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Last week we covered the six old B1G East teams and their ongoing offseasons, what they gained and lost in the portal and how NFL Draft declarations are shaping their spring rosters. Now we turn to the rest of the conference, the seven old B1G West teams and the four new west coast teams. Eleven is a lot of teams to cover in one piece, so I've broken this up into two pieces. Today we'll handle five of the old B1G West squads, Purdue, Illinois, Northwestern, Wisconsin, and Iowa, while later this week we'll feature Nebraska/Minnesota + the four new teams. 

Wisconsin 

EXITS

The Badgers' biggest exits come on the offensive side of the ball, as they see one-year stop-gap starting QB Tanner Mordecai graduate. Moredcai wasn't an incredible B1G player, but it does create a void that Wisconsin had to dip back into the portal to plug (more on that in a moment). The most impactful loss was likely RB Braelon Allen, who is testing out his pro pursuits after multiple years of being the beating heart of the Wisconsin offense. Following these two out the door are OL starters Tanor Bortolini and MIchael Furtney, as well as starting TE Hayden Rucci, who are all onto pro pursuits, be it football or office jobs. Wisconsin didn't lose much to the portal on offense, WRs Chimere Dike (transferred to Florida) and Skyler Bell (UConn) being the biggest names, while some of their depth OL moved on in G Trey Wedig (Indiana) and OT Nolan Rucci (PSU). 

Defensively the Badgers fell victim to poachers, losing their young starting LB Jordan Turner, who is relocating to MSU and new head coach Jonathan Smith. They also lost starting DL Rodas Johnson to Texas A&M, which, when combined with the eligibility/NFL related losses of LB Maema Njongmeta, EDGE/OLB CJ Geotz, and CB Jason Maitre, leaves the Badgers in a bit of a mini-reshuffle on defense. DT Gio Paez is also graduating and moving on, while some background characters like DE Darian Varner hit the portal. I wouldn't say that the Badgers got devastated but there is some real turnover on both sides of the ball, as Luke Fickell's second team will certainly look different than his first. 

[Getty Images]

ACQUISITIONS 

Wisconsin hit the portal to replace the departed Mordecai at QB, snapping up Miami's old QB Tyler Van Dyke. Van Dyke was once seen as a rising star with NFL aspirations after his 2021 season, but did not perform well in 2022 under Josh Gattis. That said, he rebounded some in 2023 before hitting the portal. It will be an interesting test of Fickell's offensive staff to see what they can get out of Van Dyke this fall. To fill the Braelon Allen hole, Wisconsin is leaning on the returning Chez Mellusi as well as new RB Tawee Walker from Oklahoma, who rushed 102 times for 513 yards and seven TDs last season. Walker was second in carries at Oklahoma and should make an instant impact at Wisconsin. 

Elsewhere on the offense Wisconsin added LSU TE Jackson McGohan, a 3* in the 2023 class. At that position and at that age, we should expect McGohan to be a reserve piece this season and maybe factor in down the line. WR Tyrell Henry joins the Wisconsin receiver depth chart from MSU, having caught 24 balls for the Spartans last season. He could be in line for a starting job but if nothing else, Henry helps bolster the WR depth chart after losing a couple players at that position. 

The higher volume of adds came on the defensive side, where Fickell worked to completely build a new LB depth chart. He brought in three new ILB types, plus a couple EDGE/OLB pieces. The ILBs start with Jaheim Thomas, a player Fickell coached at Cincy who then did a year at Arkansas, posting solid grades as an SEC starter. You'd figure he'd be in line for starting snaps, while the other two are more developmental pieces. Tackett Curtis was a high 4* Michigan recruited in the 2023 class but chose USC, where he started as a true freshman and was predictably terrible because he was a Tr Fr coached by Alex freakin' Grinch. Curtis may need a year to sit and learn football but the talent is high. Seabstian Cheeks sat a couple years at UNC and is a local guy coming back to his home state. 

Those ILBs have transformed the depth chart at that position and Fickell also worked hard to reshape the EDGE/OLB room. John Pius arrives from William & Mary having been an elite, All-American caliber FCS player. I'm not sure he'll start, but you'd expect him to play a role. Leon Lowery transfers in from Syracuse after starting for the Orange last season to underwhelming PFF grades. To help the DT position, Elijah Hills comes in from Albany after being a multi-year starter for the Great Danes, and Fickell also added rotational corner RJ Delaney from Toledo. It's not clear how many of these transfers beyond Thomas will be defensive starters, but after seeing some talent drained from the roster via the portal/NFL, Fickell used the portal well to pick up intriguing names who can bolster the depth. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: the other four teams]

Yesterday we concluded our The Enemy, Ranked series, covering the nine B1G teams who find themselves on Michigan's schedule this 2023 season. But how about the four teams not on the schedule, all out of the B1G West? As I mentioned throughout the series, some of these teams are among the stronger B1G foes and feature talent in the trenches and in the secondary/at QB missing from The Enemy series. Today we will break down each of those four teams, their strengths, weaknesses, and project out their season. 

Wisconsin

No team in the B1G underwent a larger change this offseason than Wisconsin, and I'm including Northwestern in that. The Badgers opted to abandon the DNA of what made Wisconsin Football successful for nearly three decades, not just moving away from the Barry Alvarez coaching tree by hiring Luke Fickell, but letting Fickell scrap the bully ball offense in favor of an Air Raid attack(!) led by former North Carolina OC Phil Longo. On defense, Jim Leonhard's 3-4 system that churned out star OLBs is out in favor of Mike Tressel's 3-3-5, a seismic shock to the program on par with the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Everything about Badger football is about to change and it makes Wisconsin one of America's most fascinating teams in 2023. 

Offense

It's not just that the scheme has changed... the roster looks significantly different as well. Yes, Braelon Allen is still around, a star RB who is probably the second best back in the conference behind Blake Corum. The run game he engineers in tandem with Chez Mellusi is a great balancing weapon to have next to the completely re-made passing attack headed up by transfer QB Tanner Mordecai from SMU. Over two seasons with the Mustangs after transferring from Oklahoma, where he was coached by Lincoln Riley as a backup behind Jalen Hurts, Mordecai completed 66.4% of his passes for 8.0 Y/A, 72 TD to 22 INT. The upgrade Mordecai represents over Graham Mertz is astronomical and gives Wisconsin the best QB in the B1G West. 

Rebooting the receiving corps was an area of emphasis for Luke Fickell, even though the top three pass-catchers off last season's ho-hum Wisconsin WR room return, with Chimere Dike being the top target. Fickell added four transfer WRs(!) in addition to those three established returners, two transfers from Cincy, a promising RS Fr 4* from USC, and Bryson Green, who racked up 723 receiving yards over two seasons with OKST. I'm not sure if there will be a Dude in this receiving corps, but between seven lottery tickets, at least three should be solid targets for Mordecai to throw to. 

The biggest question with the offense is the offensive line. OL Coach Bob Bostad is out (hired by Indiana), with Longo bringing Jack Bicknell Jr. with him from UNC. Bicknell's first order of business will be finding a line of five starters and then teaching them a brand new blocking system that is diametrically different from what Wisconsin has run forever. The Badger OL also declined considerably in the last years of the Chryst era, finishing only 70th in average line yards last year. The good news is 3.5 starters return and Fickell brings two former All-AAC OL with him from Cincy (Joe Huber and Jake Renfro), so experience is here, but getting five guys to gel as a unit and get a hang of a new scheme is the big question. If they can get even a decent OL, between Mordecai leading the passing game and the prowess of Allen on the ground, the Wisconsin offense could be terrific. But there are also a lot of moving parts, possible transition costs and it's not a sure thing that it all works in year 1. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Wisconsin defense and the rest of the teams]

During the break on last week's WTKA show a listener asked if Cole Cabana should return kicks and Sam was like "Sure" and the rest of us were like "NO!" in unison. Then we all talked over each other to explain why that's AJ Henning's job, because he's good at it and needs something to do since he's not getting passes. And then we all frowned because Sam just kept making that face.

Sometimes Sam knows something he's not telling us.

[Talking about it, after THE JUMP]