Wisconsin Badgers did not have the year they hoped for when the season began. Many people thought Wisconsin was the second-best team in the Big Ten behind Ohio State. That wasn’t the case. Badgers did not have the talent on offense to compete with the big boys, and many of their players were a year away from being talented enough. Paul Chryst always gets his guys ready for bowl season though. They were 4-1 heading into the matchup with Wake Forest on Wednesday afternoon in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. Wisconsin won that game in a surprising blowout fashion, 42-28, as the defense made plays in the second half.

Player of the Game: Noah Burks – I know that Jack Sanborn won MVP and he will be featured below. Yet I’m giving it to Noah Burks. He is a talented linebacker that doesn’t get a lot of the same accolades that Sanborn or Leo Chenal get but Burks can play. The interception he had of Sam Hartman’s was the biggest in my opinion. Wake was tied with Wisconsin, and they were driving to go up another score. Burks picks the pass off and runs it back 41 yards setting up a Wisconsin touchdown. Things rolled downhill from there for Wake.

Honorable Mention: Jack Sanborn – What a game from the Badgers’ linebacker. He filled up the stat sheet with eleven tackles, two tackles for loss, and an interception. Sanborn is the leader of this defense. It is not surprising that he came up with big play after big play in this one. He will be a premier talent to watch next season for Wisconsin.

Reasons to be excited next season: Everyone offensively could potentially be back – Besides Cole Van Lanen, the left tackle, Wisconsin could have everyone back next season. Kendric Pryor, Jack Dunn, and Danny Davis could come back as super seniors with the NCAA’s new rules. Same with Mason Stokke. Even if none of those guys return, the Badgers are still stocked on offense. Four returning offensive linemen, top tight end, Jake Ferguson, Graham Mertz, Jalen Berger. It would be very Badgers-like to have a stellar 2021 after failing to live up to the hype of 2020.

Next up: If things are normal, Wisconsin is kicking off their season with a bang playing Penn State at home in what figures to be a premier game on the week one slate. Hopefully, there will be enough people vaccinated and Camp Randall will be full again. But as we learned this year, predict nothing.

Charlie.