5 Wisconsin players to watch against Iowa

Iowa’s stretch of three trophy football games in three weeks will begin Saturday as Wisconsin visits Kinnick Stadium.

Here are five Wisconsin players to watch as Iowa tries to reclaim the Heartland Trophy:

LB Nick Herbig

Nick Herbig has been a menace for opposing offenses.

Herbig has 12.5 tackles for loss this season. The next-best Badger has 5.5. Herbig has eight sacks. The next-best Badger? Three.

Herbig was the runner-up to Iowa’s Jack Campbell for preseason Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year in Cleveland.com’s preseason poll of Big Ten beat writers with 10 of 35 first-place votes.

He also earned preseason first-team All-America recognition from national college football writer Phil Steele.

The outside linebacker from Kauai, Hawaii, missed Wisconsin’s Oct. 22 win over Purdue, but he played significant snaps against Maryland last week.

RB Braelon Allen

Braelon Allen has been the latest standout running back to wear cardinal and white at Camp Randall.

The sophomore, who began the season on the Doak Walker Award’s preseason watch list, is averaging 5.8 yards per carry in 2022.

The 6-foot-2, 235-pound back has surpassed the 100-yard mark in five of Wisconsin’s last six games. His 10 rushing touchdowns are more than all of Iowa’s running backs combined.

Allen’s ground threat is not new to Iowa. The Fond Du Lac, Wis., native rushed for 104 yards while averaging 5.2 yards per carry last year in the Badgers’ 27-7 win over the then-No. 9 Hawkeyes.

QB Graham Mertz

Wisconsin quarterback Graham Mertz is a familiar face for the Hawkeyes at this point.

The junior from Overland Park, Kan., is preparing for his third matchup against the Hawkeyes. He was 20-for-38 with no touchdowns and one interception against Iowa in 2020 and 11-for-22 with one touchdown and no interceptions in 2021.

Mertz has not necessarily blown people away with what he’s done in his career at Wisconsin. He completed about 60 percent of his passes last season while throwing 10 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.

Mertz has shown some bright spots this season. With 17 touchdowns through nine games, Mertz is at pace to double his passing touchdown total from last season.

He was 20-for-29 for 299 yards and five touchdown passes against Northwestern and 13-for-21 for 203 yards and two touchdowns against Purdue.

He’s coming off a subpar 5-of-18 performance against Maryland, though.

RB Isaac Guerendo

The aforementioned Allen clearly has the starring role in the Badgers’ backfield, but fellow running back Isaac Guerendo also has the potential to cause problems for opposing defenses.

The senior from Clayton, Ind., is coming off two of the best performances of his career.

Guerendo had a career-high 114 rushing yards and a touchdown against Maryland despite having only 12 carries. He had 72 rushing yards on seven carries on Oct. 22 against Purdue.

Other times, Guerendo has had a much smaller role. He finished with fewer than 10 rushing yards in five of Wisconsin’s nine games.

The backup running back missed much of the 2021 season after suffering a Lisfranc fracture in his foot during warmups before the Wisconsin-Illinois game.

DB John Torchio

John Torchio’s path to success in Wisconsin’s secondary may sound familiar to Iowa fans.

He arrived in Madison as a walk-on before eventually earning a scholarship and a starting role at free safety. It’s similar to the path Jake Gervase, Jack Koerner and now Cedar Rapids’ Quinn Schulte have taken at Iowa.

Torchio has a team-high five interceptions in 2022. Three of them have come against last season’s all-Big Ten first-team and second-team quarterbacks — C.J. Stroud and Aidan O’Connell.

He also had a 100-yard interception return for a touchdown against Illinois State.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com