A year later than intended, No. 12 Notre Dame finally meets No. 18 Wisconsin, and the questions essentially ask themselves this week. These two top-20 teams might be facsimiles of each other, and not just because their quarterbacks are so familiar to each other.
Irish passer Jack Coan gets the headlines given he led the Badgers to the 2019 Rose Bowl, but it should not be forgotten that Notre Dame aggressively pursued Wisconsin quarterback Graham Mertz for a couple weeks late in the 2018 recruiting cycle.
Aside from those easy storylines, the Irish big-play struggles on defense can be matched by the Badgers’, as can their difficulties mounting long drives.