Sounds like Kerry Cooks is going to leave Bret Bielema's coaching staff to take a job at Notre Dame. Apparently a former college teammate of Cooks' will be the defensive coordinator for Brian Kelly.
While Cooks was a member of Bielema's original staff, this doesn't seem like a mammoth loss. Our defensive backs haven't been a particularly strong unit for the past three seasons after a stellar 2006. On the other hand, he's coached up guys like Allen Langford and Chris Maragos, and his unit was hit by dismissals and an overreliance on youth.
With most assistant coaches, the bigger issue is their value recruiting. Cooks recruited Texas, Iowa and Maryland for us. Texas hasn't netted us much recently beyond Jay Valai and Devin Smith. Florida is the better southern state for us. We haven't gotten many kids from Maryland, although that's changed with Frank Tamakloe and Robbie Havenstein in this year's class. Top kids from Iowa go to ... Iowa.
So without doing a deep dive through the roster and checking every guy Cooks was responsible for, it doesn't appear we'll take a big step back here.
I see this as an opportunity for an upgrade both in position coaching and recruiting. Also, word is this is Bielema is being strongly urged to get someone else to coach special teams. Hey, great idea. If only 100,000 Badger fans hadn't suggested it a year ago.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Less Cooks in the kitchen
Monday, November 23, 2009
All-conference Badgers
The Big Ten will reveal its all-conference football teams tonight, and Wisconsin should be better-represented than last year, when Allen Langford and Garrett Graham were the only two all-league Badgers. Here's how I see our potential selections breaking down.
First team
John Clay -- No brainer, leads the conference in rushing and touchdowns. Should be offensive player of the year. (Aside: it's sort of hilarious that Terrelle Pryor and Juice Williams were the odds-on picks for offensive player of the year in the preseason, isn't it?)
Gabe Carimi -- Best lineman on the league's highest-scoring offense.
Garrett Graham -- Easily the best receiving tight end in the conference, also an asset in the run game.
O'Brien Schofield -- Started really hot, and though he didn't maintain his breakneck pace as the competition stiffened, he set the tone early for a defense which exceeded expectations this year. Part of me fears that he may get lost in the shuffle of all the Big Ten's excellent defensive linemen -- Brandon Graham, Ryan Kerrigan, Adrian Clayborn, Ohio State's guys -- but OB should be one of the top four.
Honorable mention
Scott Tolzien -- Had a really nice season. Other quarterbacks may have better numbers and may be more dynamic, but I'm happy with our guy.
Nick Toon -- If he played in an offense that passed more, or on a team that was behind more, his numbers would be much better and he'd be a first teamer.
Chris Maragos -- Had four interceptions and played really well, but there were at least four better defensive backs in the league this year.
J.J. Watt -- Nice debut. With Schofield gone next year expect him to elevate his game.
Chris Borland -- Can you choose a special teams player who isn't a returner or kicker? If they have a plcae for someone like this, Borland makes it. Second in the league in forced fumbles and tied for first in fumbles recovered despite only starting a handful of games. A playmaker.
John Moffitt -- A second guy from the line that led the league's top rushing attack ought to earn some sort of all-conference honors. But who? Moffitt? Josh Oglesby? Peter Konz? Kevin Zeitler? I probably picked Moffitt because he's so gregarious, but despite some rocky moments he has opened plenty of holes on the left side and pulling right.
Hopefully I forgot a guy or two, and of these second-tier guys get bumped up, but either way there have been plenty of individual performances to be happy with this year.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Guys I'm excited about seeing
Every year there are a handful of guys we're especially excited about seeing. Not returning stars, mind you -- we know what they can do. But guys who haven't played much before, but are in position to make a big impact. It's one of the beautiful things about college spots.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Good bye, seniors
The other day I was taking down the 2008 Wisconsin football poster/calendar in my office to make room for the one Jana made me. Before doing so I looked one last time at the guys on the poster who, for all the disappointments of this season, still contributed to 38 wins in their careers. Not too shabby.
Mike Newkirk
Good contributor for several years. His dad says he's bulked up to 275 pounds and could play in the NFL. We'll see. Part of me thinks if we'd had a really good line, he would have been best suited to be a backup who could play 50% of the snaps swinging between end and tackle.
Jason Chapman
Chappy was never the same after his knee injury. It was a shame, he was so quick off the ball. Every time he'd get whistled for jumping the snap I'd get upset with him, but then remember all the times he got away with it and disrupted the opponent's backfield.
Matt Shaughnessy
Never became the star many thought he would become after his strong freshman year, but always produced. Who knows, maybe his production will increase as a professional. The thing I'll remember about him is he always seemed to be disciplined, staying at home on reverses or quarterback rollouts. And don't forget, he was playing with a heavy heart this year.
Eric Vanden Heuvel
Not a star, but it was obvious the line was at its best this year when he was at right tackle.
Andy Kemp
The memory of Kemp I'll retain is of him chucking his helmet in celebration after the win over Cal Poly this year, out of character for a seemingly quiet kid, but enjoyable to watch. Against the weak non-conference teams we played he had success pulling. Will be interesting to see if he gets a shot professionally.
Dave Peck
I've already got Will practicing long snapping, it can earn you a Division 1 scholarship, and maybe a shot at the NFL. Don't know if Dave is good enough for that, but who would've thought Mike Solwold was?
Kraig Urbik
Only special players start four years on our offensive line. Joe Thomas, Chris McIntosh, Casey Rabach ... Kraig Urbik. Nice to see him get All-American honors from ESPN.com, even if it was sort of a stretch -- not that he didn't perform well, it's just that he was hurt this season.
DeAndre Levy
What I'll remember about Dre was his reaction after our embarrassing loss at Penn State in 2007. It was genuine, heartfelt, and showed that he really cared, which is not always the impression that some of these guys give. He represented the Milwaukee City Conference well, and hopefully inspired some of those kids to take football more seriously.
Travis Beckum
His emergence as a star in 2006 was one of the most pleasant surprises of a pleasantly surprising season, and he kept it up in 2007. That was more important than just on-field production. Becks was one of the most highly-rated recruits we've ever brought in, and had he failed, it would have hurt future recruiting. He was obviously not going to cut it at linebacker -- too tall -- and he lacked the instincts and aggressiveness to play defensive end. Kudos to the coaching staff for finding the right spot for his abilities, and kudos to Travis for making the most of the opportunity.
Allan Evridge
To think: I was expecting and hoping for him to beat out Tyler Donovan for the starting job in 2007. The thought was that a two-year starter would be better than back-to-back one-year starters. Wrong-o, T.
Jonathan Casillas
Anyone who was at the Metrodome for our 2005 game will remember him for his involvement in the greatest blocked punt in UW history. He was a playmaker on defense, too, when healthy. I hope he gets a shot in the pros, maybe he'll make an impact on some team's special teams and maybe get a shot at being a backup safety.
Ryan Flasch
When he transferred in I thought he'd factor into the mix at linebacker, but no.
Chris Pressley
Solid kid for the program. Heard that Bielema said few kids get as much out of playing college football as Pressley has, which is a great compliment. He'll represent UW well in whatever he chooses to do after college.
Josh Neal
Moved around a lot -- linebacker, fullback, defensive line -- wherever he was needed. Seemed to be a favorite of his teammates.
Bill Rentmeester
Favorite memory: his eight-yard run to clinch the Fresno State game. Apparently he was also a killer on special teams, although it never jumped out at me.
Allen Langford
Who would've thought this guy would be the well-deserved team MVP as a senior? What a story. Not as talented as Jack Ikegwuonu, but he wasn't a major liability when teams avoided throwing at Ike. Hurts his knee as a junior, but unlike many guys makes a full recovery in time for his senior season. Thrown out there with two rookie corners on the other side, and the secondary holds its own for the most part. Langford comes off like he was a 10-year NFL veteran, a consummate professional who happens to still be an amateur. He probably won't get the chance to play professionally, but I could see him being a good coach.
Damn, that was a good class. Probably the most individual talent of a departing senior class in a few years. No way they should have lost six games. It will be interesting to see how the coaching staff produces with classes made up of more Dave Pecks than Travis Beckums.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
2008 in review: Glutton for punishment?
I was all set to write a long, fancy review of the 2008 season highlighted primarily by the frustrating turns, but then it hit me: I've already written them! All I had to do was go back and re-read the 12 game recaps from the regular season and pull the bullet points that best summed up this team.
God, was that depressing.
Even in victories, we showed fatal flaws. In losses, we showed only brief glimmers of promise.
Are you a glutton for punishment? Read on.
August 30 vs. Akron
My only thought ... is that I'm disappointed we left so many points on the board in the first half. It should have been 35-7 at halftime, not 17-10. Some guys have to tighten up their games.
We got away with this against Akron, but not against good teams.
September 6 vs. Marshall
What an atrocious start, absolutely embarrassing. ... Four penalties in the first six minutes. Failure by the defense to get off the field on third down. Little aggression or precision on offense.
Not the last time we heard those phrases ...
Didn't think we'd see John Clay again after his early fumble, but boy did he run well late. He's on his way to becoming the beast we've thought he could be.
Still think that ...
P.J. Hill's fumbles are starting to concern me, the first one more than the second. He's good enough to keep plays going with his feet and his drive, and that leads to him falling in awkward positions and leaving himself exposed to the types of hits like the one that caused the fumble.
Happened again against Florida State ...
September 13 vs. Fresno State
A disturbing trend in the second half was not running or throwing to receivers at first down yardage on third down.
That option that Evridge ran deep in Fresno territory was a curious call, although he ran it relatively effectively. But there was a holding call on it, not surprising.
Bringing in Clay when we did was a nice move, but why not keep feeding him the rock?
Like my friend said in November, Paul Chryst had a bad year ...
September 27 vs. Michigan
Run the ball every play in the second half. I'm serious. Without Beckum and Graham in there, Kyle Jefferson is the only primary receiver with dependable hands. Lance Kendricks, Nick Toon, and David Gilreath have all dropped decent passes thus far, with varying degrees of costliness. Allan Evridge has been serviceable, but few of the passing plays have looked smooth.
Few would all year long.
On one third-and-1 call we ran a terrible-looking play action pass. Run the ball behind our enormous line! Like the play call that Johnny Clay took down the the 5 -- that's a great call, well executed.
How many third-and-ones did we fail to convert? The one that really sticks in my craw is the option left where Evridge made a terrible pitch to P.J. Hill and we lost five yards on the play. Can you remember any time when we've run the option successfully on third-and-one? Or at any down and distance, for that matter? Me neither. So STOP RUNNING THE OPTION ON THIRD-AND-ONE, PAUL!
See above.
Then, after playing reasonably well but getting burned by his receivers, Evridge went scattershot. Inaccurate throws. Holding onto the ball too long. Not securing the ball under pressure. I was not ready to call quarterback play an Achilles' Heel for this team, but it is, big time.
Quarterback play killed us, and everything unraveled from there.
October 4 vs. Ohio State
The second half seemed to go by really fast, didn't it? It wasn't as decisive as in the loss at Michigan, but we were clearly outplayed in the second half again. That's three straight weeks, a disturbing trend.
This year's Badgers got thoroughly outplayed in the second half in all of their losses, all but one of them against good teams. Against bad teams we owned the second half, but that's not good enough. That has to change.
It was distressing that Pryor beat us on the final drive with his passing. ... OSU's receivers were wide open, even though we appeared to be dropping six or seven guys into coverage.
Happened again versus Florida State against another average passing quarterback.
Replays showed clearly how disorganized our defense was on Pryor's winning touchdown run. There's that leadership thing again -- get the guys lined up properly, or someone call a timeout and make sure everything is in order. (Burning two timeouts in the first 7:23 of the second half didn't help, either.)
Coaching, coaching, coaching.
October 11 vs. Penn State
Penn State is indeed a good team, but there's no reason we shouldn't be right there with them. But the Badgers continue to get burned by the little things.
And would continue to be burned by little things.
We've called out Allan Evridge and P.J. Hill, but how about Travis Beckum? ... He's still putting up good numbers when completely healthy, but he's not playing an all-around game.
A disappointing senior season for Travis, hopefully he goes on to a terrific professional career.
... on second-and-goal from the 1, we get called for 12 men in the huddle. Yeesh.
... it's third-and-20 for Penn State and we have them pinned deep in their own end, and Daryll Clark throws for 21 yards on the run, great pass and route. Another instance of not closing the deal.
Sort of like Carr's third-and-19 catch for 20 yards against FSU.
October 18 vs. Iowa
Watching the postgame on the Big Ten Network, I saw Bret Bielema's press conference. At one point he ended a sentence with "The team that's beating Wisconsin the most is Wisconsin."
Good call, dude.
Forget getting into the backfield and recording tackles for loss. These (defensive linemen) were getting dominated at the point of attack, putting all the pressure on our defensive backs to make saving tackles.
On Greene's second touchdown run, he broke about 73 tackles. ...
Actually, defensive line play and tackling were not chronic problems for this team, in my opinion.
October 25 vs. Illinois
Credit Mr. Man for pointing out that our defense is actually better built for stopping (the Spread) than we've been in the past ...
Too bad non-Spread teams gashed us.
Allen Langford ... had an Al Harris-type day in coverage. By that I mean he was consistently straddling the line between tight coverage and interference, and thank god those judgments went our way today.
Love Langford, gonna miss him.
Jay Valai ... set a physical tone with hits belying his 5-9 frame.
Love Valai, glad he's coming back.
Nice to see Garrett Graham get so heavily involved in the offense in the second half. If Beckum's out, Graham isn't a bad guy to have as a go-to receiver, even if it is for just 6-7 yards a pop.
Sherer's success next year starts with Graham.
Is it time yet to call for Bielema to give up coaching the special teams? Two weeks ago we give up a punt return touchdown. Last week a punt is blocked. Today Benn has a long kickoff return that leads to a field goal, and a penalty for lining up wrong on a punt. Time to let someone else worry about that.
Expect to hear this drum beat loudly in the offseason.
November 1 vs. Michigan State
I don't even know what to say. Seriously. This week after week of getting kicked in the balls by one thing after another is really starting to have a residual effect on my psyche.
Leinenkugel's dulls the pain of getting kicked in the balls repeatedly.
Mental errors have once again led to points by the opponent. The play call misunderstanding leads to Sherer's fumble which leads to a field goal. Levy's face mask leads to another field goal. This team just doesn't have the margin for error to be making those mistakes.
As heard on the Champs Sports Bowl postgame.
P.J. and Clay have had some nice runs, created by some nice blocking, but we still can't seem to get into a rhythm running the ball. What's it going to take? We need the run more than ever, especially considering our quarterback with, as Bentley accurately put it, a "bizarre throwing motion."
A running game rhythm is Job One for 2009. More on that later.
We ice the game with a rare third-and-1 conversion ... and a hold on Moffitt.
Why in the hell did Bielema call timeout when State was setting up for that last-second field goal? ... Maybe if he hadn't wasted our third timeout with that foolish challenge earlier in the half he could have called a third straight timeout.
November 8 vs. Indiana
So our offensive line, which was healthy last week finally, got two whole plays in today before Eric Vanden Heuvel was hurt. Turned out it didn't matter, but wouldn't it be nice if we were just at full strength for once?
They played pretty well together when all give guys were healthy.
November 15 vs. Minnesota
(At halftime, written in a Camp Randall bathroom) Nightmare: Only word to describe this latest fiasco. The lowlight is the Minnesota fan two rows behind us, in section R, row 40, seat 2, celebrating wildly Kyle Jefferson's injury. Here comes the ambulance ... Metaphor for the season.
I hope that guy is rotting in hell somewhere. It seemed like Kyle played against Florida State.
Can you ever remember a receiver having a career game that included three drops, including one for a sure-fire touchdown? Good for Isaac Anderson for shaking off the dropsies ...
When Niles Brinkley intercepted that pass on Minnesota's last possession and started running around, did anyone not think that, given the way this season has gone, he was going to fumble and the Gophers were going to drive down the field and either tie it or win it?
How about a rundown of some of the head-scratching mistakes we made? Clay's fumble. Shane Carter's offside penalty on the Gophers' two-point conversion (come on man, think!). Dustin Sherer taking that sack when he was out of the pocket with a clear lane to throw the ball into the stands! The blown coverages that led to Minnesota's second and third touchdowns. Allowing that fourth-and-18 conversion. Blowing more third-and-shorts. The botched field goal attempt that would have put us up 10-0.
November 22 vs. Cal Poly
What were you thinking when O'Brien Schofield jumped offside on that field goal attempt, which allowed Poly to convert on fourth-and-1 and eventually score a touchdown? Or when Nick Toon couldn't haul in that nice pass from Sherer later in the fourth quarter?
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Langford, Graham named All-Big Ten
Congrats to Allen Langford and Garrett Graham, who were named All-Big Ten on Monday. Especially Langford, who was one of the few bright spots in an otherwise dreary season.
Always playing second fiddle to Jack Ikegwuonu, Langford was the less physically gifted of the two cornerbacks in his class, but he consistently received praise for his technique and grit. Then he blew out his knee last year, robbing him of the little speed he had. All he did was respond with a near-flawless senior season, leading the conference with 11 passes defended in league play. Seldom was he embarrassed in coverage. Good for him.
Graham probably didn't have the season he would have wished for, but he still led Big Ten tight ends in receiving. He should do some great things next year.
Also receiving all-conference honors were linebacker Jonathan Casillas, honorable mention; defensive lineman Jason Chapman, honorable mention; wide receiver David Gilreath, second team; running back P.J. Hill, honorable mention; guard Andy Kemp, honorable mention; linebacker DeAndre Levy, honorable mention; defensive tackle Mike Newkirk, second team; fullback Chris Pressley, sportsmanship award honoree; defensive end Matt Shaughnessy, honorable mention; guard Kraig Urbik, second etam; safety Jay Valai, second team; tackle Eric Vanden Heuvel, honorable mention; kicker Philip Welch, honorable mention.
Tell you what, that's a lot of honors for a team that went 3-5 in the conference.
Newkirk overachieved this year, he finished fourth on the team in tackles and led with eight tackles for loss. If Shaughnessy was honorable mention -- and that's about what he deserved -- then O'Brien Schofield should have been, too, he had 7.5 tackles for loss and led the team with five sacks. Loved the energy Valai brought to the defense, even if didn't always seem to rub off. And what about Niles Brinkley? He led the team with four interceptions and had nine pass breakups.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
UW-Cal Poly thoughts: Poor Andrew Gardner
Let's just start off by saying that I feel absolutely awful for Andrew Gardner. That would have been a monumental win for Cal Poly, but instead they come up a point short. Here's hoping they go on to win the I-AA national championship so that kid, and the rest of the team, has nothing but good memories from this season.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Badger classic: Wisconsin 38, Minnesota 34
Here's an anecdote anyone with multiple children can relate to: On June 21 I recorded the 2005 Minnesota-Wisconsin game on the Big Ten Network. On November 11 I was able to devote two hours to watching it.
Very fun to watch it again. Actually, it was the first time I'd seen the television broadcast, having attended the epic with most of the same friends I'll be with at Camp Randall this Saturday.
The thing I couldn't shake was that Minnesota seemed to play much like we've been playing this year. They seemed to have the better players and the better game plan, but kept making mistakes that let the other team escape with a win.
Just think about the last sequence of events. Soft defense allows a John Stocco-to-Brandon Williams touchdown. Stupid facemask penalty lets the Badgers kick off from the 50. Inability to handle the onside kick leads to a weird bounce that Maroney recovers inside the Gopher 10. The Gophers, who had been running at will all day, couldn't convert on third-and-short. Kucek fumbles a perfectly good snap. Their returner fumbles the kickoff.
That's six things that had to go wrong for Minnesota, and right for Wisconsin, for that outcome to take place. And they all did.
What a day!
-It occurred to me during the game that 2008 isn't the first time Wisconsin fans have been skeptical of Bret Bielema. Think back to 2005. In 2004 he came in and completely reinvigorated the Badger defense. Then, in 2005, the defense he coordinated was porous, leading UW fans everywhere to question Barry Alvarez's decision to promote him to head coach. Bielema had a tremendous rookie year in 2006, before a so-so 2007 and a borderline disastrous 2008.
The point is, Coach B has rebounded from tough seasons before, and I have faith he will again. But I think we'd all rather avoid the tough seasons altogether. Maybe this is part of the inescapable maturation process of a young coach thrust into prominence early on.
-The thing is, Bielema's 2005 defense was so decimated by injuries it's hard to tell if he could have done anything to make that unit a plus. Brandon Kelly, who barely saw the field at all last year as a senior, played a lot. Hell, Gino Cruse played a lot.
-A ton of guys who will lace up their spikes for Wisconsin on Saturday played in that game. Kraig Urbik. Chris Pressley. Matt Shaughnessy (who looked so thin and fast). Jason Chapman. Allen Langford. Mike Newkirk. DeAndre Levy (who I never realized recovered the fumble on the last kickoff). Jonathan Casillas, the one everyone remembers for blocking Kucek's punt. Aubrey Pleasant. Shane Carter.
Perhaps that paragraph illustrates why this year has been so frustrating. We've got a lot of guys who have been through a lot of wars, so to consistently lose games because of mental errors defies reason.
-Williams and Stocco had awesome games. Brian Calhoun was an incredible back.
-This has been a high-scoring rivalry this century. Look at the winners' point total since 2000: 41, 42, 49, 37, 38, 38, 48, 41.
-Bryan Cupito missed the game for Minnesota, and you've got to think that if he'd started at quarterback instead of Tony Mortensen they would have hit on a big pass play or two that could have sealed the deal for the Gophers.
-As exciting as the end of the game was, the first half was really boring.
It's going to be tougher to get tickets to see this game in Minneapolis in the future, which is too bad, it's always been fun. Then again, it's seemed to get nastier and nastier over the years, which is good for the rivalry but not the blood pressure.
But even if I never see another Wisconsin-Minnesota game out of state again, we'll always remember that day in the Dome when Kucek dropped the snap.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Sunday morning thoughts
Still happy that the boys played a good game yesterday, but can't shake just how down Indiana is, I feel bad for them. After an emotional bowl qualifying year in 2007 they get this. Look at all the guys who are hurt or who have been hurt: Kellen Lewis, Nick Polk, Will Patterson, Marcus Thigpen, Ben Chappell, Roger Saffold, Bryan Payton ... all pretty good players that would have made this team more competitive this year had they remained healthy.
Their quarterback situation was especially troubling. They had four guys attempt at least four passes against us, don't think I've ever seen that before. If I were them I would have started Lewis and played him until he couldn't walk any more, he's the only one who gave them a chance to win.
Looking at our defensive stats, it was apparent Niles Brinkley recovered from his rough trip to East Lansing -- four pass breakups and tied for second on the team with five tackles. He played well. Allen Langford was solid two with two pass breakups and no horribly blown coverages. He has quietly had a good year, not all-conference good, but solid. His leadership has meant a lot to the youngsters' development.
Jay Valai had 10 tackles and was around the ball a lot. Jonathan Casillas had two tackles for 14 yards of negative yardage. Hopefully Jae McFadden's injury isn't too bad.
My Big Ten rankings:
1. Penn State. Still the best, even with the loss. Hopefully this doesn't negatively impact our chances of making a bowl game. Haven't put too much thought into that, will if we beat Minnesota. I was kind of hoping PSU would win the national title; they're a good check against Ohio State and Michigan, and they don't typically compete with us for recruits.
2. Ohio State. Terrelle Pryor appears to be throwing the ball better. Too bad Beanie and those wideouts won't be around next year.
3. Michigan State. Unimpressive in beating Purdue. They're having a season similar to our 2006, just winning. I'd take that in a heartbeat.
4-9. Everyone except the teams from Indiana. If forced, I'd say:
4. Iowa. OK, their win today ought to set them above the rest of this mediocre lot.
5. Minnesota. The Gophers' most "impressive" win this season came against ...
6. Illinois, which lost to Western Michigan. Yeah, they're on a Journey all right.
7. Michigan. Now that they're not bowl-eligible, I'm kind of hoping they win a couple games here at the end of the season.
8. Wisconsin. The Badgers' most "impressive" win this season came against ... see Minnesota. Anybody still think beating Fresno was impressive? Anybody see them get hammered at home against Nevada the other night? Looks like their season has paralleled ours.
9. Northwestern. They were doing it with smoke and mirrors. They and Minnesota are threatening to lose out and quell all the good vibes they'd built up.
10. Purdue. Showing a little fight.
11. Indiana. Almost as bad as Tom Crean's basketball team will be. At least he has Kelvin Sampson to blame.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
UW-Illinois thoughts ... whew
Can we add "proud" to my poll at this time? Guess not, but that's how I feel right now. Today's win in no way excuses or obscures the missteps of the past four weeks, but lots of credit to the Badgers for putting an end to the slide today against a talented if inconsistent team.
As Barry used to say, winning is good for the soul. Bret Bielema's got to agree.
-So who was the idiot that said Illinois was going to hang 50, or at least 46, points on our defense? Oh, right, me. Credit Mr. Man for pointing out that our defense is actually better built for stopping this type of team than we've been in the past. Also credit Juice Williams for having a subpar day. Without looking at the stats, big defensive game balls go to:
-DeAndre Levy, who always seemed to be around the ball.
-Allen Langford, who had an Al Harris-type day in coverage. By that I mean he was consistently straddling the line between tight coverage and interference, and thank god those judgments went our way today.
-Jay Valai, who set a physical tone with hits belying his 5-9 frame.
-Niles Brinkley for that game-changing pick, a really athletic play that showed great hand-eye coordination.
-Dave Doeren and the coaching staff. They've been maligned for the disappointing performances, let's give them lots of credit for this game. Especially for the pressure packages that were called. It makes sense to me -- in our base defense our guys are prone to giving up big plays, so why not blitz more often? The threat of giving up big plays is still there, but so is the chance for forcing a mistake by the other guys.
Another pivotal moment came in the fourth quarter when we called timeout before an Illinois third down attempt. After the timeout Jae McFadden had a nice middle blitz and knocked down Juice's pass. That's good coaching and execution.
-Dustin Sherer grew on me as the game went on. Aesthetically, he's still not much to behold. His throwing motion is so far from textbook, it's a wonder coaches haven't corrected it yet -- he pats the ball, his feet don't often seem to be in the right spot, his pocket presence is shaky, and his arm slot is low and inconsistent.
However, today he made plays when he needed to, and he didn't have any turnovers. So for that, I'm going to send him a drink on Facebook.
Sherer's two touchdown passes to David Gilreath were far from perfect strikes, but they got where they needed to be for the receiver to score, and that's all that matters. His two big runs were very nice plays as well. His touchdown run was instructive as to how he might be effective as a scrambler. Teams are logically going to blitz him up the middle to take away his passing lanes to his tight ends. If he can duck that pressure and get outside, there's not much of a middle line of defense to run him down, even though he's not exactly fleet of foot.
Sherer's last long run on the naked bootleg reminded me of Matt Schabert's game clincher against Ohio State in 2003. Great call by Paul Chryst.
Bottom line: he's the best we've got at this moment.
-Travis Beckum's ankle injury made me, owner of two balsa wood-weak ankles who has suffered such injuries too many times to count, cringe. But Becks was having a bad game before then. His penalty on the first drive completely negated the positive momentum created by John Clay running the ball, and we never found a consistent rhythm running the ball after that. He also had a drop. I hope he's OK, though, he's running out of time to redeem his disappointing senior year.
-Nice to see Garrett Graham get so heavily involved in the offense in the second half. If Beckum's out, Graham isn't a bad guy to have as a go-to receiver, even if it is for just 6-7 yards a pop.
-Clay has to get his pad level down, he's still running too high at times.
-Credit Matt Shaughnessy with the pressure that led to Chris Maragos's interception. Juice has a cannon for an arm, but today was one of those days when you don't know exactly where that cannon is shooting, and our pass rushers helped out.
-Is it time yet to call for Bielema to give up coaching the special teams? Two weeks ago we give up a punt return touchdown. Last week a punt is blocked. Today Benn has a long kickoff return that leads to a field goal, and a penalty for lining up wrong on a punt. Time to let someone else worry about that.
-You know what I thought after Gilreath's first touchdown? "Illinois's defense looked like us on that play."
-Ron Dayne is looking very Ricky Williams-esque with that scraggly beard, no? Wonder how he's passing his time after football.
It doesn't get any easier from here, but at least we're off the schneid in the Big Ten and still in the running to spend Christmas in Detroit.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
UW-Ohio State halftime thoughts
This has been a tough first half to watch, not necessarily because of the action, but because I've been switching back and forth between the Badger and Brewer games. Thank goodness for DVR.
After a shaky start, we've outplayed Ohio State thus far, and it's nice for that to be reflected in the halftime score. We've been more physical, gotten a number of players involved in offense, and Evridge has gradually played better. Keep it up and we've got a shot to win this one.
-Quote of the first half, upon seeing Ohio State's long-maned tight end Jake Ballard: "Look Daddy, I saw a girl on the field!" Good thing he didn't see Aubrey Pleasant.
-Ohio State's offensive line really blocked Beanie Wells' touchdown run well. Freshman center Michael Brewster engulfed Jonathan Casillas to create the key lane.
-Terrelle Pryor just eats up yardage when he runs, it seems like it takes him about three steps to cover 10 yards. We've done a nice job containing that part of his game, though. The key is to approach him under control and not running full speed, because he's shifty enough to sidestep that.
-If I were callings plays for Ohio State I'd run Wells every play until we stop him three in a row. Ten rushes in a half in a game like this isn't enough for that guy.
-Terrific play by Allen Langford on the pick. Pryor threw a bad ball, but Langford stayed right with the receiver and did a great job boxing out.
-You might expect this, but I love how Camp Randall looks at night. It just screams Big Game. If anyone reading this went to the game, please comment on how the crowd was, and why. On the broadcast Mike Patrick commented that the crowd seemed quiet, and wondered whether it was because of the band's absence.
-After two passes Mickey Turner's way I wrote "Why are we passing to Turner so much?" Especially one third down, where Evridge tried to squeeze a tough pass to Mickey when Travis Beckum was wide open. But Evridge and Turner both made nice plays on the touchdown later in the half.
-Look out if you're sitting in the front row, Jay Valai is hitting everything in sight tonight. His first big hit came on an Ohio State third down attempt, when he blew up the blocker -- when he should have attacked the receiver right next to him. But he laid a great lick on Dan Herron (hopefully he's okay) and later on Dane Sanzenbacher (ditto). He needs to be more consistently under control, but his reckless abandon feels right tonight.
-Dave Doeren has made some nice blitz calls, especially the one where Deandre Levy and Mike Newkirk got through to sack Pryor. The Buckeyes blocked Valai but let those two dudes come through untouched -- bad decision.
-I thought I saw Dustin Scherer warming up before the 91-yard touchdown drive, and thought him replacing Evridge at that point would be a good move. But Evridge stayed in and responded with a great drive.
-So Josh Oglesby's under the gun tonight, replacing Gabe Carimi. Heckuva time to make your debut at left tackle. Guess this means Jake Bscherer is definitely redshirting this season.
-Think we can put that David Gilreath end-around on the shelf for the rest of the night. It was fun while it lasted.
-That touchdown drive -- 91 yards, 8:16 -- was the best of the year, bar none. Terrific play calling, good running, timely passing when needed.
-John Clay looks good again. He always seems to be moving forward, even when he's dancing and waiting for a hole to develop. Sometimes P.J. seems like he stops in those situations, although he's had some solid runs as well.
-Another great hit: Billy Rentmeester runs over Brian Hartline on punt coverage. Love the way we're hitting.
-Evridge's best pass of the night came late to Kyle Jefferson to set up that field goal. Maybe if everyone's keying on Beckum that will be open again once or twice in the second half. OSU's got good DBs, though, wouldn't count on it.
Hopefully in 90 minutes we'll be basking in the glow of dual big wins by the home teams.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Sunday thoughts
Looks like we've moved up to #8 in both polls that matter, which is nice. Unfortunately, our big win last night doesn't seem to have made he radar of most national media. For instance, the Badgers' win on the road against a ranked team in its biggest game ever didn't even merit mention in Yahoo's "Winners" list, and it's making few if any lists of Saturday's college football headlines. Hmmm. Not that surprising, given that our game got over at about 2 a.m. EST.
-Read that this was our first road win over a ranked non-conference team since 1958. Unbelievable. As much as that's a reflection of our program's quality over that time, it's also a sign that we should probably take more shots at big time programs.
-As bad as Ohio State looked yesterday, I think it's premature to declare Wisconsin, Penn State, or Illinois the new Big Ten favorite. Especially if Jim Tressel makes the move to start Terrelle Pryor at quarterback immediately.
-Any national media coverage of our game is focusing on Fresno's lost opportunity to crash the BCS, not our gain. Whatever, keep us under the radar.
-Key to yesterday's win: no fumbles, no interceptions. Seven penalties is too many.
-That may have been DeAndre Levy's best game. Nine tackles, three for loss, one sack, one interception and one pass breakup. Good time for it Dre!
-Seniors carried the defensive effort overall. Allen Langford had seven tackles. Jonathan Casillas had seven tackles and ran down Mathews on the long screen pass after the ridiculous fumble call overturn, saving four points on the possession. Jason Chapman was quick off the ball as usual, with six tackles, a sack, and two tackles for loss. Mike Newkirk had four tackles, 1.5 for loss. And Matt Shaughnessy had those two deflected passes and a TFL (not noted in the official stats).
-Nice to see that Jeff Stehle, Patrick Butrym and Chris Maragos all saw time on defense in meaningful situations. The first two are sorely needed for depth. Also nice to see Aubrey Pleasant still contribution in pass defense packages.
-Now that our game is in the past, I'm a huge Fresno fan. If the Bulldogs can win out and get back in the top 25 our win looks much better over time.
-With all due respect to Cal Poly, the non-conference season is essentially over. How do you feel about it compared to how you felt at this time last year? Wins over Akron and Marshall feel about the same as wins over Washington State and UNLV, but beating Fresno is about 100 times more satisfying than beating The Citadel.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Akron preview
Opening Day is tomorrow, and I'm very excited. Unfortunately, my chances of seeing the game live are not great, as I'll be attending a good friend's wedding reception in Edgerton.
It won't be the last time I'll miss a game, and it certainly isn't the first. In fact, tomorrow is my fifth wedding anniversary. I can still remember huddling in my parents' room at the Ramada in Marquette, Mich., with friends watching the Badgers' opener at West Virginia. About halfway through the second quarter I realized that I wasn't dressed yet and was due at the church in less than an hour for pictures. It ended up being a close game that the Badgers won, but aside from the win over Ohio State at Camp Randall, 2003 was an unremarkable season.
Here's hoping 2008 is more remarkable.
A season preview is coming up later today, but let's talk about Akron for a minute. And no more.
This has the makings of a sloppy game. By all accounts, Akron isn't very good, but will probably come in spunky and looking to play well enough to provide a boost going into the MAC season.
As has been well-documented, we are riddled with injuries and have lots of question marks. Travis Beckum's hamstring. Chris Pressley's hand. Jonathan Casillas's knee. All of the other guy coming off 2007 or offseason injuries — Matt Shaughnessy, Allen Langford, Jason Chapman, Kirk DeCremer.
Throw in Allan Evridge's first start, inconsistency at wide receiver and cornerback, and a new kicker, and this game might not be the blowout it appears to be on the surface.
Bodog has us favored by 27. I'll say we don't cover that: Wisconsin 36, Akron 17. We focus on pounding the ball down Akron's throats, with P.J. Hill and Zach Brown both scoring rushing touchdowns. Garrett Graham has the Badgers' lone receiving touchdown. The UW defense bends but doesn't break much, and Jay Valai forces a big turnover.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Friday afternoon Badger thoughts
We're 95% sure we're headed to Madison on Sunday to attend the football team's Family Day and visit with friends. Never gone to Family Day before, but figured it would be a good chance to get some pictures of the boys with some players, and maybe hook Will on Badger football this year. He will be wearing his John Stocco/Aaron Henry jersey, hopefully we can get it signed.
When I was a boy my dad took me to one Bucks game a year, Photo Night. Every kid got their picture taken with one Bucks player, and those guys were like gods to me: Sidney Moncrief, Paul Pressey, Terry Cummings ... and to a lesser extent Fred Roberts (two years, one of my dad's favorite players) and a fellow named Keith Smith. Hopefully we can start making memories like that for Will and then Charlie.
-Speaking of Henry, looks like he's going to have more surgery on his knee and could redshirt this year. Allen Langford has not reclaimed his starting corner spot, either, apparently. So it's looking like Mario Goins and Niles Brinkley as our top two. One of my favorite Badger beat writers compared it to Fletch and Echols' freshman seasons. It reminds me more of 1995, when Cyrill Weems and Jason Suttle were in their first year as starters and did their fair share of struggling.
-Feeling better about our kicking situation than I did heading into camp. Seems like Brad Nortman is the real deal, lots of good things being written about him. Little bit surprised that Matt Fischer seems to be leading the placekicking derby.
-Feeling better about Allan Evridge at quarterback. Not sure why.
-See Johnny Clay's a bit dinged up -- and so it begins (see poll at top right) ...
-Read that Jake Bscherer and not Josh Oglesby is the odds-on favorite to be the tight end in the jumbo package. Wouldn't take that as a sign of disappointment in Oglesby, it's probably just that Bscherer is lighter and more nimble.
-Feeling like our non-conference schedule is getting criticized too much. Yes, we dropped Virginia Tech for Cal Poly, didn't like that. But we travel to Fresno State, a top 25 team. That's nothing to sneeze at.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Are closed camp practices a big deal?
If you're an avid reader of Badger coverage in the state's big newspapers, you know that Bret Bielema has closed preseason practices to the media, breaking a longstanding tradition. Most of the team's beat writers have done at least some kvetching about this, and rightfully so -- it deprives them of the chance to see the team in-depth.
Questions I'd like to know, that a reporter observing fall camp could answer, include: how's Allan Evridge looking? How are guys like Jason Chapman, Allen Langford, and Aaron Henry looking coming off their injuries? How are the new kickers looking?
But Sunday a columnist took the complaining too far. The State Journal's Tom Oates suggested that by keeping practice closed, Bielema is dampening enthusiasm and interest in the upcoming season. Oates says that this lack of access for reporters has relegated the Badgers to a distant #3 on the state sports scene behind the Packers/Favre saga and the Brewers' playoff push.
Well, no kidding, the Badgers come in third here. But you think a beat writer chronicling Brad Nortman's punt-by-punt performance is going to push Favre and the Brewers into the background? It's an asinine argument by Oates.
The out-of-sight, out-of-mind argument was made compellingly by some commenters here last fall when the Big Ten Network's lack of penetration made catching Badger games more difficult than before. But this is a real stretch. Most fans never see practice, and guess what? UW beat writers don't after the season starts anyway!
As a former sportswriter, sure I wish Bielema would give these guys more access. Control-freak high school coaches drove us nuts.
But if I were in his shoes, and I had a big question mark at quarterback and special teams, and a number of key guys coming off inuries, I might want to keep their performance a secret too. And in the end, if that policy helps the Badgers win an extra game or two this year, then I'll take that instead of daily preseason updates on how many yards Bradie Ewing rushed for or how many touchdowns James Stallons threw.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Chryst not headed to Purdue
The State Journal is reporting that Paul Chryst has withdrawn his name from consideration for the Purdue job, as many insiders have speculated. Is it because he doesn't like recruiting? Was there not a spot on the Purdue staff for him to bide his time as Tiller-successor-in-waiting?
Don't know, don't care. I'm just glad that after a week of turmoil that some semblance of stability has returned to the program. To recap:
-Bob Palcic left for UCLA. Not altogether surprising or disturbing - he wanted to work with Rick Neuheisel, a close friend. This kind of thing happens in coaching. I'm confident we'll find a solid replacement.
-Bret Bielema fired co-defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz. This was a little surprising and a little disturbing. Is BB throwing Hank under the bus for an underachieving defense? Remember, in 2005 BB followed up a super defense by coordinating the worst unit in team history, and it's unlikely he would toss the coordinator after one subpar year. That would indicate lack of a conscience. My guess, based on pure speculation, is that it was a personality clash issue. When Palcic and Hankwitz were named as part of Bielema's first staff, it surprised me, but his attempt to balance youth and experience seemed sound. As has been pointed out, maybe he's now looking for climbers and not lifers for assistants. Let's hope Dave Doeren is up for the defensive coordinator by himself.
-Even though many things pointed toward it, I actually didn't think Ike would leave for the NFL just yet. My hunch was that he would be left feeling unsatisfied after his inconsistent season. But you know what? He's got to look out for his best interests, and if he's a top three round projection, that money can set him up for life. Obviously very concerned about the cornerback position without him, with Henry and Langford coming off knee injuries. We'll really need a better pass rush next year to give these guys some help.
-Let's not forget about the loss of Wes Kemp to Missouri. Probably not a bad move for him, staying close to home and playing for a pass-happy program that's riding high right now. Yes, we have some nice receivers right now, but not enough that we can just lose talented 6-4 guys without having a replacement. On paper, this is shaping up to be a mediocre recruiting class, which we all know means nothing, but I'd rather have a ton of four- and five-star guys.
My friends and I engaged in a nice back-and-forth yesterday about what all this means, and they made some good points. Here's the one that was the most interesting: what if our record gets worse the next two years? As my buddy pointed out, it's entirely possible, with the recent defections and a difficult schedule, to project 12-1 and 9-4 continuing on to 7-6 and 5-7 after graduation guts the 2008 team.
Look at next year's schedule. The game at Fresno State seems like a trap. We open the Big Ten season at Michigan, home against Ohio State and Penn State, at Iowa, and home against Illinois. That's a rocky road, folks.
If that happens, then what? It's not like the start of Barry Alvarez's tenure, when the program was in shambles and he slowly built from 1-10 to 5-6 and 5-6 before busting through. There aren't many places for Bielema to go but down after starting 12-1. How patient will Barry be if that downward swing dips below .500?
My thought on that was that just about every Big Ten program not named Ohio State and Michigan goes through something like this from time to time. Ours did in 1995 and 2001. In both cases we rebounded and built toward another pinnacle. How will we handle adversity when it inevitably comes?
The nice thing is, there's still a lot to like about this team heading into 2008, and the season may end up being special, like a 1998 or 2006. The last eight days have kind of made it hard to feel that way.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Wisconsin-Minnesota postgame thoughts
Yesterday was fairly draining, but all ended well. There's going to be two posts about the game, one focusing on the game, and one focusing on what a joke of a program Tim Brewster is cultivating here at Minnesota.
-What a tremendous game by Zach Brown. Let's do some clarification here. Last week I compared him to Eddie Faulkner, a career backup. Several of my friends challenged that Zach is much better than Eddie. I will agree, but still see him as a backup, mainly because of the guys who should be ahead of him. This just speaks to the depth of the program and how the overall talent level has been upgraded in the last decade.
-Even against a horrible defense like Minnesota's, give props the line for opening the holes for Zach. And it was another next-man-in scenario, when Bill Nagy replaced the injured John Moffitt. Once again, surprising that Danny Kaye and Jake Bscherer didn't get a call, but it worked out.
-David Gilreath has been an emotional roller coaster all year, and Saturday he went out on a high note in front of the program he originally committed to. Like the running game, credit the blocking, he had gaping holes to work with, but credit him for taking advantage.
-Been up and down all year about Tyler Donovan too, and he didn't have his best game yesterday, but he won, and won with two bruised hands. The kid's tougher than nails and a winner ... can we compare him to Mike Samuel, only a better passer ... and runner?
-Once again Travis Beckum was the best player on the field. Someone in our group said "I think Travis has gone to his last class," and I can't disagree. Looks like an injured shoulder, hopefully he's ready for the bowl game.
-Love that Ben Strickland once again made a huge play to seal a win here. Our program succeeds with classy kids like Ben, not jackasses like Eric Decker and Clint Brewster.
-Elijah Hodge was hurt, Culmer St. Jean played okay in his place. Jae McFadden seemed to be back as well, didn't notice him that much.
-Another mediocre game for Jack Ikegwuonu, although getting punched in the groin by Decker didn't help.
-Thought we may have figured out how to defend the spread after beating an Indiana team with superior playmakers to the Gophers, but they really moved the ball well at times, without any semblance of a Division I running back on the field. Not having Hodge, Jason Chapman and Allen Langford might have had something to do with it.
-All Shane Carter does is catch interceptions. In a way he's comparable to Jim Leonhard, although Jimmy may have been better in run support.
-Another excellent game by the unsung hero, Ken DeBauche.
-One of my other favorite unsung players this season has been Daven Jones, and he made some intangible plays yesterday. He's done some terrific work on special teams, and I hope he ends up contributing at wide receiver to the level he was projected at coming out of high school.
-Adam Weber has a bright future for Minnesota, even if they stay with the spread. He's not nearly as athletic as I thought he was, and his passing needs polish, but he racked up over 400 yards of total offense on us.
-I'm going to miss Minnesota punter Justin Kucek, he's given Badger fans so many good memories.
Overall, we're 9-3 and have a shot to go a January bowl game. Ohio State's in a BCS game for sure; crazy things might happen to allow Illinois to get in there as well. If we play in the Outback Bowl, I hope it's against a new opponent like Tennessee. The Alamo Bowl wouldn't be bad, either, and the Big 12 opponent might be more beatable than one from the SEC.
So the regular season is over and we're not staring at a BCS game or national title game berth, but you know what? Good season. Nine wins for the fourth straight year, another winning record in Big Ten play, beat Michigan, beat Minnesota, 1,000-yard rusher, All-American tight end, undefeated at home sold out Camp Randall. All this even with a ton of injuries and other adversity. Nice job by the coaching staff keeping it all together this year.
I'm a glass-half-full guy this morning.
Friday, November 9, 2007
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.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
UW-Ohio State postgame thoughts
The better team won. Even though Ohio State is not up to the standard of recent top-ranked teams, they looked good today, mainly in the fourth quarter. Here's why they won:
-They didn't beat themselves. How many blocking-related penalties did we have today, especially on kick returns, 20? How many fumbles? Poor passes? Ohio State didn't do that.
But mainly ...
-The Buckeyes' lines completely dominated play. From my vantage point, our skill position players are every bit as good as theirs, if not better, especially if PJ and Swan are healthy and play. Wells will get a lot of pub, but he wasn't touched on his touchdown runs, any one of our backs could have converted those opportunities. Their D-line had 10 sacks, although Donovan didn't help things by immediately tucking the ball at the end of his drop and making a beeline for the nearest defender.
Other thoughts:
-Have you ever seen Bielema as fired up as he was after that chop block call on Randle-El? I liked it, seemed like a bad call but couldn't tell for sure. Even if it was bad call, why do we still play Randle-El? All he seems to do is generate negative plays.
-Great pass and catch by Donovan and Beckum on the play immediately following what could have been a crushing penalty.
-Glad to see Pressley still involved in the offense, can't remember seeing him catch a pass before.
-Too many short fields for the Ohio State offense.
-Donovan still seems to be struggling progressing beyond his primary read. Case in point was a third quarter play in which he stuck on Beckum all the way and threw incomplete, even though Travis was tightly covered and Hubbard was more open five yards further downfield.
-Boeckman continued to hurt us with his legs, which just killed me.
-Did Vanden Heuvel's absence (Bscherer subbing) hurt us? I'm guessing EVH would have struggled to contain OSU's pass rush just as much. The Buckeyes have a scary young defensive line.
-Didn't like the second fake punt call, even if it might have worked, but the way they were moving the ball at that point it was probably worth a shot.
-Great catch by Robiskie, although Boeckman's pass probably wasn't intended for him. Those are the kind of breaks great teams make for themselves.
-Brown played pretty well today against a stingy defense. I think he'll be a four-year backup, next two years to PJ and/or Smith, after that to Clay or someone else, but he'll be a factor the whole time, like and Eddie Faulkner or Dwayne Smith.
-Hubbard really contributed today too.
-Brian Hartline = Curt Schroeder. The guy was hurt after every play he was involved in.
-Bielema just said it doesn't look good for EVH, Langford and Chapman; Chapman was down a couple times. We really need him against Michigan.
-Let's appreciate Beckum while he's still here - what a big-time athlete and gamer. He was the most talented guy on the field today - 140 yard and a touchdown. Hopefully he feels he needs to put on weight or work on his blocking and doesn't go pro after this season.
A little bit disappointed because we were in position to win but got beaten in the area the program is built upon - playing physical football. Still think we've got a great chance to pull an upset at home next week.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
UW-Indiana postgame thoughts
Watched the second half under the din of my father-in-law snoring on the couch behind me, an apt metaphor for the game on the whole. I'll take it, though - when Indiana plays that poorly, we should beat them by 30. I'll pick nits later, but let's lead with this thought:
Great game by the defense. This is the game we've been waiting all year to see from that unit. True, IU lost a few offensive linemen, but the effort transcended that advantage.
The defensive line played very well - good pressure on Lewis, but more importantly they shut down his running lanes. The linebackers were outstanding - Casillas and Levy in particular. And what can you say about Ike? Joe Hart's reference to Fletcher-Burress '99 proved to be dead-on - four catches for 17 yards for Hardy - as well as a fumble and a huge penalty. Langford got a right-place, right-time pick, Carter broke up some passes, and Pleasant and Royston were around the ball. And best yet: best tackling of the season, can't think of one blatant missed tackle.
Other thoughts:
-Too many stupid mental errors for the ninth game of the season. An offsides penalty made a third-and-1 into a third-and-6, an illegal shift nullified a terrific Donovan first down scramble, and a blatant offside on a kickoff.
-Great pressure by Hayden and Shaughnessy on Langford's pick.
-Took waaaaaaay too long to put these guys away, thanks to those mental errors and Donovan's fumble.
-Conversely, can't remember seeing worse ball protection than what Indiana showed today, they handled the ball like it was covered with butter.
-Loved to see Thigpen taunting our crowd after his long run, which everyone else knew was coming back because of a penalty on Hardy - which was a good call, Ike would have made that tackle.
-Did Gilreath give back his return record on that atrocious punt return in the third quarter? Oh well, he made up for it with a brilliant return in the fourth.
-Did anyone else notice how often Ike was around the ball on special teams? Is that a new role for him, or has he been on those units all along? Whatever the case, I like the assignment.
-Great to have Hubbard back. He only caught one pass for 30 yards, but he drew an interference penalty to set up a TD late in the third.
-Lance got off to a slow start, but came on late when the IU defense was tiring. Still, we really need PJ healthy next week to have a chance to win in Columbus. On Smith's TD runs he got a lot of nice blocking - Urbik, Rentmeester, and Turner's stood out.
-Speaking of Rentmeester, how great were his two runs, and Pressley's later? That's 45 yards on four carries for the fullbacks, hopefully that's not a gimmick and becomes part of the regular offense.
-Time of possession edge: 35:23-24:37, Wisconsin. Just what we needed.
-Aaron Henry is a playmaker. He caused one of Lewis's fumbles, and twice he was there to scoop up IU fumbles that were later (correctly) ruled down. He would have had big returns on both.
-Charles Davis, the color analyst, is very good. I thought so when he called bowls for Fox last year, and continue to think that for his work with the BTN. He deserves a shot at ESPN or ABC, but we'll see if his lack of a big name will hold him back.
-Well-officiated game.
-Lastly, did you see the video of the law school students trying to catch their canes? Homecoming legend has it that if you catch the cane after throwing it over the goalpost, you'll win your first case. Let me tell you, a lot of those canes hit the ground; too bad for their clients. Nerds!
What did y'all think?
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