BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
MADISON, Wis. — November is an excellent barometer month for college football teams. Either you're getting better and hitting your stride heading down the stretch of the regular season or you're struggling to tread water.
More often than not, the Wisconsin football team is chasing fulfillment at this juncture. That appears to be the case heading into a Big Ten Conference matchup with Rutgers on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at SHI Stadium in Piscataway, New Jersey.
UW (5-3 overall, 3-2 in league play) has won four straight games — the last two against top-25 opponents — heading into its four-game November slate that starts with the Scarlet Knights (4-4, 1-4).
The Badgers are 3-0 against West Division opponents and control their path in pursuit of their fourth West Division title since 2016. Rutgers is their last East Division assignment before they close with divisional encounters with Northwestern, Nebraska and Minnesota.
During the Paul Chryst head coaching era, which began in 2015, Wisconsin is 17-4 (.810) in games played in November. That's the second-best mark among UW coaches going back to 1990. Gary Andersen was 9-1 (.900) in 2013 and '14; Bret Bielema was 20-5 (.800) from 2006 to '12 and Barry Alvarez was 24-24-2 (.500) from 1990 to 2005.
Here are five more things to know:
Some Serious Multi-Tasking
Wisconsin junior inside linebacker Leo Chenal is a semifinalist for the Bednarik and Butkus awards. According to Pro Football Focus, he's also the highest graded linebacker in the Football Bowl Subdivision with a score of 92.0. In the process, Chenal is in position for a rare feat. Despite missing two games with COVID, he leads the Badgers in tackles with 60, tackles for loss with 11.5 and is second with 5.5 quarterback sacks. The last UW defender to pace the team in those three categories in the same season was linebacker Nick Greisen, a two-time first-team All-Big Ten pick in 2000 and '01. In 13 games, Greisen had a club-best 146 tackles, 14.0 TFLs and, with 6.0 sacks, shared the team lead with tackle Wendell Bryant in 2000.
More The Merrier
The top-rated Wisconsin defense has three players with at least 8.0 TFLs through eight games: Chenal, inside linebacker Jack Sanborn with 9.0 and outside linebacker Nick Herbig with 8.0. Not far behind that trio is outside linebacker Noah Burks with 6.0. Looking ahead, the last time the Badgers had four or more players with 10-plus tackles for loss was 2017 when OLB Garret Dooley had 12.0, ILB Ryan Connelly and ILB T.J. Edwards had 11 and OLB Andrew Van Ginkel had 10.
Another Top-25 Ranking
A win over Rutgers would be No. 725 for the Badgers in their 133 seasons of football. They currently rank 25th among FBS programs with an all-time record of 724-505-53 (.585).
Nowhere To Run
UW opponents are averaging 1.73 yards per rushing attempt, which leads the FBS. You have to go back to 2008 to find the last time a team held foes to less than 2.0 yards per try for an entire season. That was TCU at 1.72. Before that, it was Michigan at 1.82 in 2006.
Youth Being Served
Wisconsin true freshman running back Braelon Allen led all FBS ball-carriers in October by averaging 7.1 yards per carry. He's working on a streak of four straight outings where he's topped 100 yards rushing. For perspective, two-time Doak Walker Award winner Jonathan Taylor didn't have four consecutive 100-yard outings until weeks 9-12 in 2017.
