The Wisconsin football team (5-3, 3-2 Big Ten) returns home after the latest blowout loss to Iowa.
Rutgers is having a rough season, sitting at 2-6 overall with a 1-4 record in the Big Ten. On top of that, the injuries are really starting to mount for Greg Schiano and the Scarlet Knights. Receiver KJ Duff, the team’s top offensive player and likely its top player, has been listed as ‘doubtful’ for their matchup with Wisconsin on Saturday afternoon.
Most of the BadgerNotes staff thought the Badgers were primed for their first win over Iowa since 2021, but their disastrous showing against the Hawkeyes made us look foolish. Let’s try it again this week.
Here are the staff predictions for Week 10.
Staff predictions
• Dillon Graff
Season record: 6-2
I think Wisconsin wins this game, but I’m not particularly interested in pretending it tells us anything meaningful about where this program stands.
Rutgers is 2-6, dealing with quarterback uncertainty, and has one of the worst defenses in the country. Wisconsin should win this game. Frankly, the fact that we’re even discussing whether the Badgers can cover a 17.5-point spread against this opponent tells you plenty.
What happened against Iowa wasn’t some unfortunate outlier. It was a reminder of what Wisconsin has consistently been under Luke Fickell. Occasionally competitive, occasionally encouraging, but ultimately incapable of sustaining anything that resembles meaningful progress.
The USC win was nice. So were some of the defensive performances leading up to Iowa. But I’m increasingly convinced those moments are exceptions rather than evidence of some larger transformation.
And that’s where I find myself with the rest of this season.
Wisconsin could beat Rutgers, win a couple more games, and finish with a respectable record. I’m not sure that changes my opinion of this program one bit, and I hate that. We’ve seen enough football under this coaching staff to understand what the ceiling looks like, and beating inferior opponents down the stretch isn’t going to convince me otherwise.
Maybe that’s overly pessimistic, but I don’t think there’s some grand revelation waiting for us over these final few weeks. This team is what it’s been. Better results against worse competition won’t suddenly make it something different.
Wisconsin’s defense should be enough to handle Rutgers. The offense will probably make it unnecessarily difficult.
Prediction: Wisconsin 20, Rutgers 13.
• Christian Borman
Season record: 4-4
I’ll admit that after the win over USC, I thought this program had turned over a new leaf and could, at the very least, compete with Iowa and make it a good game in Iowa City. I was dead wrong.
But even as weary of this team as I am now, I still think this game against Rutgers will be one the Badgers should control from start to finish.
The Scarlet Knights have struggled all year, and with their lone bright spot, KJ Duff, potentially sidelined, or at the very least less than 100%, it gives the Badgers that much more of an advantage.
I’m confident the Wisconsin defense can shut down the Rutgers offense. What I’m looking for is what the offense can do, specifically getting the running game going against the 127th-ranked run defense in the country.
I’m not sure I’m ready to pick Wisconsin to cover the 17.5-point spread, but I still think the Badgers win comfortably, giving them momentum in the stretch run of the season.
Prediction: Wisconsin 24, Rutgers 10
• Seamus Rohrer
Season record: 4-4
Just about everything I thought I knew about Wisconsin football this season was thrown out the window after the 30-0 loss to Iowa.
I thought the Badgers had one of the best defenses in the country. That’s clearly not the case. I thought the Badgers didn’t need a fully-functional passing attack to win big games. Iowa dispelled that notion pretty quickly. I thought the culture of this program had changed, that there was an attitude and mindset that resonated throughout the building that wouldn’t let embarrassing losses like Saturday in Iowa City happen. Once again, dead wrong.
What I do know is that Rutgers is not a good team. Its best win is over Maryland, which is winless in Big Ten play. The Scarlet Knights beating the Terps was also the straw that broke the camel’s back in the Mike Locksley era at Maryland, so that should tell you what you need to know about how Rutgers is perceived.
The Scarlet Knights have a pitiful defense, and they’re down their starting quarterback Dylan Lonergan and first-round caliber wideout KJ Duff. It scares me to pick Wisconsin, because again, I clearly know very little about this team. But the Badgers can’t lose to lowly Rutgers…right?
Prediction: Wisconsin 23, Rutgers 13
Charlie Pietz
The Badgers are coming off what I’d call the worst loss of the Luke Fickell era. Yes, they’ve lost to far worse teams, but last weekend there were no excuses. At full strength, in a game that had been circled on the calendar for over a year, Wisconsin was completely dominated in every phase.
Fortunately, a Big Ten bottom-feeder comes to town this week in Rutgers.
True freshman quarterback Ryan Hopkins is widely expected to get the start at quarterback, and this team should be hungry to wash out the sour taste of last Saturday. I expect the offense to start slow, as usual, but the defense should return to its normal standard. In front of a Camp Randall that’s maybe two-thirds full, the Badgers grind out a win.
Prediction: Wisconsin 27, Rutgers 7.
Want to talk through the game with other Badgers fans? Join Bucky’s Burrow for our free game-day chat and be part of the conversation.
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