The Wisconsin Badgers dominated the Michigan State Spartans 31-3 on Saturday, getting out to an early lead and never looking back as their run game and defense got going.
Heading into the game, the Badgers made a major change up front, as they moved Kevin Heywood from right tackle to left tackle, kicked Emerson Mandell out to right tackle, and benched starter PJ Wilkins.
Heywood had been a left tackle to start his career at Wisconsin, but moved to right tackle this offseason after the Badgers landed Wilkins in the transfer portal. But left tackle was a question mark through the Fall, and Wisconsin even started to give Florida State transfer Lucas Simmons-Johansson some snaps there in camp.
However, that competition was derailed when Heywood went down with an injury on the second day of camp, forcing Simmons-Johansson to move to right tackle. Now, after some struggles from Wilkins, the Badgers elected to make a big change on the offensive line ahead of Week 5.
Heywood is now moving to left tackle, while Emerson Mandell is back at right tackle. It marks the second straight year that an offensive line change has moved Mandell from right guard to right tackle. That also allows the Badgers to start Stylz Blackmon at right guard after he’s looked solid the last few weeks.
Speaking after the game, head coach Luke Fickell shared why the Badgers made the change at this point of the season.
“Well, I don’t know if I made those changes, but Coach [Eric] Mateos and Coach [Jeff] Grimes maybe made those changes,” Fickell said. “Again, I think we just want to continue to find a way to get our best guys on the field. And we all have seen where Emerson has played, and he has been a guy that’s rolled a little bit. And we’ve challenged guys to do some different things.
“And I just think we wanted to continue to push PJ. We wanted to continue to find a way. Stylz Blackmon’s been playing really good, and we felt like he gives us a little something different in there and to not have to roll him in there. He’s a guy that can play 60, 65 snaps, and we feel comfortable with it. And so we flipped Kevin over to the other side, and then we used Emerson and PJ at the right tackle to try to continue to generate some competition and find a way to get us our best guys on the field.”
Wisconsin needs to get its five best players on the field. They clearly have felt good about Blackmon at right guard, and kicking Mandell out allows him to be out there at right guard. Wilkins was the clear weak link on the offensive line through the first four weeks, and he may not be the top backup at tackle anymore with Simmons-Johannson there as well.
The move worked well in Week 5, as the Badgers ran for over 200 yards and had over 40 carries in their best rushing performance of the season. Now, Wisconsin gets a bye week to get settled before they take on UCLA on the road in two weeks.
