Football Study Hall: Wisconsin's versatile, hybrid defense

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But after 6'2" 330 pound nose tackle Beau Allen and star linebacker Borland departed, the Badger front no longer included a collection of obvious 3-4 defensive players but instead several tweener-sized players at multiple positions.

That suited Aranda just fine, and he made use of the versatility in his players to create a defense heavy on disguise and movement that finished seventh in the nation on passing downs on 15th overall in S&P.

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Traditional smashmouth teams that don't try to spread out defenses before overpowering them in the middle are in arguably even worse shape against the Wisconsin defense as they'll have to contend with cover 1 robber schemes that play Biegel and Schobert on the edges with Caputo roving in the middle:

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The Badger defense is built more for snuffing out pro-style, Big 10 offenses than handling the stresses of a spread offense. But with versatile hybrids like Biegel, Caputo, and McEvoy on the field Dave Aranda is finding solutions that will allow them to also play high level defense against the dangerous spread offenses creeping into the Big 10.

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