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VOLUME 25, ISSUE 6 99 Badgers On A Roll N ew Wisconsin might look a lot like Old Wisconsin. Although the Badgers have a new head coach, he's a famil- iar face; Paul Chryst helped guide the Wisconsin offense to some of its best seasons when he was the offensive coordinator at UW from 2005-2011. The former Badger player takes over for Gary Andersen, who left for Ore- gon State, following three years at the University of Pittsburgh. "Paul Chryst is Wisconsin football, kind of born and raised," said John Veldhuis, who covers Wisconsin foot- ball for Rivals' site BadgerBlitz.com. "They really haven't gone away from his offense. They were kind of trend- ing away from it under Andersen, but with him back they're going to look pretty similar to that power football, play-action passing type of offense that we've expected to see for really a couple decades." But implementing a high-func- tioning, balanced offense in Year 1 will be challenging, because the Badgers lost critical personnel fol- lowing an 11-3 season in 2014. Gone is Melvin Gordon, who rushed for more than 2,500 yards last season when he was a Heisman Trophy fi- nalist, as well as three of his offen- sive linemen. But, as tends to be the case in Madison, the Badgers have an heir apparent at running back, as junior Corey Clement is poised to take over. The 5-foot-11, 219-pounder was no slouch as Gordon's backup last season, rushing for nearly 1,000 yards and nine touchdowns. But the offensive line is a ques- tion. Although Wisconsin has All-Big Ten center Dan Voltz, it has to replace the entirety of its right side, plus left guard. At least at the latter, Ray Bay, an experienced backup, could slide in. But on the right … "If they could get those areas figured out, I would feel a lot bet- ter about the team than I do now," Veldhuis said. And there's the quarterback. It's not a question of who — senior Joel Stave very likely is the starter — but how well. Stave struggled mightily 8/30 LSU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . L, 24-28 9/6 WESTERN ILLINOIS . . . W, 37-3 9/20 BOWLING GREEN . . . W, 68-17 9/27 USF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . W, 27-10 10/4 at Northwestern . . . . . L, 14-20 11/11 ILLINOIS . . . . . . . . . . W, 38-28 11/25 MARYLAND . . . . . . . . . W, 52-7 11/1 at Rutgers . . . . . . . . . . W, 37-0 11/8 at Purdue . . . . . . . . . . W, 34-16 11/15 NEBRASKA . . . . . . . . . W, 59-24 11/22 at Iowa . . . . . . . . . . . . W, 26-24 11/29 MINNESOTA . . . . . . . . W, 34-24 12/6 OHIO STATE . . . . . . . . . L, 0-59 1/1 AUBURN. . . . . . . . . . . W, 34-31 Who's in Charge? COACH PAUL CHRYST Record at Wisconsin: 0-0 (first season) Record vs. Purdue: 0-0 Tom Campbell Although he was a backup last season, Corey Clement still rushed for 949 yards and nine touchdowns. He'll get more touches now. Wisconsin Badgers 2015 OPPONENT PRE VIE W O C T. 17 • RO S S - A D E S TA D I U M, W E S T L A FAYE T T E • T I M E: N O O N • T V: T BA 9/5 ALABAMA 9/12 MIAMI (OH) 9/19 TROY 9/26 HAWAII 10/3 IOWA 10/10 at Nebraska 10/17 PURDUE 10/24 at Illinois 10/31 RUTGERS 11/7 at Maryland 11/21 NORTHWESTERN 11/28 at Minnesota 2014 Results (11-3) 2015 Schedule G O L D A N D B L AC K 'S E A R LY L I N E : W I S C O N S I N - 9 Postseason Appearances in Football/ Men's Basketball Since 1996-97 OF NOTE: Wisconsin held four opponents to fewer than 200 yards in 2014, the second-best mark in the country behind Clemson (5). Wisconsin 18/18 = 36 Texas 17/17 =34 Florida 19/14 =33