Phil Longo, the new Wisconsin Badgers offensive coordinator, has already brought tremendous excitement to the fanbase within the span of a month.
Both he and head coach, Luke Fickell, have been dominating the transfer portal, bringing in one of the best transfer classes in the country. At the moment, On3 has Wisconsin as the fourth-best transfer class.
In doing so, it is fun to envision how this new offensive system will look behind Coach Longo, and what to expect of it.
Although Longo has been known for his “Air Raid” offense, he envisions a more balanced attack on the field.
“Balance to us is not 40 runs and 40 passes. Balance to us is distribution of the football to all of the weapons that we have in the offense. Here [at Wisconsin], we’ve got two really good ones, and we’ve got a really good running back room.”
With new additions to the wide receiver room, there should be plenty of weapons for potential starting quarterback Tanner Mordecai to throw the ball to. Along with the already strong running back room, this new Wisconsin offense should be one of the best in the Big Ten.
“What we want to do is increase how effective we can be in the passing game so that defenses have to defend the full field and all five skill players. That’s really the goal of the Air Raid here at Wisconsin.”
Since opponents tend to fill the box defensively with eight to nine players, this should be a breath of fresh air for running backs. With a more spread-out opposing defense, it will be interesting to see how much production increases in the running game behind star running backs Braelon Allen and Chez Mellusi.
While Longo has been successful in his past positions at other schools, he hasn’t been focusing on taking the step to the NFL.
“I don’t know how much the NFL interests me. I love the college game. NIL and the portal have definitely changed the college game in the last two years, but I love college football.”
Wisconsin fans are undoubtedly excited to have Longo in Madison and it is enjoyable to speculate about next season, but Longo has his own current focus.
“[We] haven’t even talked about Xs and Os, because the priority right now is recruiting, so that’s the focus.”
With recent transfer additions to the offense, including wide receivers C.J. Williams from USC and both Quincy Burroughs and Will Pauling from Cincinnati, the talent level for skill players will be very high.
This sets up to be an intriguing season for the Badgers under new offensive coordinator Phil Longo.
Loading comments...