Get to know the Wisconsin Badgers' opponent: Week 1 vs. Miami (OH)

Wisconsin Badgers fans had plenty of time to digest last year's disappointing 5-7 campaign throughout the offseason, but it's time to turn the focus toward the 2025 season.

A Week 1 matchup with Miami (OH) offers an opportunity to cleanse a palate that has had the taste of defeat linger, but the Redhawks aren't a pushover.

Recent Performance

Miami (OH) has been consistently toward the top of the Mid-American Conference (MAC) lately, reaching the conference's championship game in back-to-back seasons with a total of 20 wins during that stretch. They've earned a bowl game berth in seven of the past eight years.

Their success hasn't come from beating up on lesser opponents. Miami has faced plenty of power-conference teams in the past few years, all on the road as buy games.

Over the past three seasons, Miami (OH) has gone 2-6 against high-major competition, beating Northwestern in 2022 and Cincinnati in 2023.

Coaching Staff

The Redhawks' success has been built off a strong culture established by head coach Chuck Martin who, along with his offensive and defensive coordinators, has been with the program since 2014.

Martin has won at all of his stops, serving as the offensive coordinator at Notre Dame in 2013 when they made the National Championship game. He also won a pair of National Championships during the 2000s with Division II Grand Valley State.

Pat Welsh is entering his third season as offensive coordinator. He's led a balanced offense that ranked 33rd in total offense (331.4 ypg) a season ago and, in 2023, produced the Redhawks' first 1,000-yard rusher since 2005.

On the defensive side, Bill Brechin has built a dominant unit, and he's entering his fourth year as coordinator. Over the past two seasons, he has produced 14 all-conference players, and his defense has ranked top 15 in points allowed each year, holding teams under 20 points per game on average.

This staff has the merit to challenge the Badgers, even if the talent Miami has might look inferior on paper.

Offense

You might as well forget everything you already knew about the 2024 Miami (OH) offensive roster. They return zero of their starters from a season ago. Quarterback Brett Gabbert is the biggest loss, as he spent six seasons with the team and started every game he was healthy for over the last four years.

The Redhawks somehow found an even more experienced signal caller to command the offense in 2025 in Dequan Finn. He enters his seventh collegiate campaign after an undisclosed injury ended his 2024 season with three games played at Baylor.

A longtime Toledo QB, Finn was the MAC's most valuable player in 2023 and took a visit to Wisconsin while in the portal before heading to Baylor. He's a dual-threat QB who is incredibly elusive in and out of the pocket. He's more than capable of punishing defenses downfield through the air.

His impressive athletic ability will challenge the Wisconsin defense in a variety of ways.

Miami starting quarterback Dequan Finn, entering his 7th season in college football, is the FBS leader for total career touchdowns among all active players, with 93 (66 passing, 27 rushing).

Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia is 2nd with 80 TDs. #Badgers
— Kedrick Stumbris (@KedrickStumbris) August 25, 2025

Jordan Brunson and Kenny Tracy look to be the top RB options. Brunson served as a depth piece in 2024 and Tracy served as a backup in 2023 before being sidelined for the entire 2024 campaign.

Brunson figures to be the lead ball-carrier with Tracy slated for more pass-catching duties. Second-year tailbacks Tito Glass, Josh Ringer and D'Shawntae Jones could steal some work, though.

The entire pass-catching corps is unproven, littered with high-major transfers who didn't play at their previous stops and young players the Redhawks are looking to develop.

Wideout Kam Perry is the likeliest returning player to see targets after catching 10 passes for 166 yards in 2024, while Darrion Williamson (Florida State), Deion Colzie (Notre Dame) and Cordale Russell (Colorado) are highly-touted high school recruits who transferred in after minimal roles at their former schools.

With the Badgers relying on a younger cornerback room, both sides of this matchup will be trying to build on-field experience on the fly.

Miami's top TE from last season graduated, and no other tight end on the roster caught more than two passes in 2024. Iowa transfer Grant Leeper or Texas A&M transfer Erick Karner could ascend into a starting role, but they are both underclassmen with very few counting stats at the college level.

All five offensive line starters are gone, and the Redhawks only nabbed a Division II player (Mitchell Butler) and a Stanford guard who played just 10 snaps (Austin Uke) from the portal. They're likely to turn to younger players within the program to fill the starting positions.

Wisconsin's rebuilt defensive line will look to take advantage of Miami's inexperience up front.

Defense

It's a similar story on the defensive side, with only a handful of starters coming back. The secondary will likely anchor the unit, bringing back starting corners Luke Evans and Mychal Yarbrough along with starting free safety Eli Blakey and star Silas Waters.

The interior defensive line seems like the weakest point of the defense. The Redhawks lost their top two defensive tackles, but return Nasir Washington and Roosevelt Andrews, who served as the third and fourth options at the position. They didn't address the position through the transfer portal, and their third most experienced returner played just 14 snaps in 2024.

Off the edge, Miami (OH) lost their top two sack producers, but return Adam Trick (four sacks in 2024), while adding Cincinnati transfer Kam Wilson, Kansas transfer Bai Jobe and Michigan State Transfer James Schott at the position in addition to returning No. 4 edge rusher Josh Lukusa.

Starting linebackers Matt Salopek and Ty Wise are no longer around, leaving their first-team spots to Corban Hondru and Oscar McWood. Interestingly, Eli Coppess, who saw 113 snaps as a safety a season ago, is now listed as a linebacker. The depth is strong at LB, but it remains to be seen if Hondru and McWood can fill the shoes of those before them.

The Badgers' offense won't have a lot of film to be able to scout their opponents' tendencies coming into this matchup, but Wisconsin can lean on the talent they've developed to emerge as the superior team on the field in Week 1.

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