PLATTEVILLE – The coaches have spoken and no, Wisconsin won’t begin the season as a top 25 college football team.
The Badgers received votes in the preseason US LBM Coaches Poll released Monday. Their point total left them in the “others receiving votes” portion of the ranking, checking in at No. 34 with 17 points.
UW’s lack of national preseason hype should be no surprise. The Badgers are coming off a 7-6 season and are picked to finished seventh in the Big Ten’s preseason poll.
What the coaches poll further illustrates is how well regarded the Badgers’ opponents are this season.
Five Wisconsin opponents are ranked: No. 5 Alabama (Sept. 14), No. 23 USC (Sept. 28), No. 9 Penn State (Oct. 26), No. 25 Iowa (Nov. 2), No. 3 Oregon (Nov. 16).
Another opponent, Nebraska (Nov. 23), received votes.
The Alabama, Penn State and Oregon games will be played at Camp Randall Stadium. The Penn State, Iowa, Oregon and Nebraska matchups are consecutive.
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The coaches voted Georgia No. 1, giving the Bulldogs 46 of the 55 first-place votes. They were immediately followed by Big Ten favorites Ohio State and Oregon.
The Southeastern and Big Ten conferences each have four teams in the top 10, but the SEC had the most teams in the top 25 with nine.
The Big Ten was next with six. Ohio State and Oregon were followed by No. 8 Michigan, the defending national champion, Penn State, USC and Iowa.
Wisconsin opens the season Aug. 30 against Western Michigan at home.
Monday morning the Badgers resumed fall camp at UW-Platteville’s Ralph E. Davis Pioneer Stadium, Saturday they scrimmaged about 75 snaps during their first full-padded practice of the season.
“We’re battling ourselves right now every day …” Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell said Saturday after watching his team scrimmage. “If we’re worried about someone else when we can’t handle the ups and downs and a little bit of the emotions as the momentum shifted in a scrimmage situation, then we would be putting the cart before the horse to worry about somebody else. That’s why we’re out here to do our best job of focusing on ourselves.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Unranked Wisconsin football faces six teams in US LBM Coaches Poll
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
