Wisconsin @ UNLV preview

Last Meeting ( Sep 8, 2007 ) Wisconsin 20, UNLV 13

By all indications, this should be a run through the desert.

When 12th-ranked Wisconsin opens its season Saturday night at UNLV, it will face a Rebel team that was one of the nation’s worst teams at stopping the run in 2009.

And running the ball is what the Badgers do best.

But this is UNLV, the Mountain West program that has given Wisconsin fits in previous meetings. The Badgers are 6-2 against the Rebels, but it’s been a struggle. Wisconsin was ranked 14th when the Rebels scored a 23-5 upset in Madison in 2003. In 2007, UW was ranked fifth and had to hang on for a 20-13 win in Vegas.

There’s no reason to think the Badgers will struggle this time, however.

This may be the deepest and most talented team in the Bret Bielema era, and the Badgers are a trendy darkhorse pick to end Ohio State’s five-year run at the top of the Big Ten standings. UW went 10-3 last year, culminating with a decisive 20-14 win over Miami in the Champs Sports Bowl.

The main reason for optimism in Madison is the return of John Clay, the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year in 2009. Clay, who often played on two sore ankles, rushed for 1,517 yards and 18 TDs. He enters 2010 healthy (he had offseason surgeries on both ankles) and will once again run behind a large and physical offensive line.

Overall, Wisconsin has a Big Ten-high 18 returning starters, including 10 from an offense that led the conference in scoring (31.8 points per game) and total offense (416.9 yards per game). Fifth-year senior quarterback Scott Tolzien returns after leading the conference in pass efficiency. He passed for 2,705 yards and 16 TDs last year and offers a big challenge to the UNLV defense, which will understandably focus on stopping Clay.

The Badgers’ weakness may be the defense, which lost three linemen, including sack-master O’Brien Schofield. Still, returning DE J.J. Watt is one of the Big Ten’s best.

UNLV, which has a new coach in former Montana head Bobby Hauck, has 15 players returning with at least some starting experience. Hauck led Montana to greatness in Football Championship Subdivision, but there’s plenty of work to be done in Las Vegas.

The Rebels (5-7 last year) were woeful on defense in 2009, ranking 115th out of 120 teams in total defense. On offense, junior Mike Clausen will start at quarterback after beating out senior Omar Clayton, the previous starter. The Rebels ran a spread offense under former coach Mike Sanford, but Hauck prefers a more traditional and balanced attack. It will be interesting how Hauck uses players who had been recruited to play the spread.