College football Week 3 preview: Can Wisconsin slow down Jalen Milroe, Alabama?

After a thrilling Week 2, which included plenty of upsets, standout performances and a ton of excitement from start to finish, we shift our focus to Week 3, where “Big Noon Kickoff” heads to Madison for a massive non-conference showdown between Wisconsin and No. 4-ranked Alabama (noon ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app). 

The Tide currently have the third-best odds to win the SEC title, listed at +460, while the Badgers are currently listed at +5000 for the Big Ten title.

In other Week 3 action, No. 9 Oregon and standout QB Dillon Gabriel take on in-state foe Oregon State on the road (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app), while defending national champion Michigan looks to get back on track after slipping to No. 17 in the AP Top 25 Poll this week with a tilt against Arkansas State.

FOX Sports college football writers Laken Litman, Michael Cohen and RJ Young are here to preview the biggest storylines heading into Week 3.

No. 4 Alabama hits the road to take on Wisconsin on Saturday. What is the key for Luke Fickell’s Badgers to slow down an Alabama team that has scored 105 points through its first two games?

Laken Litman: Camp Randall will be rocking Saturday, there’s no doubt about that. One thing that could make the place even louder? If Wisconsin gets off to a fast start like it did last week, scoring touchdowns on two of its first three drives. The Badgers need to force turnovers, especially since Alabama is susceptible. Quarterback Jalen Milroe hasn’t thrown an interception yet, but the Crimson Tide have fumbled six times in two games. The Badgers also have to stay on their toes. Last week, the Tide took a one-point game in the fourth quarter and turned it into a lopsided 42-16 final score. Fickell’s team must limit explosive plays, get pressure on Milroe and not assume the game is over if it isn’t.

[Related: Alabama’s win over USF propelled Tide to memorable 2023 run; can history repeat itself?]

Michael Cohen: The Badgers need to tackle better — much better — if they want to have any chance of handling Alabama this weekend. Defensive coordinator Mike Tressel’s unit was dinged for 12 missed tackles during an unconvincing 27-13 win over South Dakota, an FCS opponent, last week. That included three missed tackles by starting linebacker Jake Chaney, who was ejected for targeting and will be suspended for the first half against the Crimson Tide, and two by star safety Hunter Wohler — the team’s leading tackler in 2023, after he made 120 stops and missed only nine all season. In total, nine different players were charged with missed tackles against the Coyotes, whose top three running backs tore through the line of scrimmage for 136 combined yards and a touchdown on 22 carries. The shoddy tackling has to be a concern for Tressel and Fickell, especially considering how much more consistent Wisconsin was in that department a week prior. Though the season-opening victory against Western Michigan still left plenty to be desired, the Badgers only missed three tackles when facing a significantly higher-caliber opponent from the Mid-American Conference. Of those three misses, just one was assigned to a starting defender; the others came from scarcely used reserves. Wisconsin needs to shore things up in a hurry before facing an Alabama rushing attack that has already forced 18 missed tackles this season. 

RJ Young: Run the ball, Wisconsin. Take the air out of the game. Limit possessions for what can be an explosive offense in Alabama and help a defense that has not been able to tackle in space. A low-scoring game is one Wisconsin can win, and a high-scoring game feels like one they will definitely lose. Even when Alabama looked sloppy, Kalen DeBoer’s offense proved capable of scoring in 10 minutes what takes Wisconsin an entire game — 28 points. Don’t play with dynamite like Alabama’s offense. It’s explosive.

[Related: RJ Young’s 2024 college football rankings]

Conversely, what is the key for Alabama to leave Madison with a victory?

RJ: Play a clean football game. The Tide looked sloppy, undisciplined and at times utterly incapable of holding onto the ball. Committing 13 penalties and fumbling the ball three times against South Florida at home on the day the field at Bryant-Denny Stadium was named for Nick Saban did little to inspire confidence. With Wisconsin, DeBoer’s Tide has an opportunity to reset the perception of his program. While the AP ranked the Tide as one of the four best teams in the sport, I simply don’t see that. In my latest ranking, they sit at No. 8 — behind four other SEC teams. A vintage Milroe performance on the road at Camp Randall feels timely, especially given Wisconsin’s inability to tackle in space against lesser teams, Western Michigan and South Dakota. If Milroe plays well, Alabama will win.

Michael: Based on name value and tradition, Saturday’s matchup certainly qualifies as a marquee non-conference tilt. It pits a team with six national titles since 2009 (the Tide) against a program that has won at least 10 games in a season 13 times since securing a famous Rose Bowl victory under former head coach Barry Alvarez in 1993 (the Badgers). But from a talent perspective, it’s hard to argue that these rosters are even in the same universe entering this weekend. Even after losing Saban to retirement, Alabama will still bring 67 former blue-chip prospects (four- and five-star recruits) to Camp Randall Stadium. The Badgers, meanwhile, have just 28 blue-chip prospects on their roster, according to 247Sports. All of which is to say that Alabama is in position to win Saturday’s game based on talent alone, and that explains the 16-point spread in favor of the Crimson Tide. But among the improvements that DeBoer and his staff will want to see is a reduction in silly mistakes. Through the first two weeks of the season, Alabama leads the SEC in penalties with 20, including eight charged to the offensive line alone: five holding, two false starts, one illegal block. The offense is tied for 108th nationally with four turnovers lost, all of which were fumbles, while the defense is already averaging 9.5 missed tackles per game this season against lesser competition after surrendering just 7.9 per game for all of 2023. There is plenty for DeBoer & Co. to address. 

Laken: Last week, Alabama beat South Florida, 42-16, in what might be the most deceiving scoreline ever. The Tide struggled to pull away, thanks to 13 penalties, three second-half fumbles and Milroe getting sacked three times. Bama entered the fourth quarter with a narrow 14-13 lead before shocking the Bulls and scoring 28 points in the final 10 minutes. Credit to the Tide for being able to score points in a flurry, but DeBoer’s team likely can’t afford the same kind of miscues against Wisconsin on the road. Add in the fact that Alabama has been without starting left tackle Kadyn Proctor, who missed the first two games with a shoulder injury, to force a shakeup along the offensive line. The unit was the culprit of several penalties vs. USF. DeBoer said afterward that this wasn’t a “wakeup call,” but his team is going to have to play better against the Badgers.

Which team has surprised you the most through the first two weeks of the 2024 college football season, and why?

Michael: USC. The speed with which new defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn has seemingly transformed the Trojans into an aggressive, assignment-sound group is extremely impressive given how corrosive that unit was a season ago. USC finished the 2023 campaign ranked 119th in total defense (432.8 yards per game), 121st in scoring defense (34.4 points per game), 109th in opponent third-down conversions (43.7% conversion rate) and 115th in opponent red zone touchdown rate (69.1%). The totality of that ineptitude forced head coach Lincoln Riley to dismiss defensive coordinator Alex Grinch in early November and pluck Lynn from crosstown rival UCLA. With Lynn at the helm, the Trojans are showing legitimate signs of improvement in several areas that forecast long-term success. USC’s average missed tackles are down from 10.8 per game in 2023 to just seven per game so far this season, with one of its two games coming against a highly talented SEC opponent in LSU. The defense has only been flagged for one penalty through its first two games, down from an average of 3.2 per game last year. And Lynn’s group has given up just four scrimmage plays of 20-plus yards compared to an astronomical mark of 5.5 such plays surrendered per week in 2023. So far, this defense seems more than capable of providing some ballast for USC’s high-powered offense and transforming the Trojans into a legitimate College Football Playoff contender.

Laken: Oregon. Entering this season, the Ducks were a favorite to win the national championship and Gabriel, who transferred from Oklahoma, was a Heisman Trophy front-runner. Both of those things could still happen, but not unless Oregon improves. In back-to-back weekends, the Ducks struggled to beat less talented teams from the state of Idaho. Last weekend, Oregon beat Boise State on a last-second field goal. The offense hasn’t been able to get enough going, while the defense — which is projected to be one of the best units in the country — has allowed too many points to start. Head coach Dan Lanning has plenty of new players who are trying to gel, but that’s the case with a lot of teams. The problem is, the schedule only gets tougher from here, and that Oct. 12 date against Ohio State is going to come fast.

RJ: Oregon. Getting bullied by the state of Idaho? Giving up 192 rushing yards to a Group of 5 running back? An inability to separate from less talented teams in the second half of back-to-back games? What happens when you get Ohio State in your living room instead of Boise State? Nah, forget that. What happens when you have to play outside the 5A high school classification? In my preseason rankings, I believed Oregon to be a top-four team. You’re a top-10 team today, but keep sleepwalking, and you’re gonna find yourself in some trouble.

Ryan Day’s Ohio State team has outscored its opponents 112-6 through two weeks and clearly look like the best team in the Big Ten. Which team do you believe is the biggest threat to the Buckeyes in the conference this season?

Laken: It’s really hard to answer that question right now because Michigan doesn’t look like a threat after its crushing loss to Texas, Oregon (as mentioned above) hasn’t proven it’s a legitimate Big Ten or CFP contender yet, and while USC has been impressive in the first two weeks of the season, it’s still early. The Buckeyes have a winnable few weeks coming up before they hit an intriguing gauntlet of conference games. On Oct. 12, they’ll head to Autzen Stadium for a showdown with Oregon. Then they get a bye before hosting Nebraska and going to Penn State. That three-game stretch will tell us what we need to know about Day’s team.

RJ: Ohio State is the biggest threat to Ohio State. To demonstrate how much better the Buckeyes look after two weeks, look at how they’ve measured against a common opponent: While Wisconsin struggled to beat Western Michigan 28-14 (WMU held a 14-13 in the fourth quarter), Ohio State broke the Broncos, 56-0. They’re talented enough to bring a fight to the eventual SEC champion (Georgia, we think), deep enough to overcome most injuries and possess one of the best coaching staffs in the country. OSU’s biggest impediment will be its own focus. With many expecting Ohio State to compete in the national title game — and win it — in the longest season in the history of the sport, will the Buckeyes be able to play with blinders on until the world once again stops on Nov. 30 to find out if it can beat Michigan for the first time since 2019? There’s a lot of football to play between now and then.

Michael: As we enter Week 3, the current answer to that question is nobody — and only time will tell if the likes of Oregon or Penn State can muster some kind of challenge in the coming months. For the moment, it seems quite clear that the Buckeyes, whose handful of high-level transfer portal acquisitions have transformed the roster from great to elite, are a cut above everyone else in the Big Ten at this early juncture. The latest AP Poll in which third-ranked Ohio State is the only Big Ten team among the top seven in the country seems to validate that statement, with the other six spots owned by the SEC: No. 1 Georgia, No. 2 Texas, No. 4 Alabama, No. 5 Ole Miss, No. 6 Missouri, No. 7 Tennessee. (It should be noted, however, that the Big Ten does have three more teams ranked in the top 11 with Penn State at No. 8, Oregon at No. 9 and USC at No. 11). The biggest disappointment thus far is Oregon, a team many believed to be a legitimate contender to win both the Big Ten Championship and the national championship during its first season in a new league. But the Ducks have underwhelmed in back-to-back narrow victories over Idaho (24-14) and Boise State (37-34) that invited legitimate questions about the quality of Oregon’s offensive line, which has already allowed 18 QB pressures. If the Ducks can’t topple Ohio State, which ranks in the top 10 nationally for both total offense and total defense, then it might be a runaway for the Buckeyes.

Laken Litman covers college football, college basketball and soccer for FOX Sports. She previously wrote for Sports Illustrated, USA Today and The Indianapolis Star. She is the author of “Strong Like a Woman,” published in spring 2022 to mark the 50th anniversary of Title IX. Follow her at @LakenLitman.

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast “The Number One College Football Show.” Follow him at @RJ_Young.

Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him at @Michael_Cohen13.

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