BYU football: Get to know the Wisconsin Badgers

After falling in the Holy War, BYU football now hosts the Wisconsin Badgers. Get to know Wisconsin with Badger of Honor’s Noah Seligman.

BYU football sits at 1-2 on the season, coming off back-to-back painful losses. Unfortunately for the Cougars, things don’t get any easier this week, with the Wisconsin Badgers heading to Provo.

To get to know the Badgers better, I sat down with Badger of Honor’s Noah Seligman.

Here’s what he had to say regarding Wisconsin’s offense, defense and the trip to Provo.

The competition hasn’t been top-notch yet, but it looks like quarterback Alex Hornibrook is a much more confident and smoother signal caller this season. How has the Wisconsin passing attack changed from 2016 to 2017?

Noah Seligman: There is some good and bad with starting quarterback Alex Hornibrook, as I wrote after Saturday’s win over Florida Atlantic. He played pretty well against Utah State despite a slow start. But he was generally fairly poor in the win over FAU.

The Badger formula doesn’t change. Run the ball, don’t beat yourself with penalties/turnovers and play stingy defense.

That’s a longer way of saying Wisconsin doesn’t need a quarterback to win a game, they need him not to lose it.

Hornibrook is a pocket passer with almost no mobility to speak of. He throws an accurate ball, but has a bad habit of holding the ball a bit in the pocket. Worse yet, he can throw some baffling interceptions.

Those are especially damaging since the Badgers don’t ask him to attempt many high-risk throws. They’ll throw off play action and lots of crossing routes or out routes. High percentage, safe reads.

Also, Hornibrook struggles at times because he doesn’t have a strong arm – so he tends to float a lot of balls that hang in the air awhile. Wisconsin has some shifty and speedy receivers, but even when they get separation they often have to wait an extra beat or so for the ball to arrive.