Wisconsin Badgers begin their season on Friday night. For us, it’s been a light college football month for content. I personally enjoy college football greatly, but it’s been hard to get all of the content out that we usually do. Badgers football comes in with the most hype they’ve had around a team since 2007 when they were ranked seventh to begin the year. Still, there are questions about this team heading into the season.

Will they have enough linebackers to be successful?
The preseason wasn’t not nice to Badgers football as Jack Cichy and Zach Braun both went down with season-ending injuries for the year. This means Wisconsin will roll out T.J. Edwards, Ryan Connelly, Leon Jacobs and Garrett Dooley. The good news is that’s still a feared linebacking unit. We don’t even have Chris Orr listed who was a dynamic freshman. Badgers do have some very talented linebackers. If this unit holds, they’ll have a pretty unstoppable defense this fall.

The three-headed monster at running back – Who ends up with the most yards?
This is another major hot button issue to start the season. Badgers have three running backs who are right now listed as the starters. They are Bradrick Shaw, Chris James and Jonathan Taylor. All three provide a different dynamic to the run game. What’s going to be the challenge for Paul Chryst is riding the hot hand once conference play starts. If Taylor has a game where he’s going off in the first quarter, it should limit the playing time of Shaw and James. I worry about that though as Chryst tried to force in Bart Houston last year when Alex Hornibrook was rolling.

Can Badgers finally have some talented receivers?
It’s hard to remember when Badgers had a true playmaker at wide receiver, but it seems like that day is coming which what might make this team so explosive. Jazz Peavy had a breakout year being a jack-of-all-trades type player for Wisconsin. Quintez Cephus seems like a guy who won training camp with his play, and he’s known for a big play. Then there’s Troy Fumagali who might be the best of them all at tight end. He continues to be a beast in the middle of the field.

Can Wisconsin live up to the hype?
Here’s the million dollar question. The last two times Wisconsin started out in the top ten, they ended the season ranked in the 20’s. Both years, 2000 and 2007, the team lost four games. Badgers football will try to avoid that this season. Their schedule plays to their strengths, although, there’s a tricky road game versus BYU looming in mid-September as well as a trip to Lincoln. In each year, there’s a very bad loss midway through the year. Let’s not have history repeat itself.

Charlie.