Wisconsin Football Week 2 Offensive Snap Count Breakdown and Analysis

Wisconsin football authored a Week 2 victory that left most of its fans, at least the most visibly online ones, miserable.

It wasn't the wire-to-wire domination the Badgers fans envisioned against an overmatched FCS foe, and the lack of consistency plus some troubling play from starting quarterback Colton Joseph has Wisconsin fans on edge once again.

As the Badgers transition into Week 3 against Eastern Michigan, Badgers On SI has offensive snap counts and analysis from the win over the Leathernecks:

Author's note: snap count data from Pro Football Focus.

Quarterback

Snap Counts:

- Colton Joseph (47)
- Ryan Hopkins (8)

Joseph's performance is going to be the main talking point from this game, and for good reason. The gunslinger was just off, especially in the first half. Passes sailed over the heads of intended targets, slightly behind them or slightly late. It wasn't a complete disaster, and Joseph finished with 173 yards and a touchdown on 12-of-22 passing, but there's certainly a lot for the signal-caller to clean up.

As expected, the true freshman Hopkins was the first gunslinger off the bench. He didn't attempt a pass, but he did show off his speed on a nice eight-yard scramble.

Running Back

Snap Counts:

- Darrion Dupree (19)
- Bryan Jackson (17)
- Abu Sama (16)
- Nate Palmer (2)

Sama was the team's leading rushing with eight carries for 107 yards and a score, but he played the third-most snaps. The coaching staff stopped giving him touches after he failed to do anything with six straight handoffs after compiling 103 yards on his first two. You'd like Sama to be a little more decisive and stop dancing around in the backfield. Jackson and Dupree each had their moments too, with the latter recording his first touchdown of the season on a 28-yard scamper.

Wide Receiver

Snap counts:

- Chris Brooks Jr (39)
- Tyrell Henry (27)
- Eugene Hilton (26)
- Shamar Rigby (20)
- Malachi Coleman (9)
- Zion Kearney (8)
- Kash Brock (8)
- Jackson McGohan (6)

Brooks once again led the way in terms of snaps, and that's a trend that figures to continue all season. It was unfortunate to see Malachi Coleman go down with an upper body injury, because you got the sense this was the kind of game in which he could really feast. Rigby continues to get more and more involved with 20 snaps, but once again, he didn't see a single target. Brock and Kearney played their first snaps in a Badgers uniform.

Tight End

Snap counts:

- Grant Stec (34)
- Emmett Bork (22)
- Jacob Harris (21)
- Nizyi Davis (1)

Once again, Grant Stec took the most snaps in the tight end room. Sure, Ryan Schwendeman was hurt and unavailable, but that was the case last week as well. Stec could be the most versatile tight end on the roster pound for pound. Harris remains surprisingly quiet as a receiver, reeling in two of his four targets for six yards. Bork played the second-most snaps in the room again; he continues to surprise with his workload.

Offensive Line

Snap counts:

- Austin Kawecki (47)
- Kevin Heywood (47)
- PJ Wilkins (47)
- Colin Cubberly (47)
- Stylz Blackmon (47)
- Blake Cherry (8)
- Lucas Simmons-Johansson (8)
- Hardy Watts (8)
- Ryan Cory (8)
- Barrett Nelson (8)

The Badgers did a whole line change with their offensive line this week. Notably, Sylz Blackmon took all of the starting reps at right guard, laying sole claim to that role after he split reps with Blake Cherry in Week 1. After Cherry's struggles against Notre Dame, that makes sense, and it also makes sense to try deploy the most cohesive offensive line possible with as little rotation as possible.

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