Wisconsin may not want the free advice it’s about to get, but it’s coming anyway. Stop trying to pretend that Leonard Moore isn’t the best corner in the sport just days ahead of your game with Notre Dame.
It was bad enough on Monday when Luke Fickell announced that his team is going to go right at Moore. It was even worse when he then claimed that the defensive back could “prove” he’s the best around if Moore once again demonstrates that throwing at him was a bad idea.
And then on Tuesday, when people were starting to forget that Fickell had thrown a gauntlet down at the Notre Dame defender, Colton Joseph decided he needed to pick the gauntlet up and threw it back down while screaming, “I challenge you to a duel!”
"We're going to play our guys and play our best matchups and just go out there, and we're going to let whoever we want, whoever we're comfortable with, run routes on anyone,” the Badgers’ quarterback said after practice.
Wisconsin keeps challenging Notre Dame football star Leonard Moore before Week 1 showdown
It’s perfectly fine for both a coach and a quarterback to be confident in their approach. To be clear, it would be weird if both Fickell and Joseph proclaimed they were terrified of Leonard Moore. But that doesn’t mean they have to go out of their way to try and claim they’re not sure he’s scary at all.
Wisconsin could have said they respected Moore and knew he could disrupt games, but that they needed to run their plays the way they work best. Instead, they keep acting as though Moore is overrated and that everyone else in the country who's been burned whenever they’ve tried to throw consistently against him just isn't as smart as the Badgers.
One of the weirdest things about constantly reviving the Leonard Moore talk is that Wisconsin would have been much better served keeping a low profile and just trying to ambush Notre Dame. There’s a reason why the phrase “don’t poke the bear” exists. Poking the bear makes said bear angry and dangerous.
Considering Notre Dame has already said it needs to stay focused and roll over as many teams as it can, precisely because it’s been accused of letting up against some opponents, the Irish were never going to ignore the Badgers. But there’s a difference between being aware of an opponent and suddenly having the best defender on the team called out multiple times.
Wisconsin wants everyone to know that it's not afraid of Notre Dame. It should be.
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