Yes, I realize the Rose Bowl is almost a month away, but it's never too early to start thinking about Wisconsin. Stanford and Wisconsin squared off in the 2000 Rose Bowl, and while Stanford fans are likely looking for a little payback, I'm not sure the revenge angle will resonate in a locker room full of players who would have had to hold their mothers' hands to cross the street to get to that game.
Either way, I'll have a lot of material here in the coming weeks previewing what promises to be a great game between the Cardinal and the Badgers, and I'm hoping to feature a variety of experts to give their opinions about both sides. First up is Andy Coppens from Madtown Badgers.
Since Wisconsin plays in the far-off Big Ten and their games this year usually kicked off while I was still rubbing the sleep out of my eyes and hustling my daughter off to her soccer game, I thought it might make sense to start with an introduction to the Badgers and their fans. Don't worry, though. We'll dig deeper as the game gets closer. For now, meet the Badgers!
GoMightyCard:
Stanford fans are thrilled to be headed to the Rose Bowl as the Pac-12 champions, but I'm guessing things might be a bit different for the Badgers. Wisconsin fans are known to be tremendous travelers, but will be their third straight trip to the Rose Bowl. Has the novelty worn off, or are fans and players still excited to be heading to Pasadena?
Madtown Badgers:
In Big Ten country (as we like to call it) the novelty of the Rose Bowl never wears off. It's always a special trip, especially for a program that has never won a national title in football. Fans and players are very excited and rightfully so. It wasn't exactly how either saw the season going and to end it with a trip to Pasadena has the fans really excited. That and crushing Nebraska in the Big Ten Championship game also doesn't hurt.
GMC:
Wisconsin is something of a mystery. Three of their five losses were in overtime, and the other two were by three points each, so there's probably a natural tendency to wonder what might've been. But of course, then there's the Parcels Axiom: You are what your record says you are. So is Wisconsin a great team that got unlucky in those close games, or is it a lucky team that doesn't deserve to be headed to the Rose Bowl?
MB:
This is a tough question to answer to say the least. It's not the latter part of Parcels Axiom for sure, but it's hard to say this team got unlucky either. I will say they made their bed in the Penn State and Ohio State games by not being able to score any points in the 3rd quarters of those games. However, in both the Michigan State and Oregon State losses there was a certain air of unluckiness about those games. There was a golden opportunity missed inside the MSU 20 yard line in that one, and against Oregon State they had a really bad replay go against them that would've turned the game 180 degrees.
I agree there is a tendency to wonder what might have been, and with a season that was legitimately just 5 scores away from a perfect season it's hard not to think that.
GMC:
Everyone knows about Montee Ball. He didn't match the production of his junior season, but few running backs in college football history have put up numbers like Ball did in 2011. What is it that makes Ball so great? What do you see as you watch him on a weekly basis that others might miss?
MB:
I think the one things people underestimate is his will to win. There are quarterbacks that people say put their teams on their backs and will them towards victory, but the same can be said of Ball as a running back. Two cases in point for that - one, during the Ohio State game Ball simply took over, ran over, and wouldn't give up in the 2nd half and his running ultimately led to Wisconsin being in a position to tie that game up. Secondly, just look at what he did in the B1G Championship game last weekend to Ciante Evans and in his acrobatic TD dive too. His reaction to those scores tells you all you need to know about his will to win football games.
GMC:
Of course, Ball isn't the only Badger at running back. Melvin Gordon came out of nowhere to put up 200 yards against Nebraska, and James White has been a definite threat as well. What can we expect to see from the Badgers when they run the ball? Ball obviously gets the most carries, but is there a set rotation after him? What are the individual strengths of these three running backs?
MB:
There really isn't a set rotation for the Badgers, it's more about exploiting matchups and formations for the Badgers. There are times when you'll see White, Ball, and Gordon all on the field at the same time (called the Barge formation - don't ask what it means, it's an inside joke apparently).
As for your last question, Ball is a combination of all the things that make a running back elite - he has great vision, patience, and amazing feet that allow him to hit holes, cut back, and see the bigger picture of the play. Add in the ability to run people over and you've got one of the best running backs in college football.
James White is a smaller version of Ball that isn't quite as willing to bowl people over, but he can make you miss and is a bit faster. He's also a former high school QB so he runs the point in the Barge formation. The third back could actually be the best of the bunch in Melvin Gordon. He's just a redshirt freshman, but as the season has progressed he's shown big time ability to make people miss when he gets to the edge and in open field situations. If you let him get free on the edge it's lights out. He's probably the fastest of the group that plays, and I haven't even mentioned Jeff Lewis, who's a good enough back that he probably would've started on most FBS teams and is 4th on the depth chart.
GMC:
What about the quarterbacks? It looks like Joel Stave, Danny O'Brien, and Curt Phillips have been riding a merry-go-round all season. Can we assume that Phillips will get the start? What are his strengths and weaknesses as a quarterback?
MB:
It's easy to assume it was a merry-go-round at QB, but that's not necessarily how it all played out this season. Danny O'Brien got to start the first three games and was ineffective, so much so that he was benched for Joel Stave against Utah State. Stave showed enough to earn the permanent job and played increasingly well all season long until he suffered a broken collar bone.
That meant it was either back to crappy Danny O'Brien or give 5th year senior Curt Phillips a shot. Phillips, who was coming off of 3 ACL tears on the same knee in a 13 month span, has had the backing of the team all along, and from the Indiana game forward he has shown to be the better option for Wisconsin. He will start, and he will be efficient and effective in the passing game, but he won't be asked to sling the football all around the Rose Bowl. That's simply not what he or any QB at Wisconsin is asked to do.
GMC:
What about the defense? What kind of scheme to the Badgers run, and who are the playmakers on that side of the ball?
MB:
Wisconsin runs a 4-3 scheme that is pretty basic, but they've got one of the best linebacking corps in the Big Ten that's made of playmakers in senior Mike Taylor (1st team all-B1G), junior Chris Borland (1st team all-B1G), and junior Ethan Armstrong. Borland is the blitzing linebacker from the MLB position which you don't see too often, but he's very good at it.
Taylor and Borland are dynamic players and, in Taylor's case, a tackling machine as he's had the most tackles over the last two seasons in all the Big Ten. But, it's not just the linebackers that are dynamic; players like defensive end David Gilbert and corner Devin Smith are very solid players that can't be underestimated either.
GMC:
How surprising is Bret Bielema's departure to Arkansas? You can never tell how something like this might affect a team's bowl game performance, but what do you think this might mean for the program in years to come?
MB:
It's too early to know how this affects a team, but in the end it comes down to the senior leadership and with all of them being around for the previous two you have to think they will make this their singular focus. As for the move itself, I'm shocked and I don't know anyone that isn't shocked. I go back to the statement Bielema made last year when talking about Urban Meyer: "We aren't the SEC, this is the Big Ten and we don't want to emulate the SEC in any way, shape, or form." In the years to come, I say this coming hire by Barry Alvarez defines his legacy as an AD. He knew what he had in Bielema because he coached alongside him, but he doesn't have that advantage today. He needs to hit a home run.
