The Wisconsin Badgers had a much-needed 13-10 victory on Saturday over the No. 23 Washington Huskies, finding a way to win on a snow day at Camp Randall Stadium to snap a six-game losing streak.
It had been a somber last two months for the Badgers with a number of disappointing finishes, but all of that was erased in a huge team effort on Saturday, as Wisconsin overcame some adversity to find a way to win yet again.
Wisconsin did all of that while throwing for only 48 passing yards, with 24 of those coming on a fake punt attempt from punter Sean West. True freshman Carter Smith, who spelled sophomore Danny O’Neil at quarterback after a lower-body injury, was only 3/12 passing for eight yards.
Still, the Badgers drove down the field a few times, having a missed field goal and a turnover on downs inside the 10-yard line on their first two possessions before getting on the board with a field goal. They were able to get stellar field position later, thanks to a Mason Posa forced fumble, capitalizing on a drive starting at the Washington seven-yard line with a touchdown. Similarly, the Badgers got great field position after Washington had to punt deep in its own end zone and got enough yardage for a 31-yard field goal for Nathanial Vakos that proved to be the go-ahead score.
It was not pretty offensively for the Badgers, but they did things exclusively on the ground, going for 157 yards on 47 carries. True freshman Carter Smith was a big part of that, rushing for 47 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries in his first career game.
What did head coach Luke Fickell see from Smith in the win?
“He gave us a chance,” Fickell said of Smith. “He gave us hope. I think that’s probably the biggest thing. And it’s twofold. I mean, just sometimes, new person, new guy, new blood. Just think about the time, first time he walked out there on the field. Like, for me, for us, when Danny goes down after nine plays and playing pretty decent, I mean, running the ball and doing the things we want him to do, and now all of a sudden you trot out a true freshman.
“Even the reaction of the crowd, even a little bit of energy, like those things are contagious. And we all know he wasn’t perfect, and we all know that. There are some things that you may be a little bit more limited to, but he brought you some fire, he brought you some spark, he brought you some hope, and most importantly for me, took care of the football.”
It was a unique situation for Smith, who finally started getting reps during the bye week as other quarterbacks were dinged up to try and give the offense a spark. O’Neil did tweak an injury this week, but the staff still felt that he was ready to play, while getting Smith up to speed as well.
“Danny took most of the reps the last two weeks,” Fickell said. “We had just started getting Carter reps just last week during the bye. We just said ‘hey, we would have to give him an opportunity because we don’t know what it’s going to look like and we’ve had guys that are dinged up and we’re just trying to figure out as you grow.’
“What do you kind of focus yourself around and building offensively? And, for a bunch of these weeks, we’ve been maybe hoping and expecting to get Billy [Edwards] back, and so you kept kind of pushing the offense in that direction, and I don’t know that that’s the case. So, we kind of tried to shift to say, ‘okay, how do we build this thing and continue to move forward based on what we’ve got?’ So yes, they all three got reps. Danny had been okay. He kind of tweaked a little bit, maybe on Tuesday or Wednesday, but still felt like he was good to go, and he was going to be able to carry the load. Just had to have preparation just in case [for Carter].”
There will be a lot of work ahead for Smith and the Badgers with O’Neil likely out for the foreseeable future as Wisconsin plays No. 2 Indiana next week. But, this one was definitely one to celebrate for the Badgers after a rough last few months.
