The Wisconsin Badgers open their season this Friday, August 30th at 8:00 p.m. Central Time against the Western Michigan Broncos. The Broncos enter 2024 under second-year head coach Lance Taylor, who is looking to improve after a poor 4-8 record last year. Taylor enters this season with two new coordinators on both sides of the ball, OC Walt Bell and DC Scott Power.
Last season, the Broncos lost 0-3 to Power-5 programs Syracuse, Iowa and Mississippi State. Brett McMurphy of Action Network had Western Michigan expected in the 68th Ventures Bowl this season. If the Broncos qualify, it would be their first bowl game since 2021.
This is the Badgers’ first game against Western Michigan since the Cotton Bowl on January 2, 2017Corey Clement had 71 yards and a rushing touchdown, Troy Fumagalli caught the final touchdown from Alex Hornibrook, and the Badger defense led by TJ Watt defeated the previously undefeated Broncos 24-16 to claim the first Cotton Bowl title in program history.
It was also the first time that Badger fans this trainer and his eye-rolling battle cry “Row the Boat.”
Wisconsin leads the overall series four games to one. The Broncos’ only win in the series came during the Badgers’ embarrassing 1988 season, in which they only managed one win. That season is perhaps best remembered because Don Morton stated, “We may be down, but not dead” in a, let’s say, embarrassing video.
Opponents of the Mid-American Conference (MAC) will be start a new seriesin which a MAC opponent defeats at least one Big Ten team. Last year, MAC opponents went 0-8 against the Big Ten. Western Michigan’s last win over a Big Ten opponent came in that special 2016 season, when the Broncos defeated both Northwestern and Illinois.
Here are some things you should know about the 2024 Western Michigan Broncos.
