Ahhh, Michigan

Being Badgercentric, I have all sorts of little superstitious rituals that no doubt help Wisconsin sports teams win, or not lose, games. For instance, last year I bought a Pat Richter throwback jersey at Camp Randall, and put it on during the first half of the Capital One Bowl against Arkansas. We didn’t play very well, so I took it off. Forgetting this, I was wearing it for the first half of the Citadel game earlier this year. We won’t be seeing it for awhile.

Another ritual I have is to read up on UW’s next opponent the week before the game. This is done not on the Internet, but on my toilet, on the back of which sits the Athlon Sports Big Ten preview. I love college football (and basketball) preview magazines, have ever since I was a kid. Not sure why, since they usually mean very little once you get a couple weeks into the season. Still, each week I read the preseason predictions for our next foe, go over the usually-outdated two-deep, review their incoming recruiting class.

It was especially hard to read the past two weeks. You see, Athlon picked the Badgers to win the Big Ten and finish fourth nationally this season. Upon first reading that, I said to Jana “Athlon’s has us ranked fourth and winning the league – that doesn’t feel right.” But as Jim Austin would say, “reversal!” – I really thought the ranking and prediction were justified by the talent we had returning. Even though Ohio State and Michigan would be tough as ever, this would be the year we busted through their stranglehold on the top spots, just like we did in the ‘90s. Tomorrow’s game would be one of those two or three Big Ten Games of the Year.

But it wasn’t meant to be. Things got started off on the wrong foot when Jamal Cooper was thrown off the team in August; Kurt Ware’s injury at the time was another setback that turned an area of strength into one of little depth. Then the defense underperformed in the first half against Washington State. Then Lance Smith was suspended for road games. Then we almost lost to UNLV. Then we couldn’t stop the Citadel for 30 minutes. It was apparent something was wrong, and even though we eked out gutsy wins over Iowa and Michigan State, the house of cards was toppled at Illinois and Penn State. The effort was strong last week against Ohio State, but the injuries to PJ Hill, Jason Chapman, Allen Langford, and Eric Vanden Heuvel were just too much to overcome.

So tomorrow’s game is relatively meaningless. (Spoiled fan alert) I suppose we’re still playing for a 10-win season to get to the best second-tier bowl game we can, is that still the Cap One Bowl? Is going down there and getting smoked by Florida something to look forward to? Michigan will be playing Ohio State next week for the conference title, and their epic loss to open the season precludes them from playing for the national title.

Still, I’m as fired up as ever about this game, basically because I loathe the Michigan football program. Their players, fans, coaches, stadium, everything. If I read another “Mike Hart is the toughest player in the country” line from some sports writer I’m going to puke, and wipe it up with my F%$@ Michigan T-shirt. (Actually, I donated that to Goodwill a couple years ago.) Chad Henne’s a meathead. Jake Long wouldn’t know how to spell his own name if it wasn’t tattooed on his arms. Lloyd Carr has been getting a lot of love this season, but let’s face it, no one has done less with more talent among big-time coaches in the last decade. Tressel mops the floor with him.

Their stadium seats 800,000 people or whatever, but it sounds like an SAT testing room. Their fans are as arrogant as they come; I remember sitting in a bar in Ixtapa, Mexico, on New Year’s Day 1998, watching us get trounced by Georgia in the Outback Bowl, and a couple Michigan fans down the bar from us sneering and laughing at our misfortune. In Vegas in September I did the same as Oregon embarrassed the mighty Wolverines.

So yeah, I want to win this game real bad. Will it happen? If I had to bet my 401k, I’d take Michigan. ("Reversal ...")

We can score on their defense, even though PJ is still out. (And BTW, how poorly were expectations managed after PJ was hurt against Indiana? I was under the impression it was a little bruise and he’d be back last week without question.) Lance and Zach Brown should be able to pick up the slack there, and there’s no reason Travis Beckum shouldn’t have a big game.

It seems EVH won’t play this week, but interestingly, it seems that they’re looking at keeping John Moffitt at left guard, plugging Andy Kemp in at right guard, and moving Kraig Urbik out to right tackle, where he started two years ago. This speaks to the play of Danny Kaye and Jake Bscherer, who were both supposedly right on Gabe Carimi’s tail for the left tackle job in fall camp.

The thing is, how are we going to stop them? For all my cracks, Henne, Hart, and Mario Manningham are really good, really dangerous players. The D-line is going to be vulnerable with Chappy out. Jack Ikegwuonu on Manningham seems like a good matchup for us, but he gave up two TDs to Brian Robiskie last week and hasn’t been a consistently lock-down corner this year. On the other side, Aaron Henry is going up against some damn good secondary receivers like Greg Mathews and Adrian Arrington.

To win this one we’ll need a couple turnovers and a big special teams play or two – special teams killed us last year in Ann Arbor. It’ll be interesting to see who’s back on returns.

Unlike Michigan's, our crowd should be a big factor. Good story in the Cap Times today about noise at Camp Randall.

So even though I don’t expect it, we still have a decent chance to pull a mild upset tomorrow and close the home season undefeated, which is important. But if we do, it will only serve to reinforce the disappointment of a season that once had so much promise.