The 19th ranked Wisconsin Badgers opened the Luke Fickell era with a 38-17 win over the Buffalo Bulls on Saturday. Going into the season, there was a great deal of attention paid to the addition of Phil Longo as offensive coordinator and how that would change the offensive scheme at Wisconsin. However, fans were surprised to see the Badgers win on the back of 314 rushing yards and less than 200 passing yards.
Related: Wisconsin Badgers- The 5 Highest and Lowest PFF Grades on Offense in 38-17 Win Over Buffalo
In other words, by just looking at the box score, it looked like a typical Wisconsin win against a non-conference opponent. Just looking at the box score, though, does not tell the whole story. One cannot see how many pass catchers were spread out wide allowing bigger lanes for running back Braelon Allen and Chez Mellusi.
Related: Wisconsin Badgers- The 5 Highest and Lowest PFF Grades on Defense in 38-17 Win Over Buffalo
There was, however, some criticism of the offense following the game. A lot of it had to do with the fact that the Badgers’ passing game did not look like it had improved and some fans on social media called the “Air Raid” into question.
Wisconsin Badgers Head Coach Luke Fickell Gives Realistic Expectations of the “Air Raid” Offense
On Monday afternoon, head coach Luke Fickell was a guest on The Mike Heller Show on 97.3 The Game. During the interview with host Mike Heller and others, Fickell was told that the benchmarks for Phil Longo’s Air Raid offense called for passing plays 80-85% of the time.
Fickell was asked if he thought was sounded high. He responded, “That number would strike me as pretty high, yes.” The follow up was if 80-85% passing plays was Wisconsin’s target, or goal, or the offense. Fickell responded:
“Our target is whatever we need to do to win football games. In today’s day and age, things are labeled differently. My buddy, actually my brother-in-law’s college roommate, was a college quarterback. And he used to complain that all these guys were breaking all of his records.
“And they really were hand-offs, right? Shovel passes, these little quick flips out to the outside. You know? The jet sweeps where they just shovel it up and it gets labeled as passes.
“I think the thing about what we do and what Phil does with the offense is we do look at some of those little swings and things like that as run plays. I know they go down as passes, but it’s still about the physicality whether it’s on the perimeter, whether its getting the ball into a running back’s or wide receiver’s hands.
“Even defensively, breaking people down, we would say that a lot of those plays are really run plays, but they go down as a pass.”
So, while many fans were looking for a pass-heavy, downfield-throwing offense, that is not what the Badgers are. Now, Fickell also said that there was a great deal to clean up. If Skyler Bell does not drop Tanner Mordecai’s long pass that was right on the money, Mordecai would have finished with 250+ passing yards, two touchdowns, and an interception.
But the point Fickell is making is that it is quite obvious what the offensive strength of Wisconsin is right now: Allen and Mellusi. They are going to use a balance of pass and run plays, but they are going to take what the defense gives them on any given week.
Interestingly, it was Braelon Allen who led the Badgers with seven receptions on Saturday. He had just 25 receiving yards, but now knowing how Fickell and Longo view certain passing plays, it would be interesting to see how many of Allen’s receptions would be labeled as run plays by his coaches.
For Fickell’s full interview with Mike Heller, listen to the third hour of the show linked above. You can also listen to hour one here to hear Coach Fickell’s press conference with Badgers media members.
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