Wisconsin Football: Handling of Veterans Playing Time Raises Eyebrows

When Luke Fickell took over the Wisconsin Badgers football program, everyone understood that change was inevitable. 

Athletic Director Chris McIntosh brought him in to bring fresh perspectives and updated schemes to invigorate the program and, hopefully, lead the Wisconsin Badgers to new heights. 

While change is often a positive force for a team trending in the wrong direction, it can sometimes leave fans and media pundits scratching their heads because of how we’re accustomed to seeing things handled under the previous regime. 

One situation that has consistently left me puzzled, in particular, is the new coaching staff’s handling of snap counts for veteran players. It has been an ongoing trend throughout the season that has raised concerns and appears somewhat baffling from an outsider’s perspective. 

The Wisconsin Football Snap Count Shuffle

If Wisconsin had one or two isolated playing time-related incidents where someone lost their job or was phased out in favor of someone performing better — I wouldn’t be paying this trend any mind.

But that hasn’t been the case. As the season has worn on — the Wisconsin football coaching staff has, on several occasions, benched a veteran player on the depth chart seemingly out of nowhere and without much explanation.

First, there was team captain and starting inside linebacker Maema Njongmeta. He essentially played all the starter snaps during the first three weeks of the season — until he was essentially benched against Purdue in favor of Jake Chaney because of their ability to spread out UW.

He then played 22 snaps against Rutgers and only six against Iowa before returning to the starting lineup and putting together a strong game vs. Illinois. Head scratcher that you’d remove your third-team All-Big Ten linebacker from the game-plan almost entirely, but it’s their job to evaluate talent and do what’s best for the team.

Then, there’s sixth-year safety Travian Blaylock. With his return, the Wisconsin Badgers essentially had three starting-caliber safeties to rotate in Mike Tressel’s defense. Or so we thought.

After notching 115 snaps during the Wisconsin football team’s first three games of the season — Blaylock (who is still listed as the backup on the two-deep) hasn’t seen the field since. His game against Georgia Southern wasn’t terrific, but suddenly, being removed from the rotation entirely seemed like a knee-jerk reaction.

There was also briefly the Keontez Lewis situation. While not exactly the same; he made it seem as though the coaching staff led him to believe he would be a part of the regular WR rotation on gameday — only to play six snaps late in the win over Buffalo.

Lewis entered the transfer portal shortly after that.

Lastly, the most recent occurrence of this came during the Ohio State game, where starting tight end Hayden Rucci never played a single snap.

Entering the contest, Rucci was averaging 41.8 snaps per game. However, it was only Riley Nowakowski and true freshman Tucker Ashcraft that saw the field, causing eyebrows to raise once again. I could wrap my head around this more if Ashcraft was a viable blocking option (which he isn’t yet) or if he was coming off a bad game against Illinois — but that’s not the case either.

Closing Time 

The constant shuffling of snap counts for veteran players has raised myriad questions among Wisconsin football fans.

While it’s not unusual for new coaching staff to implement their own vision and get “their guys,” the abruptness and lack of explanations for these abrupt personnel changes have left many curious and wanting answers.

Is the coaching staff trying to evaluate younger players for the future? Or are these snap count shifts reflective of ongoing evaluations and adjustments as the season progresses?

Nobody knows for sure — but in a season where the Big Ten West title is still in reach — it’s odd so many veterans are losing out on playing time.

Only time will reveal the true motives behind these snap count changes. Whether they will ultimately lead to success for the Wisconsin Badgers is anyone’s guess — but to me, it would have been easier to understand if it happened should the team have fallen out of contention.

Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to read our work at BadgerNotes.com. For more Wisconsin Badgers Athletics and Big Ten content, follow us on Twitter & Facebook. You can also subscribe to our YouTube Channel. 

Also, be sure to check out our shop, subscribe to our newsletter, and the BadgerNotes After Dark podcast, which is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all other streaming platforms. Because of your support, we have become one of the fastest-growing independent media outlets focused on giving a voice to the fans!