The announcement this early in the week makes it very clear that there is no quarterback controversy in Madison, the reigns are Hornibrook’s going forward, barring injury.
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Hornibrook, who lost a competition in training camp for the starting job, may have thrown the race open again for his performance last week against Georgia State. He is 13-for-17 for 183 yards with two touchdowns and an interception this season.
Complete for 29 yards, Hornibrook’s lovely spiral to a streaking Jazz Peavy drew a healthy roar from a previously silent crowd at Camp Randall.
The two battled throughout fall camp before Houston was named the starter on August 25, nine days before the team opened the season against LSU.
Hornibrook looked poised and confident against Georgia State, though, and he immediately provided the spark that Chryst was searching for.
If Clement does play this week, he won’t enter Saturday’s game as the Badgers’ No. 1 kickoff returner. Chryst subsequently dodged answering who would start by telling reporters that the team needed both quarterbacks to be ready to play. But I thought it was a good change-up for us.
Michigan State was viewed as second-tier to Ohio State and Michigan at the beginning of the season, but a big win over Notre Dame might have Buckeyes and Wolverines fans a little scared. He hit wide receiver George Rushing in the hands, but a drop led to the pick.
He slung an 11-yard pass to favored target Rob Wheelwright, and when the Badgers were in desperate need of something big, Hornibrook delivered a 29-yard, arcing pass to tight-end Kyle Penniston to put the Badgers in the red zone. “If I’m the guy, I’m ready to go”.
It wasn’t pretty, but Wisconsin got the win.
“And there’s areas at the quarterback position where we can get better, and we need to keep working to get better”. Was it merely that the Badgers finally woke up midway through the third quarter? For being such a young quarterback, he always seems to have a certain confidence around him that leads me to believe that the environment will not bother him on Saturday.
The first half of the match saw both teams on an equal playing field as they were even on shots (3) and shots on goal (1).
From an outsider’s perspective, there’s no way of knowing what’s on the minds of players on the field when Hornibrook is taking snaps compared to Houston.
The teams played seven times between 2007-12, including the inaugural Big Ten Championship game in 2011 that UW won, 42-39. Hornibrook will face a much tougher defense than he has in Akron and Georgia State against Michigan State. “We’re going to be even better in all the details and all the execution”.
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Against the Irish Williams may have only posted two tackles, however, as Dantonio stated he recorded a big one on the Irish final drive of the game when he sacked DeShone Kizer forcing Irish head coach Brian Kelly to punt the ball away and then watch as the Spartans ran out the clock sealing the victory.
