Badgers on Facebook

My brother and I were talking about Facebook the other day, and he made this not completely untrue statement:

"Dude, when people like you are getting into Facebook, that's when you know it's not cool any more."

Ouch, but I do have a history of coming in past the prime time of cultural phenomena: downloading music, cell phones, online shopping, direct payroll deposit, high-speed Internet at home. We've purchased DVR four years after TiVo became popular, but DirecTV keeps messing up and we haven't gotten it hooked up yet.

So I don't have a great track record as an early adopter, but I'm trying to change that (why does nobody seem to care about all my Twitter messages?). However, among my long-time close friends, only Butch and Toohey have signed up for Facebook, which makes me as cutting edge as all my college-aged cousins and 40-something co-workers.

If/when you decide Facebook is for you, a. Become my friend, b. Sign up for Facebook's best Badger fan community:

http://www.facebook.com/add.php?api_key=c24ac9233116fef04c3e92aee417d3d2&next=?refuid=3097947

The coolest thing about this is the Badger trivia section. With plenty of time to kill over the holidays, I answered every last one as quickly as possible, and ended up in fourth place. Then I took the time to create about 50 questions, which put me in first until the guy I overtook for the lead noticed and created 60 more. Game on, Jeremy David Jones.

Since I found out about this community from my old college friend Vikram Naik, I joined his team and saw where we ranked among other teams. Not high - Toohey is stuck on a goose egg. But I did see who led other "teams" of trivia guessers: Zach Hampton, Justin Ostrowski, Marcus Coleman, Brandon Kelly, Brad Thorson. Looking further at these teams, I found Matt Bernstein, Paul Standring, Joe Monty, Kurt Ware, Darrin Charles, Mike Allen, RJ Morse, Jonathan Clinkscale, Kalvin Barrett, LaMarr Watkins, Andrew Weininger, Mark Gorman, Josh Balts, Ryan Flasch.

There's nothing that remarkable about finding these guys there; after all, they were/are college students, and that's what college students do nowadays. It was just cool to see these names again, as I'd forgotten most of them. Also: didn't see too many all-conference types on there. Is it too much of a hassle for a star college athlete to put himself out there on a social network? I think it makes these kids seem more like regular students.

-On another note, Mike Lucas is reporting that Bob Palcic is leaving UW to be Rick Neuheisel's offensive line coach at UCLA. Bring your guitar and canoe, Bob, Ricky's a real player's coach.

Lucas says Bob Bostad will probably take over, which makes sense. He'll probably do fine - the tight ends are better than ever right now. Bostad was here only two years, but he did a good job replacing Jim Hueber and upholding our reputation for producing top-notch offensive lines. Can't give him too much credit for Joe Thomas, but give him lots of credit for plugging holes created by graduation and injuries.

Wisconsin-Indiana predictions

Wisconsin has handled Indiana fairly well over the past 15 years, going 8-2 against the Hoosiers since 1993. My favorite game was in 1994, our freshman year. IU came in ranked with a hot shot running back named Alex Smith, and Hill was still a big IU fan for football. We won 62-13.

But I just can’t shake the image of the two losses during that time:

-In 2001 Antwan Randle-El, Levron Williams and friends won 63-32 in Madison. I remember sitting in the press box at Titan Stadium in Oshkosh listening to the game on my Walkman, in total disbelief - touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown. That game was the worst defensive performance by the Badgers since Alvarez took over. That game epitomized how badly the staff had missed in recruiting during the late '90s Rose Bowl years and left the program without depth. At least Randle-El was a worthy conqueror.

-In 2002 we collapsed late and lost 32-29 in Bloomington to a bad IU team. I didn’t even watch the game after we took what seemed to be a commanding lead, went shopping in West Towne with Jana. The best side story from that game: Bob Docherty (right), an Oshkosh North grad who went to UW along with Darrin Charles, was hurt that day and didn’t make the trip. He felt so comfortable with the game that he, too, didn’t watch the second half. Difference between him and me: he was a member of the team. After the game someone called him and asked him what he thought; he said something to the effect of “easy win, huh?” and his caller then informed him that the Badgers had lost. Soon Doc left UW and transferred back to UW-Oshkosh.

So while I was watching the replay of the UW-Northern Illinois game, the highlights that stuck with me weren’t of us running over an overmatched Huskies team, but the breaks showing Kellen Lewis and James Hardy against Penn State. The Hoosiers lost that one, because they turned the ball over four times in the second half, but put up 31 points on a damn good defense.

Indiana should also be plenty hungry – they’re still one win short of being bowl eligible for the first time since 1993, and they’re still playing for their popular deceased coach, Terry Hoeppner. They’ve got playmakers all over the field:

-Hardy (top), the best wide receiver in the country not named DeSean Jackson (that’s a toss-up).
-Lewis (bottom), who seems like Randle-El with a much better arm.
-Marcus Thigpen, great returner and slippery back.
-Two highly thought-of cornerbacks with girls’ names: Leslie Majors and Tracy Porter.
-A couple of other defensive playmakers in DE Greg Middleton and LB William Patterson.

Even with all that, I think we outscore them tomorrow and win. But look at the point totals they’ve given up this year:

Western Michigan 27; Akron 24; Illinois 27; Iowa 20; Minnesota 20; Michigan State 52; Penn State 36.

Actually, those numbers are sort of similar to the Badgers’ defensive numbers. If this is in Bloomington, I might be predicting an IU win, but we’ve gone back to winning most of the time in Madison.

I think Beckum has a big game, as do PJ and Smith. The big matchup is Ike and Carter against Hardy, we’ve got to hold him to one touchdown. And Mehlhaff has to get more of his kickoffs into the end zone than not, to keep the ball away from these dangerous returners.

Two good points from the Cap Times experts today: control the ball and keep it out of IU's playmakers' hands, and can Ike shut down Hardy like Jamar Fletcher shut down Plaxico Burress in 1999?

Prediction: UW 38, Indiana 34