UW-Iowa halftime thoughts

Not too much to complain about in the first half, we played well. Offense moved the ball fairly regularly, but Iowa's excellent defenders made some plays you'd expect them to make. Our defense was tight, with the exception of the one long pass play. I'd much rather be up two scores.

-Horrible kickoff coverage again to start the game. Iowa's Wegher looked like he was running in sand, but he still got it out past the 40. A Twitter post noted that we seemed to have more defensive regulars on the unit on subsequent kickoffs -- good move.

-J.J. Watt has been excellent coming off both edges, and O'Brien Schofield has continued adding to his honors resume. We need them to keep making those plays in the second half of the game, and the season.

-Mike Taylor gets hurt, and who's around the ball making plays? Chris Borland, of course. He's awesome. Hope Taylor's injury isn't too bad.

-John Clay was really running well before he got hurt, showing nice patience and vision. The offensive line has looked really good on running plays, the last one being Montee Ball's touchdown run -- great execution. Ball is looking like a guy we can trust.

-On his first punt return, David Gilreath doesn't call fair catch and gets drilled by a gunner with a running start. On Iowa's next punt, he doesn't catch it and the Hawkeeys get 15-20 yards in favorable bounces. Not only is our punt return game not a positive right now, it's a liability.

-I had just finished praising Jay Valai to my dad -- how he's had less highlight hits this year but also less major miscues -- when he seemed to be out of position on Iowa's long pass play. Can't say for sure without seeing the film or knowing the coverage call, though, so it may not have been his fault.

-Why put Curt Phillips in? Scott Tolzien was coming off his best drive throwing the ball, and we follow that up with a three-and-out. True, Curt looked good on his keeper run and was a shoestring tackle away from breaking it. And since Phillips hadn't played in a couple weeks it's not likely Iowa spent any time preparing for him. But it was a curious decision at the time.

While I'm happy with the proceedings thus far, I also remember Barry Alvarez's last game in 2005, when we were up by a similar score at halftime and got dominated by Iowa in the second half. They make good halftime adjustments. Let's hope our coaches can do the same.

Wisconsin-Michigan State box score

Here's what jumped out at me looking at the Wisconsin-Michigan State box score:

-Time of possession: UW 37:29, MSU 22:31. Lovely, that's how it should be.

-Third down conversions: UW 11 of 18, MSU 3 of 10. Converting on third down 11 times really saps the opposing defense's spirit.

-Individual rushing: Scott Tolzien, five rushes for 20 yards. I liked the first rush Paul Chryst called for Tolzien, it was effective, even if it would have looked much better with Curt Phillips running it. But every time Tolzien ran after that I cringed. We don't need him getting hurt with the way he's playing right now.

-Zach Brown's not a bad little receiver out of the backfield, is he? Probably our best there since Brian Calhoun.

-For three years now we've been talking about what a dangerous returner David Gilreath is, but is it just me, or does he look downright slow sometimes? Especially when you watch other games on Saturday, where it seems like there are so many returners out there who look like they run a 4.3 40.

-Thank goodness for Mike Taylor's emergence on defense. He led the team Saturday with eight tackles, an outstanding pick, a tackle for loss and a pass breakup. Given that he's just a freshman, you can assume he'll get just keep getting better.

-Same thing for Chris Borland. In addition to all the other stuff he did that we've already discussed, he was credited with four quarterback hurries Saturday. With him and Taylor, throw in a Conor O'Neil or A.J. Fenton, and you've got a really nice group of freshman linebackers.

-O'Brien Schofield was credited with two quarterback hurries but did not record a tackle. I think he was given too much credit for causing Glenn Winston's fumble, he just sort of engaged the blocker and Winston ran into his own guy.

-Yesterday I mentioned that Blair White only had one catch for State. So did Charlie Gantt, their fine tight end, for just two yards. They have a really good group of receivers, including the tight ends, which is good because their running backs are pedestrian.

Rushing toward a new identity?

Wisconsin's 3-0 start to the year has not been entirely unexpected, but some parts of the Badgers' play have been. Most notable, I think you'd agree, has been the proficiency of Scott Tolzien and the passing game.

After last year's Allen Evridge-Dustin Sherer nightmare, this year's passing numbers are stunning. A 69% completion ratem, 9.2 yards per pass, 13.3 yards per catch, 226 yards per game. Great distribution to our various talented receivers. If that completion percentage were to somehow hold up, it would be the best mark in school history; the previous was 67.5% in 1993, led by Darrell Bevell.

Thing is, we're only averaging 199.3 rushing yards per game. This is only 12 yards per game less than last year's conference-leading total, and within a yard of where we were in 2007. But ...

-Take out Curt Phillips' 126 yards, and that average falls to 176 yards per game. True, Phillips' running is not a fluke, it's a legitimate facet of our offense. But it's not powerful, up-the-gut, Badger rushing.
-The per-rush average is 5.0, but take out Phillips' contribution, and the average falls to 4.76 yards per carry.
-These numbers would be just fine if we had played three BCS schools, but we didn't. We gained 258 against Wofford, when an appropriate number would have been, oh, 450.

With Michigan State, Ohio State, Iowa, et al still to go on the schedule, it's a safe bet that the per-game and per-carry rushing averages will decrease significantly by season's end. The passing proficiency too.

But if these trends hold to some extent, is it necessarily a bad thing? One of the things I've loved about Wisconsin football since Barry Alvarez came to Madison was the power football mentality. The big linemen, the big backs -- pound the rock! Love it.

However, our best offenses, and most often our best teams, have featured better passing teams and better offensive balance (1998 notwithstanding, sorry Mike Samuel). You don't see too many overly one-dimensional teams playing in BCS bowl games nowadays.

So I guess as long as we're gaining yards and scoring points somehow, I'll be happy. But if we could somehow get 300 yards rushing on Sparty this Saturday, I'll be happiest.

Wisconsin-Northern Illinois thoughts

Phew. That was a lot closer than it had to be. Was it just me, or were you all having flashbacks to last year after Schofield's forced fumble was not allowed to be reviewed? The sequence of events that followed seemed straight out of last year's script -- penalty keeps drive alive for other team, special teams breakdown ... thank goodness for another nice Schofield play and Chris Maragos closing things out.

Northern's OK, but I'm guessing they're not as good as they were last year when they almost beat Minnesota and Tennessee. Hopefully they'll get to a bowl and make our win look better.

-We dominated the game for three quarters. The third quarter was just about perfect. Then we didn't finish. It might get overlooked, but here's a cause for concern: Philip Welch missed both his field goal attempts. The first one was rather long, but the second was one he should make. He makes that second on and it's not so tense at the end.

-Tolzien will get the headlines, but for my money Schofield was the player of the game for us. He was always around the ball, in Northern's backfield, in coverage. The final defensive stats will be kind to him. Great start for a captain.

-Tolzien showed the starting job should be his. His first pick wasn't really his fault, although the second one was. Otherwise I thought he played really well, much better than I'd expected. Liked how he stood in against blitzes. Showed decisiveness that was missing from our QBs last year.

The nice thing is, Phillips showed he deserves playing time, too, and it wasn't because Tolzien was struggling. Phillips showed what we thought he'd show, nice mobility. The threat of him running several possessions out of the Spread every game is great because it forces our opponents to spend time preparing for it. If they don't, Curt can break some big gains.

-Thought the running game was pretty blah. Maybe Northern will prove to have a really good run defense. Maybe we were missing Moffitt and Nagy. Brown looked sharp early but couldn't sustain it. Clay looked sluggish early but showed a nice nose for the end zone. Neither one got to 50 yards or 4 yards per carry, a concern.

-Nice game by Garrett Graham, as expected. No passes thrown to Lance Kendricks, unexpected.

-We hit hard tonight, lot of times when our kids blew up a Northern player, sometimes knocking off their helmets. Devin Smith had a nice one on a kickoff return.

-Chris Martin of the Big Ten Network is still trying too hard. He made some UPS-related Brown quip after NIU's running back had a nice run, and tried to tie in Zach Brown, and it made little sense. You could tell he'd been working on it for about a month, and it was lame. Still talking about "linear" receivers.

-Did you notice the new uniform wrinkle, the little Motion W on the back above the name? It's not awful, but I'd rather it not be there, it's not necessary.

-What in the world was Ron Dayne wearing during his interview with Charissa Thompson? One really bad leisure athletic jacket, one that my mom hopefully won't get me for Christmas.

-A key to us building that lead was the defense's ability to get off the field on third down. The inability to do so at the end is what let Northern back in. Obvious, I know, but doing a better job closing the deal is a must, whether it's a whole game or a single drive.

-Saw Mike Taylor back in the game, that was good. Chris Borland played a lot and was definitely a factor, awesome for a true freshman to step up like that.

-Our kids really did a poor job on the onside kick. Northern's kicker hit it perfectly, but it seemed like we only had one guy step forward to try to grab it, while Northern had three or four right there. Add that to the two missed field goals and another game of mostly lackluster returns, and the special teams remain anything but.

After the third quarter, I was really hoping for a 35-6 final score, or something like that, to show that we're a team capable of tossing around a bowl team (even if it's from the MAC). The final score is not a perfect reflection of how this game went, but hey, a win's a win. There are things to work on, but there are a lot of things to like. I'll sleep easy tonight.

How excited are you?

For the past couple weeks lots of people have asked me how I'm feeling about the upcoming season. On an excitement scale of 1 to 10, I'm about a 6.

On the one hand, I think our offense will be fun to watch, and there's a lot of upside to the young guys we have playing there. Clay and Brown at running back. Toon and the gang at wideout. The line. Let's see how good Tolzien is. Can Phillips work his way into more snaps?

On the other hand, as much as I'm looking forward to seeing the new guys on defense, last year's defense was underwhelming, and a lot of those guys were experienced, talented, multi-year starters. Can we really expect to improve, or at least maintain?

On the one hand, when my expectations for a season are muted, we've had a history of responding with very pleasant efforts. 2005 comes to mind.

On the other hand, we could very well lose to Northern Illinois tomorrow night. Wofford? Hell, Cal Poly almost beat us last year, and The Citadel hung 31 on us at Camp Randall two years ago. And I'm going into the season counting on losing to Minnesota, which obviously isn't good.

So the college football bug hasn't bitten me as hard this year as in most years, but I tell you what: I was in the bathroom the other night and heard an ad on TV for tomorrow's Virginia Tech-Alabama game and got excited. I stayed up late (for me anyway) to watch Boise State and Oregon play last night in the battle of terrible home field vs. terrible uniforms. At about 10 a.m. tomorrow I'll be wishing I was in Madison.

6? Make it a 7.

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.

Here are the guys I'm especially excited to watch this season.

Aaron Henry. Mainly because there have been north of 1 million kind words written about this kid since he blew out his knee a couple years ago. I'm not expecting him to be Jamar Fletcher or Jack Ikegwuonu. I am expecting him to be a cross between Allen Langford and Donnel Thompson. Which is exactly what this defense needs.

Louis Nzegwu. Something about his frame, background as a running back, and the lack of playmakers on the defensive line suggest that he will get a chance to make plays this year.

Lance Kendricks. Thought he'd break out more next year, but he got hurt (his collapse coming out of the huddle against Michigan State was downright bizarre). He can be to Garrett Graham what Graham was to Travis Beckum.

Josh Oglesby. I'm excited abou JO because people, including me, have been so tepid on him since he struggled at times in his starts last year. I have expect him to come out and be dominant at times.

Montee Ball. As a good friend of mine has observed, he looks great in a hot tub. Here's guessing he gets some time at the end of lopsided games and impresses in limited carries.

Curt Phillips. Not alone in this, hoping he can cut down on the mistakes and seize the quarterback job for four years.

I'm back

To paraphrase the words of my favorite Onion columnist, Jim Anchower:

Hola, amigos. How's by you? I know it's been a long time since I rapped at ya ... but travel, work, kids, Webinz, Weeds, blah blah blah. In short, the motivation to update this blog during the offseason has been missing.

But, as has been pointed out to me several times in the past week, it's time to get my butt back on the keyboard and talking Badgers. The season's less than a week away now, and even though my expectations are as low as they've been in about five years, that's no reason to stay silent.

Lots to talk about before Saturday's opener, but I'm going to focus my thouhts on the initial depth chart.

Quarterback
Scott Tolzien and Curt Phillips are co-#1, and Tolzien is going to start against Northern Illinois. Although it was more exciting when midway through camp it seemed Phillips would emerge as the starter, I can live with this setup. Hopefully Phillips impresses enough in his snaps to earn the majority of the playing time -- or Tolzien plays so well that he claims the job outright. Bottom line: didn't expect much out of this position coming into fall camp, still don't.

Running back
So Zach Brown is going to start ahead of John Clay? Interesting. In this instance, I see it as a positive: Brown picking up his game rather than Clay disappointing. Clay's still going to get his carries and make an impact, and maybe less carries will lessen his injury risk.

Outside linebacker
Very excited to see Mike Taylor out on the field. When is the last time we had a freshman starting at linebacker? The adjectives used to describe this kid are the right ones. No offense to Blake Sorensen, but he doesn't seem to be a big-play type of guy; neither does Culmer St. Jean. Jae McFadden is solid, but also isn't a turnover-forcing, sack-creating force. Let's hope Taylor brings some of that.

Cornerback
Devin Smith has earned raves all offseason, and it wasn't a big surprise that he beat out Niles Brinkley. Which, like at running back, is more a reflection on the improvement of the new starter than regression of the new backup. Brinkley struggled a lot last year, but he also made some plays, and I would have been perfectly happy with him starting again this year. Smith and Aaron Henry should be a solid pair.

Here's what excites me about this depth chart overall: seven senior starters, and only three more senior backups. Few of these guys are among our best players. We may struggle this year -- I'm fully expecting it -- but a lot of freshmen and sophomores are going to get significant experience this year, which should really pay off in the next couple years.

Spring game photos: Quarterbacks

Curt Phillips looked perfectly comfortable running the first-string offense during the spring game. It certainly seemed that he had the unit in scoring position just about every time he stepped in under center. Speaking of which, he looked fine under center, after playing the spread in high school.

As advertised, Phillips showed some good wheels, this time running a bootleg left.

This would be a scene I'd like to see a lot in the next four years.

As mentioned Saturday, I liked what I saw from Dustin Sherer's new throwing motion. It made me cringe every time he threw the ball last year, but I think this motion will suit him well the more he gets comfortable with it. It's a higher release point, and has less of a hitch. He threw the one interception that was returned for a touchdown (while I was taking Will to the bathroom, didn't see it), but other than that looked good.

Phillips wasn't the only one who looked good running the bootleg. sherer was pretty good too.

Spring game thoughts

Made it to the spring game today, and was glad I did. It was the first one I've been to in 11 years, if memory serves, and it's always great to watch live football in April.

Hard to tell too much, because a. It's the spring game, a glorified scrimmage, and b. I had Will with me, and if you've met him, he's a handful. We had a great time.

Overall, I was pleased with how efficiently the first team offense played. Granted, playing against third- and fourth-stringers they should put up good numbers, but for some reason it seems that the first string never looks that sharp in this contest. They looked as good as could be expected today.

No defensive players really stood out, although it's tough to judge the pass rush because plays were whistled dead before sacks could be finalized. In the secondary, Chris Maragos and Devin Smith both made nice plays on the ball, and Aaron Henry seemed to be moving around well.

At quarterback, Dustin Sherer was solid. It was clear his throwing motion has been improved (photos forthcoming), but he doesn't look entirely comfortable with it. Curt Phillips got in and made some plays, and while his arm wasn't as weak as I feared, it wasn't that bad. Scott Tolzien showed some shaky mechanics, throwing off his back foot. Jon Budmayr didn't look overwhelmed, but didn't create much; both he and Tolzien were probably held back by playing with the deep reserves.

As could be expected, the tight ends got themselves open and were a big part of the offense. Lance Kendricks had a nice touchdown catch, as did Garrett Graham. Mickey Turner did a lot of motioning into a fullback spot.

John Clay ran well, shedding tacklers left and right. Zach Brown ran hard inside. But Erik Smith was the biggest revelation. He showed nice lateral movement, in particular a nice jump cut, and some separation speed. He could play some this fall.

Notables seen in passing: Keaton Nankivil, Cecil Martin, UW band tuba legend Zack Dachel, and hockey/online video guru Todd Milewski.

Today did little to alleviate my main concerns heading into the 2009 season -- pass rush, defensive tackle, linebacker depth, offensive line newcomers -- but I didn't expect it to. It's fun to see all the new guys who get a shot to make a name for themselves as Badgers, and we'll be pulling for them all this fall.

Going to the spring game

After much deliberation, I've decided to take Will to the spring game. The deciding factors:

-Want to see Nick Toon
-Want to see Curt Phillips and Jon Budmayr
-Want to see J.J. Watt
-Want to see Aaron Henry
-Want Will to take part in the kids' day fun taking place before the game.

Looks like decent to nice weather, hopefully I'll get some good shots and info for a solid report.

Now departing

Just read Jim's story that Elijah Hodge, Xavier Harris, and James Stallons will be leaving the football program. None of these things are surprising nor necessarily damaging. Mildly disappointing.

I thought Hodge was going to be the second-best player in his recruiting class, after Beckum. After all, his brother was a stud at Iowa, so why wouldn't he be, too? He was an easy target for frustration as the defense struggled early in the 2007 season, although he did have that big play to end the win over Michigan State.

When he wasn't one of the top six linebackers this year you figured he was done playing from scrimmage. We'll never know how good he would have been had the injuries not caught up with him. Interesting that Bielema gave him a chance to move to fullback but he didn't take it. Nice thing is he's on pace to graduate in May.

Wasn't Harris's nickname "The Savior"? I remember watching him warm up before theh Bowling Green game in Cleveland and thinking that he lookd the part and would play as much as Swan and Hubbard at wideout that year. Guess not. Although a back injury ended his career, don't think it had that much to do with him not playing much before then.

Stallons, from what I understand, didn't put in as much prep time in the classroom or the meeting room to earn more playing time, but if he had he might have gotten on the field last year. With Phillips and Budmayr coming in, he was looking at being squeezed out himself.

Recapping the stats

Way back on September 22, I wrote this post:

Now that I've numbed you all to sleep with four days of numbers — hey, wake up! — I'm going to tie it all up with the statistical thresholds I believe the Badgers need to hit for 2008 to be a great season.

OFFENSE
50 rushing attempts per game
245 rushing yards per game (4.9 yards per carry)
47% third-down conversion percentage
1.2 turnovers per game
30 points per game

DEFENSE
35 rushing attempts per game
120 rushing yards per game (3.4 yards per carry)
215 passing yards per game
37% third-down allowance percentage
2.5 turnovers per game
16 points per game

If time permits, I'll compare each week's performance to these standards, and hopefully keep a running total on how we're doing. Of course, if we lose three of our next four, I'll start writing about recruiting and whether Dustin Sherer or Curt Phillips will be starting at quarterback in 2009.

We all know what happened -- lost the next four, talking about Dustin Sherer replacing Allan Evridge, and whether or not Curt Phillips can take the job next season. Sigh.

But how did the Badgers do in these stat categories? Let's see how it stacks up against my prescription for success.

OFFENSE
44 rushing attempts per game - low
212 rushing yards per game (4.8 yards per carry) - low
39% third-down conversion percentage - low
2.25 turnovers per game - high -- double!
28.7 points per game - close

DEFENSE
34.3 rushing attempts per game - close
133.2 rushing yards per game (3.9 yards per carry) - high
189.1 passing yards per game - low
38% third-down allowance percentage - close
1.8 turnovers per game - low
25.2 points per game - way high

So, as if it wasn't going to be painfully obvious, the Badgers fell short of greatness in just about every key statistical category this season. Turnovers were the biggest problem -- 16 lost fumbles, 25 overall!

What we ended up with was a slightly-better-than-average team with no wins over good teams. Here's hoping for more next year.

Bowl practice goals

As the Badgers' season turned into a struggle just to become bowl-eligible, much was made of the importance of the extra practices that come with playing in a bowl game. "It's like another spring practice" they say, although I find that hard to believe it's as effective.

Coaches give guys off for awhile after the last regular season game. Then practice attendance is spotty during finals time. So it's not like the kids are getting solid, uninterrupted practice time.

But it's better than not getting any additional time, and given what we're staring at next season, the practices are imperative for keeping our bowl streak alive in 2009. Here's what I'd like to see addressed in December:

Quarterback
Dustin Sherer played much better as time wore on, seemingly shaking off the rust. Outside factors played a role. The schedule got easier; the wide receivers -- Isaac Anderson, Nick Toon, David Gilreath -- all grew up to an extent; Travis Beckum's season-ending injury forced him to look for other guys.

Still, I think we all want to see what Curt Phillips can do. From the little we've seen of him, he seems like a kid who can make plays with his feet, a skill that will come in handy behind an inexperienced offensive line next season.

Should Phillips be getting more work than Sherer in bowl practices? I say no. After such a disappointing season, we need to win the bowl game, and getting Sherer as prepared as possible is important. Phillips will benefit from the experience, and maybe you give him some of the backup reps, but at quarterback, prepare for the bowl game first, not 2009.

Offensive line
Kraig Urbik, Andy Kemp, and Eric Vanden Heuvel all depart after this season, leaving behind just Gabe Carimi and John Moffitt. Who will be the new starters at left guard, right guard, and right tackle next season?

There are plenty of good candidates. At tackle, Josh Oglesby got off to a good start but struggled later. Jake Bscherer has the credentials and spent this year redshirting so he could retain eligibility once EVH and Urbik left.

At guard, we've got Kevin Zeitler, Bill Nagy, and Jake Current. Nagy seems to have a leg up here, having played extensively this year when injuries hit. I could see Oglesby sliding inside to guard, as most of his struggles this year stemmed from dealing with speed edge rushers.

In any event, the path to sorting out which of these five guys ends up in those three spots starts now.

Defensive line
I am worried sick about our '09 prospects at this position. Who replaces Matt Shaughnessy, Jason Chapman, and Mike Newkirk? I feel OK about defensive end. Louis Nzegwu will be OK, sort of like O'Brien Schofield was this year.

It's tackle that looks bleaker. Right now the incumbents would be Patrick Butrum and Jeff Stehle. Neither one stood out in their playing time this season. Dan Moore needs to show he can play tackle, which is where he was recruited to play.

Someone from the group of Eriks Briedis, Anthony Mains, Brendan Kelly, J.J. Watt, and Tyler Westphal has to emerge as a contributor. I like Watt, seeing him at Family Day he looked the part. Briedis and Mains had nice frames for tackle as well, Kelly was drawing positive reviews in fall practice, and Westphal was the most highly-recruited of this bunch.

Unlike quarterback, where I feel Sherer needs all of the work to get ready for the bowl game, on the D-Line the focus on the future needs to start now.

Setting the bar

Now that I've numbed you all to sleep with four days of numbers — hey, wake up! — I'm going to tie it all up with the statistical thresholds I believe the Badgers need to hit for 2008 to be a great season.

OFFENSE
50 rushing attempts per game
245 rushing yards per game (4.9 yards per carry)
47% third-down conversion percentage
1.2 turnovers per game
30 points per game

DEFENSE
35 rushing attempts per game
120 rushing yards per game (3.4 yards per carry)
215 passing yards per game
37% third-down allowance percentage
2.5 turnovers per game
16 points per game

If time permits, I'll compare each week's performance to these standards, and hopefully keep a running total on how we're doing. Of course, if we lose three of our next four, I'll start writing about recruiting and whether Dustin Sherer or Curt Phillips will be starting at quarterback in 2009.

This Bud's for us: Jon Budmayr commits

Word leaked Tuesday that Bret Bielema landed a commitment from a pretty darn good high school quarterback by the name of Jon Budmayr of Marian Central Catholic in Woodstock, Ill. Seems like a good kid, and a good quarterback prospect. He also impressed at the Nike Football Training Camp in Ohio recently (thanks for the heads-up, Schwib).

Bud, as he will be known here from now on, chose UW over Notre Dame, Nebraska, Illinois, and Iowa, among others. Not bad.

Schwalbach emailed me excitedly Tuesday night, opining that top-tier quarterback recruits are starting to see that Madison isn't such a bad place to play. I'm not sure. Bud isn't exactly a Jimmy Clausen-type recruit -- Scout has him as the 55th-best QB prospect. And while Curt Phillips ended up being pretty highly rated, he wasn't at the time he committed.

But so what? All I care about is that they end up being effective players for Wisconsin. Think about our recent quarterbacks: Donovan, Stocco, Sorgi, Bollinger. None of those guys was the next coming of Ron Powlus coming out of high school, and all played well enough to win a bunch of games as college starters. Two guys even carved out nice little NFL careers for themselves.

Given the receiving talent we attract to Wisconsin and the coaching they receive; Paul Chryst's modern offense; and the relative success of the aforementioned Badger quarterbacks of the last decade, we should see a higher caliber of QB recruit matriculating to the alma mater. But if not, we'll probably be OK anyway.

Death, or life, of the spread?

Two interesting takes on one of my pet peeves: the spread offense.

1. Terrelle Pryor has committed to Ohio State. Bad news for the rest of the Big Ten, this guy is incredible. He chose the Buckeyes to get himself ready for the NFL. Hmmm ... who again was the last great OSU quarterback in the NFL? Craig Krenzel?

The thing is, he chose Ohio State over Michigan, and Matt Hayes of the Sporting News says it's because Rich Rodriguez runs the spread, which isn't the way to become the next Peyton Manning or Tom Brady. Great short story, you should read it.

Pryor's commitment a sad day for spread

So why is it that ...

2. Bret Bielema is implementing some spread into the UW offense? According to a Journal Sentinel report, Bielema likes what Allan Evridge and Curt Phillips can do in the spread, and the Badgers would have run some spread last year if Marcus Coleman could shotgun snap. (Really? He couldn't?)

This has the feeling of arriving a party about two hours after the good-looking girls departed and the kegs are spitting out foam.

The only silver lining I see from this is that it should give our defense some more exposure against a scheme with which we've traditionally struggled.

Spring football

OK, let's take a quick break from all the basketball talk and look at football spring practice for a bit. I went over to uwbadgers.com and popped open the depth chart and just about fell off my chair.

No Travis Beckum. No Garrett Graham. No Allen Langford. No Aaron Henry. No Jason Chapman. No Kirk DeCremer. No big deal, this depth chart is just for the completely healthy guys, and I've got no problem with these dudes taking a spring break.

A look at the current two-deep:

Offense
QB: Allan Evridge, Dustin Sherer. Part of me wants Curt Phillips to challenge for the backup job, part of me just wants him to redshirt.
RB: Zach Brown or P.J. Hill, Lance Smith or John Clay. Man, are we strong there.
FB: Chris Pressley, Bill Rentmeester
WR: Kyle Jefferson, Maurice Moore or Isaac Anderson. No Nick Toon? the State Journal did a nice story about how he's added 20 pounds of muscle. He's 6-3, 220 so he could be a beast.
WR: David Gilreath, Xavier Harris or Daven Jones. I really want Daven to make a move up the chart this spring.
TE: Mickey Turner, Lance Kendricks. Kendricks is my candidate for 2009's breakout player as Beckum reincarnate.
LT: Gabe Carimi, Jake Bscherer
LG: Andy Kemp, Jake Current. Look at the true freshman!
C: John Moffitt, Brad Thorson
RG: Kraig Urbik, Bill Nagy
RT: Eric Vanden Heuvel, Josh Oglesby. Hope this is a battle and JO either takes the starting spot from EVH or pushes him to a different spot.

Defense
LE: O'Brien Schofield, Louis Nzegwu or Ricky Garner. I feel oddly comfortable with Schofield here.
LT: Mike Newkirk, Jasper Grimes. Really wish Newkirk didn't have to start. Looks like he's going to need shoulder surgery. In addition, Dan Cascone (shoulder) and Brandon Hoey (back) are battling injuries, so we are paper thing at defensive tackle.
RT: Jeff Stehle, Patrick Butrym. Here's your chance, Jeff, make the most of it.
RE: Matt Shaughnessy, Dan Moore. Interesting, thought Moore was brought in to play tackle. Sit Shaughnessy for the spring, what does he have to prove?
SLB: DeAndre Levy, Blake Sorenson
MLB: Elijah Hodge or Culmer St. Jean, Kevin Rouse. Or? Guess it depends on if we're playing a spread team or a team that plays real football.
WLB: Jonathan Casillas, Jaevery McFadden. We're really solid on the outside.
LCB: Mario Goins, Josh Nettles or Prince Moody. Goins is bigger than I thought.
RCB: Niles Brinkley, Otis Merrill. Here's hoping none of these five corners have to start this season.
SS: Aubrey Pleasant or Jay Valai, Chris Maragos
FS: Shane Carter, Kim Royston. Same guys as last year, more or less, time for them to improve.

Special teams
K: Philip Welch, Matt Fischer. Yeesh.
P: Brad DeBauche, Philip Welch. I'm really going to miss Ken DeBauche and Taylor Mehlhaff. Hope this Brad Nortman kid is good.
PR: David Gilreath, Maurice Moore
KR: David Gilreath, Daven Jones, Niles Brinkley, Maurice Moore
LS: Dave Peck, Drew Woodward
H: Chris Maragos, Brad DeBauche

Good time for young guys to come in and make a name for themselves, time for guys like Maragos to learn a new position and contribute where our depth is shaky. Wish I could make the spring game, but I haven't for a long time, and with Crazylegs following shortly thereafter don't think it's worth the trip.

How did you find Badgercentric?

Badgercentric has been around for about five months now, and it’s a lot of fun to write. If you’re a stats/analysis geek like me, it’s also fun to take a look at who’s coming to your site and why.

Every few days I check out Google Analytics and see what sites are referring people to this blog, and what search engine keywords are doing the trick. Through February 23, 2,293 keywords have brought people here, and it’s fascinating to see them. Many are related to The Office and non-UW items, but I’m going to share my favorite Badger-related search terms for Badgercentric:

#5 punch groin wisconsin minnesota (you wouldn't believe how many there are like this - apparently Minnesota receiver Eric Decker's handiwork on Ike was noticed)
#7 brett valentyn
#13 bo ryan soulja boy (tons of searches similar to this)
#38 erin andrews ice fishing (pretty sure this was all Toohey)
#108 wquinton smith
#151 matt lepay’s call of final play vs. texas
#246 jack ikegwuonu nuts
#311 tim brewster feud with bret bielema
#315 university of wisconsin band nice clipboard rex (from the Packers-Bears game at Lambeau, rex is Rex Grossman)
#318 who owns the metrodome (we do)
#330 “aaron henry” trash bielema
#411 “jenna fischer” rentmeester
#426 “mark tauscher” vegas (what in the world could they have been looking for?)
#480 “scott burch” penn state (did Froehlich finally discover the Internet?)
#500 “tom crean” tan (a Journal Sentinel story last week called him “Tom Cream”)
#554 6’3 diamond taylor
#563 al toon wisconsin badgers jersey number
#579 andy crooks facebook
#583 anti uw shirts
#589 arrogant michigan
#604 badger baggo, #630 badger cornhole game
#720 bielema bad goatee (when did he have a goatee?)
#723 bielema mad youtube
#794 bret bielema passed out in bathroom (where did Google get that from this blog?)
#840 can curt phillips be a starter freshman year?
#859 chris chambers oshkosh north high school (huh?)
#925 culmer st. jean highlights
#996 doug gottlieb hates wisconsin, #1124 gottlieb why do you hate wisconsin?
#1035 erick olson badger football
#1072 football jansen wisconsin

#1100 gangster toohey (his secret life!)

#1167 how many times has joe krabbenhoft had stitches?
#1172 i love appalachian state t shirt wisconsin
#1215 jason bohannon drinking game
#1499 mock draft, tyler donovan
#1637 picture of bill callahan farewell tour
#1854 swan family website fennimore hamstring
#1921 tight end schwalbach (fill in your own punchline)
#2063 what is mike kelley former uw basketball player doing now?
#2279 matt schwalbach casino (search was from Pompano Beach, Fla. – did Megan hire a private investigator to look into our Vegas trip?)

A look at the Badgers' football recruits

Bret Bielema signed his latest recruiting class when I was still recovering from my Germany jet lag, so I've been remiss about commenting on our latest round of new Badgers.

Maybe that's because this class didn't have the pizazz of some of our other classes — no John Clays or Josh Oglesbys. Maybe it's because my least favorite Big Ten coach, Tim Brewster, signed what is being heralded as a terrific class at Minnesota.

Or maybe it's because I've finally come to realize that, while it can be fun to follow, getting really worked up about football recruiting is pointless. It would be one thing if we were players in the Terrelle Pryor derby, but we're not. Here is my take on football recruiting in a nutshell:

-We will never rank near the top of the Big Ten recruiting rankings. Ohio State and Michigan will always be 1-2, and Penn State will usually be third. Some school like Iowa or Minnesota or Wisconsin will sneak into the #4 spot on occasion. That doesn't always translate into wins - the core of Iowa's last two disappointing teams was a recruiting class considered the school's best-ever, while their success preceding that came with players who may have flown under the radar in the recruiting process.

-If you get a lot of capable kids and coach them up, you'll have a chance, even against all the bandwagon-jumping mercenaries suiting up for the Buckeyes and Wolverines.

-Getting the key in-state kids to come to Madison will always be our top priority, and with a few exceptions (Adam Stenavich) we've been outstanding in this area since Barry took over. This year is no exception.

-Complementing the signees with solid walk-ons is critical.

-Our best teams have not been led by highly-ranked recruiting classes, but rather by deep classes that didn't have many busts.

So what about this year's class? I like Tyler Westphal, the defensive end from Menasha. Iola-Scandinavia scrimmaged Menasha this year, and my buddies who saw it said Westphal just threw our kids around - and we were state finalists.

The offensive line signees - Neenah's Peter Konz, Wisconsin Lutheran's Kevin Zeitler (left), Joe Schafer of Minnesota, Jake Current from Ohio - seem poised to carry on our tradition up front. I like that we signed so many defensive backs from Florida and Texas, and loaded up on defense in general (14 of 23 signees).

We signed a junior college transfer, Dan Moore, to help immediately on the defensive line. Thankfully, we haven't relied on Juco guys too much over the years, but sometimes you need them to plug holes. Clearly we're thin on the defensive front, so Moore will get his shot.

Curt Phillips (right) has already enrolled in school, will take part in spring practice, and might have a chance to compete for the starting quarterback job this fall (although my money would be on Allan Evridge). I'm excited about this guy. And the kid who may have the biggest immediate impact is Brad Nortman, a highly-regarded punter from Brookfield Central.

An interesting side note: Jim Polzin wrote an interesting story fleshing out something we touched on here a couple months ago. Basically, Jim points out that we signed six players from SEC states, three from Texas, and none from New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. This is because the current batch of assistants doesn't have ties there like past staffs had. Let's just hope Florida, Texas, and the other warm weather states we're now mining are as good to us as New England has been.

Purdue pursuing Chryst

The Lafayette Journal & Courier is reporting that Purdue is pursuing Paul Chryst to be its next coach, in a scenario like the one where Matt Painter came on board and assisted Gene Keady for a year before taking over. Interesting. For the various reasons Potrykus spells out in his story, I don't think will happen. Chryst seems like a Madison guy who is made for being a coordinator, and he knows it, but as Tom Mulhern points out in the State Journal , he did recently interview for the Washington State job.

While losing him would not be catastrophic, in my opinion, it would sting. Chryst has added a level of diversity and consistency to the Badger offense that wasn't there under Brian White and Brad Childress. Who knows, maybe it was Alvarez's influence on the scheme, and only late in his career did he embrace the importance of a competent passing game.

Chryst has done some wonderful things with the offense, most notably in 2006 when he lost all his skill players and three offensive linemen from the powerhouse 2005 unit. His role developing John Stocco and Tyler Donovan can not be understated, and he will be key to getting Allan Evridge up to speed for 2008, and hopefully Curt Phillips for the four years following.

Hopefully whatever happens, it happens quickly. We've got about a month left in the recruiting race and losing a successful offensive coordinator could really hurt.