ESPN Vastly Underestimates Wisconsin's Offseason in Big Ten Rankings

In defense of national media, it's hard to comprehensively cover a sport as large and intricate as college football from the national perspective.

Still, telltale signs that ESPN isn't tapped into what's happening in Madison abound in their latest piece ranking each Big Ten program's offseason.

You could start with the fact that the first coaching change they mention is special teams coordinator Bob Ligashesky (as opposed to offensive line coach Eric Mateos or cornerbacks coach Robert Steeples, both of whom are universally considered rising stars inside and outside of Madison).

There's also the fact that when mentioning the top incoming freshmen, quarterback Ryan Hopkins — who stole the show this spring — is nowhere to be found.

All in all, Wisconsin's offseason checks in at No. 14 in the Big Ten, according to ESPN. Here's how they ranked the conference:

Rank	Program
No. 1	Indiana
No. 2	Oregon
No. 3	USC
No. 4	Ohio State
No. 5	Penn State
No .6	Michigan
No. 7	Iowa
No. 8	Nebraska
No. 9	Minnesota
No. 10	Illinois
No. 11	UCLA
No. 12	Washington
No. 13	Northwestern
No. 14	Wisconsin
No. 15	Maryland
No. 16	Rutgers
No. 17	Purdue
No. 18	Michigan State

It's understandable why the national media is hesitant to heap praise on the Badgers. They've steadily declined under head coach Luke Fickell and haven't made any national headline-grabbing additions from a personnel or coaching standpoint.

Still, ESPN is dead wrong in where they've placed Wisconsin in this ranking. Not only have they underestimated the individual Badgers' offseason, they've mis-positioned them amongst their Big Ten peers.

ESPN sees coaching upgrades as...a bad thing?

Erica Mateos — Eric Mateos | Christian Borman.

This is a direct quote from ESPN's article:

"Although Fickell retained his offensive and defensive coordinators, the continued staff turnover could contribute to more uneven results on the field."
ESPN

This is just a lazy take. I shouldn't have to explain that not all staff turnover is bad. Especially in the case of Mateos and Steeples.

Again, Mateos is considered a rising star as an offensive line coach. By all accounts, the Badgers' offensive line has taken big strides this spring and tackle Kevin Heywood said that Mateos "lit a spark" in the offensive line room.

Meanwhile, Steeples is also considered an impressive young coach who excels at the details and has been lauded for his ability to coach man-to-man coverage, an area Wisconsin sorely lacked last season. The Badgers weren't planning on signing a new cornerbacks coach, but as Fickell said, “After having two conversations with him, it was, we gotta find a way to make this thing work.”

It's almost an impressively lazy take to suggest that just because Wisconsin hired new position coaches, they'll continue to struggle. In the case of Mateos and Steeples, the Badgers appear to have hired some of the best young position coaches in the country.

Wisconsin had a worse offseason than who?

New UCLA Bruins coach Bob Chesney. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Checking in at No. 13, one spot ahead of Wisconsin in these rankings, is Northwestern. Sure, the Wildcats added Chip Kelly to call their offense, but this isn't 2012. Who did he get to play Quarterback? Aidan Chiles from Michigan State, who, other than two multi-touchdown performances last season, scored two touchdowns across his other seven games.

UCLA, meanwhile, added head coach Bob Chesney from James Madison. He's a very promising young skipper, but their roster has completely flipped. They brought in a whopping 41 transfers, only a handful of whom have concrete Power Four production.

How about Illinois? Bret Bielema's squad signed a solid freshman class, but it lost most of its key players from last season and its lone Power Four transfers were the injury-prone center Jake Renfro, a kicker from Washington and a long-snapper from Arkansas.

Again, it's understandable why the Badgers are being slept on nationally. And having a good offseason of course doesn't guarantee success come fall. But Wisconsin addressed nearly all of its deficiencies in its offseason, one that's certainly above the bottom tier of programs in the conference.

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