2024-08-31 10:40:02
Welcome to the 2024 season, Wisconsin Badgers fans! The Badgers host Western Michigan under the lights at Camp Randall Stadium to get things going in a rare Friday night game.
We’ll have live coverage within this file throughout the Badgers-Broncos game. Be sure to refresh your browser for the latest updates.
| Team | First Quarter | Second Quarter | Third Quarter | Fourth Quarter | FINAL SCORE |
| WIS | 0 | 10 | 3 | 15 | 28 |
| WM | 0 | 7 | 0 | 7 | 14 |
It’s not an outcome that’s going to make everyone happy, but the Badgers do prevail after scoring twice in the fourth quarter. Long drives characterized the first half, without many points to show for it, and after Western Michigan took a 14-13 lead early in the fourth, the Broncos lost a punt that glanced off a retreating player, Austin Brown recovered and UW cashed it in for points.
A big stuff by Aaron Witt led into another offensive series that makes it a two-score game. Tyler Van Dyke looked wobbly in his first game at quarterback, but Tawee Walker and Chez Mellusi did their part.
Thanks for reading everyone!
On 4th and 14, Western Michigan had to get desperate, and Hayden Wolff’s attempt was corralled by true freshman Xavier Lucas right on the sideline. He bats it to himself, and Wisconsin gets it back on its own 22. He costs the Badgers some yardage by not batting it down, but it’s a moot point, since Wisconsin can just salt the clock away from here.
Wisconsin is going to win its opener. Dicey, to be sure, but a W, at least.
Western Michigan isn’t just going to go away.
Hayden Wolff just found Malique Dieudonne for 22 and 15 yards, putting Western Michigan across midfield and inside the Badgers’ 40-yard line. We still have more than 2 minutes to go, although our first holding penalty of the night is going to set the Broncos back a bit.
Elijah Hills follows it up with a sack and suddenly Western Michigan is facing 3rd and 26 from its own 46, and we’ve reached the 2-minute time out.
Tyler Van Dyke scrambles on 3rd and 6 to the end zone and dives across the goal line. It’s his first career touchdown in a Wisconsin uniform, and the Badgers have their biggest lead of the night.
It won’t go into the record books as pretty or even satisfying, but UW will open the year at 1-0.
WISCONSIN 28, WESTERN MICHIGAN 14, 3:17/4th
The offense has moved very fluidly following the stop at midfield, and Wisconsin will have the ball 1st and goal at the 6-yard line after an injury timeout with 5:11 still to play.
Van Dyke just found Will Pauling for 14 yards, following a 13-yard catch-and-run by Riley Nowakowski. Van Dyke is up to 192 yards passing, and Chez Mellusi has 75 yards rushing.
Funny nugget from back a few plays on Trech Kekahuna’s 2-point conversion; Western Michigan’s Nyquann Washington … leapfrogged the back judge!
Western Michigan marched down to midfield but faced a 4th and 1, but Jalen Buckley was stuffed at the line by Aaron Witt, a player who’s been at Wisconsin as long as anyone and battled injury after injury to get on the field. And he just came up with one of the biggest plays of the game.
Wisconsin will take over at the 50-yard line with 7:54 to go in the game, leading by a touchdown.
Tawee Walker got the first down and then, one play later, battering rams his way into the end zone for a go-ahead touchdown with 10:35 on the clock in the fourth quarter.
Walker blew up a defender on his way to the 6-yard touchdown score.
That prompted the Badgers to go for the 2-point conversion, and Van Dyke found a leaping Trech Kekahuna in the back of the end zone for a leaping grab. Wisconsin jumps on a massive mistake by the Broncos, and they have the lead once again.
WISCONSIN 21, WESTERN MICHIGAN 14, 10:35/4th
Atticus Bertrams punted a ball that bounced into DaShon Bussell, with his back to the ball, and Austin Brown jumped on it after it deflected away for a turnover. That gives the Badgers possession at the Western Michigan 20-yard line, suddenly in the red zone with a chance to re-take the lead. What a break!
It’ll be 3rd and 2 at the 12 yard line with 11:15 left after the Badgers called their first timeout.
Not for the first time today, Van Dyke turned to throw a short pass to a player running along the line of scrimmage and threw inaccurately. It’s keeping the Badgers from getting some quick yards and possibly breaking something bigger.
The Badgers don’t get far, facing 4th and 11 on the 30 with 12:33 to go, and they’re going to have to punt it back to Western Michigan, which has a 14-13 lead.
As if it wasn’t bad enough already, it seemed like Trech Kekahuna lost control of the ball on the kickoff return, but he was already down. With 14:07 to go, UW takes over at its own 21-yard line.
After a late substitution gave the Badgers a penalty for too many men on the field, Western Michigan punched it in. Jalen Buckley found daylight around the left edge, and the Broncos have grabbed a lead against Wisconsin with 14:15 left in the game. Hoooo boy.
The Badgers were 24-point favorites coming into this game.
WESTERN MICHIGAN 14, WISCONSIN 13, 14:15/4th
Western Michigan players are fired up on the sideline, rocking to Jump Around just as enthusiastically as the fans inside Camp Randall Stadium. The MAC school picked to finish seventh is 4 yards away from taking the lead on a Big Ten school in the early moments of the fourth quarter.
Holy buckets, Wisconsin is in deep trouble now.
Palmer Domschke rushed onto the field on 4th and 6, seemingly prepared to attempt a 47-yard field goal not long after missing one from one yard farther back. But instead, it was a fake, and Domschke took the pitch all the way down to the 4-yard line for the first down.
The third quarter ends, and Western Michigan is on the doorstep of a go-ahead touchdown at Camp Randall Stadium. It’s not great!
END THIRD QUARTER: Wisconsin 13, Western Michigan 7
Man, that’s ugly.
Van Dyke took a 9-yard sack after he had all day to throw the ball, then as he tried to scramble away from pressure on 3rd and long, he lost the ball at the line of scrimmage and Western Michigan recovered.
The Broncos are going to take over at the Badgers 34-yard line. Van Dyke has got to do better at feeling the pressure and stepping up in the pocket. Even that scramble was created when he let the pressure get into his face when he had time to react.
Western Michigan reaches into its bag of tricks for a halfback pass play, with a sling to Anthony Sambucci backward that he intended to throw down the field. But Hunter Wohler batted the pass away a few yards downfield, preventing anything from connecting. And that was big, because the Broncos had already gotten inside the Badgers’ 35-yard line, highlighted by a 23-yard pass to Malique Dieudonne.
On 4th and 8, Palmer Domschke lined up a 48-yard field goal and sent it wide right. The Badgers get the ball back on their own 31-yard line with no harm done. Dicey moments though!
Nyquann Washington should have had an interception when Van Dyke threw into the end zone on third and 6, but he couldn’t corral it as he fell to the ground. It’s the second time the Broncos have failed to haul in a ball in their hands like that, and Van Dyke has thrown some iffy passes that were batted, too.
The play came after Chez Mellusi lost four yards trying to find daylight horizontally across the field. And so again, Wisconsin is forced to settle for a field goal.
Vakos knocks through the 23-yarder. But UW now has two 14-play and two 16-play drives, and somehow they only have 13 points to show for it.
WISCONSIN 13, WESTERN MICHIGAN 7, 7:56/3rd
On 3rd and very long, Van Dyke had a perfect pass to Trech Kekahuna on the sideline, just beyond the outstretched hand of a Broncos defender, picking up 14 yards for the first down to the 16-yard line of WMU.
A couple plays earlier, Van Dyke threw an off-balance risky play that was batted briefly into the air by a Broncos defender, but it fell incomplete.
Tucker Ashcraft then hauls in an 8-yard pickup for a first down on the 6-yard line, though the Badgers were hit with a false start penalty trying to snap the ball in a hurry as a Western Michigan player subbed in late. Back to the 11 but first and goal.
On 3rd and 6, Van Dyke calmly found Will Pauling, who’s up to five receptions now, and the Badgers have the ball at the 29-yard line of Western Michigan. Pauling’s reception went for 17 yards and nearly more as he worked his way briefly free from what looked like a sure tackle.
Can the Badgers punch this one in?
The kickoff to start the second half went well for UW, with Trech Kekahuna switching fields and racking up 28 yards in exciting fashion, setting up the Badgers with a first down at the 35-yard line. The redshirt freshman is going to make a whole lotta plays this year for UW.
Wisconsin has a yardage edge, 219-111, thanks to a huge disparity in total plays (44-26), but Western can sustain drives too and showed it, narrowing the time of possession gap to essentially 16 minutes to 14.
Jalen Buckley has 9 carries for 35 yards for Western but feels like he’s had a much bigger impact on this game. He also has a big catch for 24 yards on the touchdown drive and the lone Western score of the game on a goal-line rush after Wisconsin had stuffed WMU on the first three downs with one yard to gain.
In his first game under center for Bucky, Tyler Van Dyke is 13 for 23 for 113 yards. Neither team has a turnover, but Van Dyke threw a pass that should have been intercepted and was dropped.
Hayden Wolff is 5 of 8 for Western Michigan in the passing department, good for 53 yards.
Nyzier Fourqurean leads UW with four tackles, though several players have three. That includes Hunter Wohler, who had a biggie at the goal line that ultimately went for naught on the next play.
Bilhal Kone and Boone Bonnema both have six tackles for Western Michigan.
Bryson Green has four catches for 39 yards for UW, and Will Pauling has three for 24.
The kick is good from 33 yards, and Vakos gives the Badgers a 10-7 lead at halftime. Not the inspiring score the Badgers were hoping for, but at least they lead? And as common sense will tell you, the bigger and stronger team should prevail in the second half. But any worries that UW will be unable to find that gear that was missing last year … so far, they’re still worries.
It was a 14-play drive that navigated 68 yards in the final 3 minutes before the break. Wisconsin can sustain drives, but they’ll probably need to find some flash, too.
HALFTIME: Wisconsin 10, Western Michigan 7
Tate Hallock of Western had the ball just bounce out of his breadbasket after he got in the way of a Van Dyke pass on 2nd and 10. That’s the good news; the bad news is that not only did UW face 3rd and 10 with just 12 seconds left, it got hit with delay of game. It’s the first penalty of the game on UW and first penalty overall flagged in the moment (the other was a reviewed targeting call on Western).
Van Dyke couldn’t find anybody on third down and scrambled to get back to the original line of scrimmage, but that makes it fourth down and UW will have to kick. Vakos missed a makeable kick earlier; this is a 33-yarder.
Tyler Van Dyke had to elude some pressure but found a streaking Trech Kekahuna across the middle, and he held on before skittering out of bounds at the 16-yard line of Western, converting a third down with 24 seconds left in the first half.
Mr. Reliable last year, Will Pauling, hauled in a 13-yard catch over the middle, bringing the Badgers across midfield, and Bryson Green caught a ball near the sideline for 11 yards to set up UW at first and 10 on the 29-yard line with 42 seconds still to go.
Van Dyke’s first shot to the end zone, trying to hit Green in one-on-one coverage down the sideline, was out of reach, and his second pass was a safety-valve sling to Tucker Kraft that was short of the mark. That made it 3rd and 10 on the 29 with 32 seconds left. Enter Kekahuna, who caught a pass Van Dyke threw while staggering after a defender nearly had him by the shoe.
The two-minute warning has reached college football (two minute time-out, to be precise), and with 1:56 on the clock, we have another break at Camp Randall Stadium.
Tawee Walker is back on the field and just picked up 10 yards in two snaps. It’ll be 2nd and 4 on the 34-yard line. Badgers don’t need to ratchet up the intensity yet, but perhaps soon.
Trech Kekahuna received the kickoff a couple yards deep in the end zone and made the ill-advised decision to bring it out. The Badgers will start at the 16 looking for a go-ahead score with 2:58 to go in the first half.
Jalen Buckley gets in, and Western Michigan has its first points of the game just before the 3-minute mark in the second quarter. The defense did what it could once it was 1st and goal on the 1-yard line, but they didn’t have quite enough for a full-on stop.
The extra-point by Palmer Domschke is good, and we’re tied. It’s yet another 16-play drive in this game (the Badgers have had two such drives of exactly that amount).
WISCONSIN 7, WESTERN MICHIGAN 7, 3:02/2nd
It sure looked like Jalen Buckley was stopped short on fourth down, though I’m not sure, but the play was ruled dead because Wisconsin called its first timeout. We’ll try 4th and 1 again after another break.
Jalen Buckley converted on 3rd and 2 near the goal line for four yards, burrowing all the way down to the 1-yard line, setting up a first and goal for the Broncos. But WMU hasn’t tied the game yet.
Buckley was stuffed at the line on first down, and Leon Lowery wrapped up Jaden Nixon on second down for no gain. Hayden Wolff bootlegged free on third down, but Hunter Wohler was able to win the one-one-one tackle and keep the quarterback just shy of the goal line.
Timeout, Broncos, with 3:05 to go before halftime.
Leon Lowery had a chance to wrap up Bugs Mortimer well shy of the first-down marker on 3rd and 7, but he slipped away and rumbled down to the 26-yard line for an 8-yard pickup. Two plays later, and Western Michigan is in the red zone with another first down.
It’ll be 1st and 10 at the Badgers 14-yard line with 7:14 to go and UW nursing its one-score lead.
Jalen Buckley popped free when the Badgers brought extra pressure, and Hayden Wolff hit him perfectly in stride running up the sideline for a 24-yard gain that has the Broncos at the UW 37-yard line. Buckley has been the primary source of offense thus far for Western Michigan, with 30 rushing yards and 24 receiving yards.
We’re under 9 minutes to go in the first half.
The “Air Raid” may sound flashy, but offensive coordinator Phil Longo has insisted that can mean a healthy dose of the running game, too. And the methodical work by UW’s offense sure looks like old-school UW football.
The Badgers dominating time of possession, 13 minutes to 5, with 16 rushes out of their 31 plays. Western Michigan, which takes over at its own 22 after the kickoff, has just 10 plays heading into this drive.
The targeting is confirmed, sending Wahlberg from the game with an ejection, and Wisconsin wound up with a first and goal at the 9. Wahlberg started all 12 games for Western Michigan last year, so that’s a big loss.
It sets up a Badgers touchdown; Pauling nearly had one on first and goal from the 9 that was broken up, but Chez Mellusi twisted and fought his way to the end zone on second down. He came back to Wisconsin after another star-crossed injury season last year, and now he has UW’s first points of the game.
That’s a 93-yard drive over 16 plays.
WISCONSIN 7, WESTERN MICHIGAN 0, 11:48/2nd
On 3rd and 1 at the 2-yard line, Chez Mellusi gets 2 yards for the third third-down conversion on the drive, making Wisconsin 5 of 7 in that department thus far tonight. That also produced Wisconsin’s second red-zone opportunity of the game.
Van Dyke had a pass tipped at the line of scrimmage on first down at the 19, but it fell to earth unharmed.
The play is under review to take a look at whether Western Michigan linebacker Jacob Wahlberg committed a targeting foul chasing after Van Dyke. Sure looks like he led with his head.
On 3rd and 4, Tyler Van Dyke stepped up through the pressure and dove for the first-down yardage, the second third-down conversion of the drive.
Mellusi, who’s up to 24 yards rushing on six carries, got two more and Western Michigan called timeout before the next snap. It’ll be 2nd and 8 with 13:21 left in the second quarter at the Western Michigan 28-yard line.
We haven’t seen Tawee Walker since the first few snaps of the game.
Van Dyke has completed 9 of 14 passes for 68 yards.
There’s still no score, but the Badgers are cooking. Tyler Van Dyke has thrown passes to Will Pauling twice (10 yards, 1 yard), Bryson Green (10 yards) and Riley Nowakowski (9 yards) to keep moving the chains. Wisconsin will come back from the first-quarter break with a 1st and 10 at the Western Michigan 40-yard line.
The drive almost stalled from the jump. Chez Mellusi picked up eight tough yards on first down, then had to fight for first-down yards on third down to kick off the drive deep in Wisconsin territory.
On the next play, Van Dyke slung it over the middle to Pauling for a 10-yard splash, then he tried a similar play that Riley Nowakowski caught while lunging forward for 9 yards. Next up: Cade Yacamelli gets a carry, flying down to the Wisconsin 49-yard line for 12 more yards.
END FIRST QUARTER: Wisconsin 0, Western Michigan 0
On a 3rd-and-6 snap from midfield, Hayden Wolff’s pass was thrown to open space, and the Badgers get a stop after Jalen Buckley had them on their heels.
With 3:27 to go, Wisconsin will get the ball back in a scoreless game, but the punt sticks at the 8-yard line, so Wisconsin has a long way to go.
The Broncos went 3-and-out on the first drive, but not on the second. Jalen Buckley has rushes of 9, 6 and 8 yards, getting Western Michigan near midfield before WMU secured the first down with a short gain by Zahir Adbus-Salaam.
Looking ugly for a team that hoped to have a fast start and not replicate the wobbly nonconference showings of 2023.
That’s not how the Badgers drew it up.
After a long first-down pass into the end zone found nobody close, Chez Mellusi was held to a short gain on second down, and a pass over the middle to Mellusi rattled incomplete on third down. That set up a 36-yarder for Nathanial Vakos, and he sent it wide right.
We’re still scoreless with 6:57 to go in the first quarter. Bad start for the Badgers red-zone offense. It was a 16-play drive ending in no points.
Tyler Van Dyke has his first rush attempt of the season (5 yards) and a first-down completion to wide receiver Bryson Green, plus another first-down pass to tight end Tucker Ashcraft, who rumbled all the way down to the 19-yard line.
First red zone opportunity with 7:50 on the clock in the first quarter.
Wisconsin, facing 4th and 1 at its own 40, keeps the offense on the field and gives the ball to Tawee Walker, who has more than enough to keep the series going.
Tawee Walker, the transfer from Oklahoma, is the star of the first series and records Wisconsin’s initial first down of the season. After a short rush, he caught Tyler Van Dyke’s first pass attempt for 8 yards, then gained another 5 to move the chains.
Walker actually catches Van Dyke’s second pass, too, a safety-valve connection for about three yards.
Jalen Buckley rushes for 2 yards on first down, tackled by Ben Barten and Darryl Peterson, and then Buckley can’t handle a swing pass on second down that glances off his hands. Jaheim Thomas easily cleans up a rush from quarterback Hayden Wolff when he didn’t have any options deep. It’s a three-and-out, and the Badgers get the ball back quickly with 13:30 on the first-quarter clock.
UW takes over at the 19-yard line.
Wisconsin won the toss and deferred to the second half, and kickoff specialist Gavin Lahm sent the kickoff into the end zone. There’s no modified kickoff here in college just yet; you’ll have to wait for that until the NFL season opener next week.
Western Michigan takes it at the 25 and we’re off!
Few players have endured the lengthy list of injuries that Aaron Witt has faced in his career, but he’s stuck with football at Wisconsin and still has tantalizing potential. The outside linebacker is healthy and warming up with the first-team defense before this game, so it appears we’ll see him tonight.
Western Michigan won’t have its best receiver tonight; Kenneth Womack, who led the team in receptions and receiving yards last year, has a broken hand and is out. He was a a first-team All Conference pick in the MAC last year. That’s obviously a big loss for a team that’s already the heavy underdog.
Joseph Griffin Jr., a wide receiver transfer to Wisconsin from Boston College, is also not suited up tonight even though he’s not on the injury report.
It’s always fun to keep an eye on newcomers with the Badgers, and none will be more high profile than starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke. But here are five other players I’m fascinated to see in a Badgers uniform tonight
There aren’t really any surprises on the injury report for Week 1, with a handful of players who have been battling camp injuries.
They are:
Second-string right tackle Barrett Nelson is perhaps the biggest surprise if there is one, since he had been available for the last Badgers practice before the game.
Heiberger, a true freshman, had been one of the eye-opening newcomers in camp but he’s been sidelined for a while.
There are no players listed as “questionable.”
Beer is available in the coolers at Camp Randall Stadium, where alcohol is for sale in the general seating areas for the first time. Prior to 2024, Wisconsin was one of just three Big Ten schools who didn’t sell alcohol to the general public at football games.
You may be coming into this game knowing very little about Western Michigan, given that they’re picked to finish seventh in the MAC and, under normal circumstances for a power-conference program, should probably be a relatively easy hurdle to clear.
The caution comes in the bevy of returnees they have, including their five eligible all-conference selections. That includes running back Jalen Buckley, a redshirt freshman who cleared 1,000 yards last year.
Under center is redshirt senior Hayden Wolff, a big quarterback (6-5, 235), who wasn’t the full-time starter until the final five weeks of the season last year. And when he played, he performed. On the metric of passing yards per game, he’s the No. 2 returnee in the conference.
The Broncos have four Wisconsinites on their roster, and they’re all among the big fellas:
Muraski is listed as the No. 2 left tackle on the two-deep, with Schuster No. 2 at right guard and Tyler at No. 2 at defensive tackle. Vandervest started one game last season (at right tackle) and played in nine games overall. Tyler played in every game last season and recorded six tackles.
Wisconsin plays the first of two Friday games on its season in Week 1. The regular-season finale against Minnesota is also a Friday game.
Channel 75 in Milwaukee.
Odds courtesy of BetMGM as of Friday afternoon
Tyler Van Dyke takes over the Badgers’ starting quarterback job after four years with the Miami Hurricanes.
He brings a lot of experience to Madison, having started the last three seasons. He won ACC Rookie of the Year and ACC Offensive Rookie of the Year honors in 2021, in his redshirt freshman season. Miami finished 7-5 that season.
He transferred to Wisconsin in December after Miami’s 2023 season ended and then won the starting job over the returning Braedyn Locke, who started three games last year when Tanner Mordecai was injured.
2023 (redshirt junior): 219 for 333 (65.8%), 2,703 yards, 19 touchdowns, 12 interceptions
2022 (redshirt sophomore): 160 for 253 (63.2%), 1,844 yards, 10 touchdowns, five interceptions
2021 (redshirt freshman): 202 for 324 (62.3%), 2,931 yards, 25 touchdowns, six interceptions
2020: 0 for 2 in two games before redshirting
Will Luke Fickell’s squad begin the season 1-0? Our Badgers football beat reporters believe so, though they’re split on if the Badgers will cover the 24-point spread.
Mark Stewart: Wisconsin 40, Western Michigan 14
JR Radcliffe: Wisconsin: 30, Western Michigan 10
Read more on their predictions here.
Homegrown Badgers:A look at the Milwaukee-area products on the Wisconsin football roster
Injury update:How the Wisconsin defensive line will look without James Thompson
Wisconsin’s opponents:A look at the best players the Badgers will face in 2024
Q&A:Get to know Wisconsin Badgers reporter Mark Stewart
New hire:Wisconsin’s Luke Fickell hires former NFL head coach Jack Del Rio as senior adviser
It’s been a couple years since Jim Leonhard was the Badgers’ interim head coach.
But Wisconsin football fans are always interested in where the former Badgers All-American, defensive coordinator and coach is these days.
After spending one season as a senior football analyst for Bret Bielema and Illinois in 2023, Leonhard is now in the NFL as a defensive pass game coordinator/defensive backs coach for the Denver Broncos.
*Editor’s Note: Player listed first is the projected starter*
All times Central.
* Denotes Big Ten game
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