Too thin, too short, etc. If he has heart and determination, he will contribute to the team in some capacity even if it is the practice squad. We may see him switch positions. He bleeds maroon and gold. That is all I need to know and whether he has a pulse, and his mom and dad are paying.
 
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It all depends on our O and D lines. We could run the table, we could lose 3 or 4. I’ll take that 1 loss prediction.
 



You can break down offense, defense, QB, RB, WR, and whatever else you want.....

The biggest factor in who wins the Big Ten West in 2023 is and will be the schedule rotation.

Minnesota snags both of Ohio State and Michigan (along MSU), with road games at Iowa and OSU. Tough, tough, tough schedule.

Wisconsin gets Ohio State, but also gets light weights Rutgers and Indiana (avoiding Michigan). Bucky also gets Ohio State and Iowa each at home. Fairly favorable.

Iowa visits Penn State on White Out night, Michigan State, and Rutgers (avoiding BOTH Ohio State and Michigan.) Iowa gets Minnesota at home. Quite favorable.

That's a big gap for Minnesota to make up. In fairness, the Gophers had a "favorable" cross over schedule in 2022 and couldn't take advantage. Purdue also had a "favorable" cross over schedule in 2022 and backed into the Big Ten West title as maybe the third best team in the division.
 
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Cole Kramer still has two years of eligibility left? Gophers should start a 401k for some of these guys.
 





Shikenjanski is barely out of high school. I'm not going to worry about his weight yet. Kid still might be growing for all we know. After a year in school, he'll probably gain 30 lbs pretty easy.
If he's 175 next year at this time, I'll be a bit more concerned.
 

MonikerSchmoniker45 said:
I don't wanna be the one to make the call... but Buboltz doesn't think the Gophers will win the west and he believes in momentum. This makes him a dink, correct?
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He thinks we all know what were going to get with Wisky's offense and defense? Dink works, I was going to say boob.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Wisconsin resident says Wisconsin will do well.

The Wisconsin Alvarez system has been demolished and replaced. The roster hasn’t proven anything. I have close to zero idea how Wisconsin will perform this season and I’d bet a small fortune Buboltz and every other writer out there doesn’t either.

Iowa, yeah ok we know what they’ll look like.
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Yeah. I could see someone saying
“New air raid and transfer QB will change the west in its last year”

I don’t get how the guy with a straight face say he knows what he is getting more with Wisconsin.
From an under center system to a gun system.
From a run first system to a pass first system.
From an odd front to an even front.
Wisconsin and Purdue are the two biggest question marks in the division.
 

Some guy said:
Yeah. I could see someone saying
“New air raid and transfer QB will change the west in its last year”

I don’t get how the guy with a straight face say he knows what he is getting more with Wisconsin.
From an under center system to a gun system.
From a run first system to a pass first system.
From an odd front to an even front.
Wisconsin and Purdue are the two biggest question marks in the division.
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My only disagreement here is that I don't think Purdue is a question. I'm pretty confident they'll be bad.
 

mngolf said:
My only disagreement here is that I don't think Purdue is a question. I'm pretty confident they'll be bad.
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I have no idea how they’ll be, but I’m confident in a bad record because they play one of the more ridiculous schedules I’ve ever seen a big ten team play.

11 power 5 games plus a 10 win team
Easiest two games on their schedule are the last two. So will be really hard to create momentum
 

As noted above the best chance for MN to win the West based on the schedule and a very, very veteran team, was last year.
It is useless to try to predict what will happen next year in the West with so many variables from new head coaches, new schemes new QBs, etc.
From a fan's perspective, it should be a very entertaining season in the West.
The East will be OSU/MI again.
 

The Gophers have a tough schedule but will find a way to win. I think they will surprise us with some upsets. My two cents.
 

The prez sez said:
key games to decide West: Iowa plays at Penn state to open big ten play, plays at Wisconsin the week prior to Minnesota visiting. Minnesota has a bye week to prepare for hawk eyes. Wisconsin plays iowa, visits Illinois then hosts Ohio state in three game stretch, and closes against Minnesota. gophers get muscle sandwich schedule of michigan, bye, then ioaw, play at Ohio state later in season and close vs Wisconsin.
I still like Gophers to go 11-1.
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Unfortunately if Iowa beats PSU they’d really have a stranglehold on the division, not saying it’s over at that point by any means, but it’d mean they are probably pretty solid as I expect PSU to be good, and the schedule lays out for them.
 

btowngopher said:
Unfortunately if Iowa beats PSU they’d really have a stranglehold on the division, not saying it’s over at that point by any means, but it’d mean they are probably pretty solid as I expect PSU to be good, and the schedule lays out for them.
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It’ll clearly help them if they beat Penn state, but this is an Iowa team that lost to 4-8 Iowa state and 4-8 Nebraska last year.
Even if they have a good win, it’s not necessarily true that makes them a 12-0 kind of team even with their schedule
 

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