2015 Wisconsin Badgers football team


The 2015 Wisconsin Badgers football team represented the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the 2015 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Badgers, led by first-year head coach Paul Chryst, were members of the West Division of the Big Ten Conference and played their home games at Camp Randall Stadium. On January 13, 2015, the Badgers hired offensive coordinator Joe Rudolph. The Badgers were the media preseason favorites to win the Big Ten West division. During fall camp prior to the start of the season Chryst announced the Badgers would return to a pro-style punt scheme instead of the shield punt scheme, also known as the spread punt scheme. Two days after Wisconsin played in the Holiday Bowl defensive coordinator Dave Aranda was hired by LSU as their new defensive coordinator. At the end of the season, Wisconsin featured the #1 defense in college football, with opponents averaging just 13.1 points per game against the Badgers.

Recruiting

Watchlists and preseason awards

Rankings

Game summaries

vs #3 Alabama

Overall recordLast meetingResult
1–0November 3, 1928W 15–0

Miami (OH)

Overall recordLast meetingResult
0–0

Troy

Overall recordLast meetingResult
0–0

Hawaii

Overall recordLast meetingResult
5–1December 5, 2009W 51–10

Iowa

Overall recordLast meetingResult
44–42–2November 22, 2014W 26–24

at Nebraska

Overall recordLast meetingResult
5–4November 15, 2014W 59–24

Purdue

Overall recordLast meetingResult
45–29November 8, 2014W 34–16

at Illinois

Overall recordLast meetingResult
38–36–7October 11, 2014W 38–28

Rutgers

Overall recordLast meetingResult
1–0November 1, 2014W 37–0

at Maryland

Overall recordLast meetingResult
1–0October 25, 2014W 52–7

#20 Northwestern

Overall recordLast meetingResult
57–34–5October 4, 2014L 14–20

at Minnesota

Overall recordLast meetingResult
57–59–8November 29, 2014W 34–24

Holiday Bowl

Coaching staff

Roster

Departures

After enrolling early and attending spring training quarterback Austin Kafentzis announced that he would transfer from Wisconsin to the University of Nevada before the start of the 2015 season.
At the end of the season redshirt freshman quarterback D.J. Gillins announced that he would transfer as well, to Pearl River Community College. It was reported that Gillins likely transferred because he wouldn't fit in Paul Chryst's Pro-style offense, he was originally recruited by former head coach Gary Andersen as a more mobile dual-threat style quarterback.

Statistics

Team

Non-conference opponents
Big 10 opponents

Offense

Defense

Key: POS: Position, SOLO: Solo Tackles, AST: Assisted Tackles, TOT: Total Tackles, TFL: Tackles-for-loss, SACK: Quarterback Sacks, INT: Interceptions, PBU: Passes Broken Up, QBH: Quarterback Hits, FF: Forced Fumbles, FR: Fumbles Recovered, TD : Touchdown

Special teams

Big Ten Players of the Week

2016 NFL Draft class

Signed undrafted free agents