Breaking down the schedule

Put the 2008 team poster up in my office earlier this week, and during phone calls have found myself staring at the Badgers' 2008 schedule. Here's how I see it going;

August 30: vs. Akron. Win. Won't be pretty, but should be a good game to establish a dominant ground game and see guys like Blake Sorensen and Garrett Graham play big roles in place of injured starters.

September 6: vs. Marshall. Win. Ten years ago I went to see Marshall play Bowling Green at Bowling Green with my boss at the time, Mickey Johnson, a huge Thundering Herd backer. Chad Pennington, Doug Chapman, and Byron Leftwich were on that Marshall team, and Randy Moss had just left. Somehow BG won. Can't see this Herd team posing much of a threat.

September 13, at Fresno State. Loss. The talk about the Badgers' weak non-conference schedule continues, but considering that they will be clear underdog in one of their non-conference games, why is that? Further, if Virginia Tech had remained on the schedule, Wisconsin's non-conference schedule would easily be the toughest of any BCS team. Still, don't see us winning this one, and if we do it'll be a huge boost.

September 27, at Michigan. Win. Michigan is down a bit this year but still has lots of talent. Still, the main reason I'm picking win here is our bye week before this game, it should give guys like Beckum and Casillas more time to heal up. Michigan has a bye before this game, too.

October 4, vs. Ohio State. Win. This ends up being OSU's one regular season loss, but they still win the conference. This game's on the offensive line and P.J. Hill, they need to impose their will on this one. The atmosphere at Camp Randall will be electric for this one.

October 11, vs. Penn State. Win. PSU has some players, but I just can't see them winning a night game in Madison.

October 18, at Iowa. Win. This should be the easiest game in this brutal stretch, but that isn't a given. No way Bielema lets the team let down for this one.

October 25, vs. Illinois. Loss. Last year's 31-26 loss to the Illini in Champaign wasn't that close. We got are butts kicked in that one, and even though they lost Mendenhall and Leman, they've got a lot of big-time recruits who will be coming into their own this year.

November 1, at Michigan State. Loss. Still can't shake that image of our horrendous tackling against Sparty in Madison last year, and one of the guys we had so much trouble bringing down, Javon Ringer, is back.

November 8, at Indiana. Win. Finally, what should be a breather after a brutal two-month stretch.

November 15, vs. Minnesota. Win. Who will still be eligible for the Gophers by then? (Apparently Brew's incoming Minnesota freshmen have the lowest composite ACT scores of eight schools that responded to the Star-Trib's request for such data; Wisconsin's were the highest, although Northwestern's were probably even higher.)

November 22, vs. Cal Poly. Win. Yeah, an anti-climactic way to end the regular season, but at this point, a win's a win.

January 1, vs. LSU, Capital One Bowl. Win. Here again? LSU's lines are dominant, but they've got a huge question mark at quarterback and are missing some playmakers on defense. This is where they landed after their last national title, and they lost to Iowa in a terrific game. I see something similar this year.

10-3, no conference championship, but a double-digit win total and January bowl. What would you think of that?