Restocking the D-Line

Bret Bielema got a nice little holiday present the other day when Cincinnati defensive end prospect Pat Muldoon gave the Badgers a commitment. Muldoon is the #24 DE in the nation per Rivals, #33 per Scout, and had offers from Ohio State, Boston College, and a few Big East schools. Seems like a really good get from my favorite state to pull recruits from.

This is shaping up to be a really nice defensive line class for us, and not a moment too soon. With Shaughnessy, Chapman, and Newkirk graduating, and Kirk DeCremer done with injury, we need bodies. If they can play, even better.

Beyond Muldoon, we've also got:

-Floridian David Gilbert, Rivals' #10 defensive end.

-Homestead's Shelby Harris, Rivals' #14 defensive end.

-Waupun's Jordan Kohout, Rivals' #16 defensive tackle.

-Hartford's Tyler Dippel, who chose up over Stanford.

-Casey Dehn may be an offensive lineman, but I've seen him listed as a defensive lineman.

Scout's rankings for most of these guys are lower than Rivals', but it's still a good haul. I can't remember the last time we had this many highly-rated guys at one position in one class. Hopefully they are the foundation for a return to dominance for our defense.

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.

Another one bites the dust: Shaughnessy

It was confirmed this afternoon that Matt Shaughnessy, the last remaining healthy defensive lineman on the Wisconsin roster, broke his leg in practice last night. Great. Does Azree Commander have any eligibility left?

To recap, the walking wounded on the D-line include: Shaughnessy, Kirk DeCremer, Jason Chapman, Brandon Hoey, Dan Moore, Dan Cascone, and Mike Newkirk. So at the spring game tomorrow it's Jeff Stehle, O'Brien Schofield, and some guys they picked up at the Nat on the D-line.

At one point, the injuries didn't bother me, because they allowed some younger guys to get more reps in spring practice. But this is ridiculous. Assuming all of these guys are back in time for fall camp - a big assumption that it is probably not appropriate to make - the unit should be at least mediocre. But add that on top of our two best cornerbacks recovering from knee injuries, and the defense becomes even more of a question mark than it was in January.

Then again ... last year's unit came in with a lot of hype and underdelivered. I've got a feeling that we'll be really down on the D coming into this season and they'll play better than expectations. Why?

1. I think Shaughnessy will be back and fully healthy by August and dominate this fall.
2. I think Jonathan Casillas and DeAndre Levy will be All-Big Ten-type guys this season, and Elijah Hodge and his platoon mates will be good enough in the middle.
3. I think Shane Carter will show a more well-rounded game, and our play at cornerback will not be disastrous.
4. Our defense has been really good in even-numbered years under Bielema. That one's a stretch, and I don't think this unit will be as good as those from 2004 and 2006 ... but what were your expectations for the defense in those years?

We may have the offensive horses to win some shootouts this fall, but who can tell with the offense playing against the JV squad. Has there been a less interesting spring game in recent memory? Like most people, I'm most interested in seeing if Allan Evridge or Dustin Sherer outplay one another, and how Johnny Clay looks.

Wisconsin-Tennessee thoughts

Tough loss. Tennessee definitely deserved this one, but it's a game we could have won without an extraordinary effort. It boiled down to some things that have plagued us all season, and some unexpectedly subpar coaching calls at times. Don't want this last game recap to be overwhelmingly negative, but that's what sticks out right now.

-Really have to like the way the defense played in the second half. But ... the Vols converted on so many third downs that we never got the decided field position edge that we needed. A number of bad missed tackles and familiar culprits - Elijah Hodge, Shane Carter, Kim Royston - that gave UT 15-20 yards a crack more than they should have had. Not getting off the field in these situations was the big difference between this year's defense and last year's.

-More execution gaffes: Hubbard's fumble, Jefferson's drop, all those procedure penalties, Donovan's underthrown last pass. Using two timeouts early in the second half also hurt.

-Two of Chryst's calls really struck me as bad from the snap: the pitch left to Smith on third-and-five, and the fourth down call in the fourth quarter that had Donovan rolling right with nobody even remotely open. We're Wisconsin, run the ball right at them on those plays. Reminded me of the option call at UNLV.

-The field seemed very soft, lots of guys slipping around. Wasn't a difference-maker, though.

-We seemed to have more fans there, or at least our fans were much louder than the assembled hillbillies wearing orange. (Sorry, made it almost 14 hours into the new year before a bitter slip.)

-Not sure why Beckum wasn't more involved, if he was well-covered, if Donovan was missing him, or, least likely, if he wasn't prominent in the game plan. If you would have told me four hours ago that he wouldn't get the 40 yards he needed for 1,000 on the season, I would have laughed.

-Thought the staff took too long to put P.J. back in during the second half. He played great today, no signs of rust. I'll follow up on this later this week, but is there still doubt that he's our best back? He is our best chance to consistently beat good teams by controlling the ball on the ground.

-Hodge's missed tackle or two aside, the linebackers played well. Hodge made a nice play to block the field goal attempt - thought we almost got an extra point earlier. Casillas and Levy were constantly around the ball, Casillas in the backfield, Levy in coverage. Schofield and DeCremer also made nice plays in the second half.

-LePay just said the senior class ends up as the winningest class in UW history - 40-11. Congratulations to these guys.

Disappointing end to a season that didn't deliver on high expectations, but we played a close game on January 1, won nine games for the fourth straight year, had a winning Big Ten record and went undefeated at home. If
you feel like complaining about that, I feel sorry for you.

Look for a more detailed season recap or two in the coming week.

Wisconsin-Tennessee halftime thoughts

All in all, pretty happy to be down only seven at halftime. We really haven't done anything to slow down their offense, and we've been inconsistent with the ball. If Donovan can survive one more half we have a shot at this thing.

-Really going to miss Mehlhaff's kickoffs, that's been a real positive for this team for four years.

-Could you get a worse person to announce your starting lineup than Heath Shuler? Yes - Matt Kenseth. Would have been nice if someone had gone over Ike's name with him beforehand.

-O'Brien Schofield did in fact start at defensive end, but hasn't done much. Will be interesting to see if he or Kirk DeCremer starts there next year.

-In the second half, watch how far Erik Ainge sets up in the shotgun, might be a reason he doesn't get sacked often.

-On that note: we're not getting any pressure on Ainge, so why not drop eight guys and make them beat you six yards passing at a time?

-Jae McFadden and Josh Nettles both should have had picks very early; had they, it would have dramatically changed the complexion of the game.

-Interesting end-around call to Lance Smith, that usually goes to a receiver. Reminded me of watching Dan Pallante's Wing-T at Fremont Ross.

-Did you see the two men in motion penalty that wiped out Brown's touchdown run? I didn't.

-Nice first half for Garrett Graham - four catches, 37 yards, and a nice box-out block on Donovan's touchdown run.

-What a stupid call by the Vols to run that trick play. They were moving the ball at will without trickery. Interesting concept for a trick play, though.

-Donovan has to go down as one of the toughest players in Badgers history, we'll miss that. He's taken a lot of vicious hits; not sure if they're dirty or not - they seem so at first, but replays make them just look like hard hits - but Bielema's lobbying that they were resulted in a nice 15-yard penalty in our favor on the last touchdown drive. Really don't want to see Evridge taking snaps until the spring game.

-P.J. Hill is clearly our best running back today. He's running quicker and getting a better lean than Zach Brown.

-Great drive to end the first half, really needed that to have a chance. Beautiful play call by Chryst on Crooks' first catch of the year.

-During a commercial I flipped on the Cotton Bowl and heard an overmatched announcer wading through the Arkansas starting defense. Pat Summerall is back! Why?!

Should be a good second half between two evenly matched teams. It's going to come down to halftime adjustments, specifically Can we stop their passing game?

Darren McFadden for Heisman, more Badger-Gopher thoughts

A month or so ago I jinxed Rashard Mendenhall by trumpeting his Heisman Trophy worthiness, and this week I did it to Glenn Dorsey. By Glenn was hurt and didn't do much yesterday as LSU became the latest top-ranked team to lose.

So now I'm plugging Darren McFadden. How big was he yesterday? Four touchdowns, 200-plus yards rushing, a man among boys against a talented defense.

If I had to bet my mortgage on who wins, I'd put it on Tim Tebow, who has had a fantastic season, but McFadden is a special player who comes along once in a generation for a conference - like a Herschel Walker for the 2000s - and he's not as much a product of the system as Tebow is.

-How exciting was that game yesterday? That was the most exciting game I've seen since LSU beat Alabama ... or since Kentucky beat LSU ... or since LSU beat Auburn ... or since LSU beat Florida. I can't remember an elite team playing this many thrilling games, maybe ever. And they're not just close games, they're games with lots of tension and big plays.

How big was Arkansas to get off the mat after blowing its lead several times to rebound and finish off the Tigers on their home field? The more I watched yesterday's game, the more I appreciated Wisconsin's win over Arkansas in the Capital One Bowl. That was a damn good team - take all of yesterday's key contributors, throw in Tony Ugoh (the Colts' starting left tackle), two great defensive ends (including top 10 pick Jamaal Anderson), a great corner in Chris Houston, and a great linebacker whose name escapes me - and beating the Razorbacks was quite an accomplishment.

One big absence, though: Peyton Hills. Pretty sure he didn't play in Orlando, and he made a ton of big plays yesterday.

-Although I love an upset like Arkansas', I am sick to my stomach about the possibility of a wholly undeserving Ohio State team playing for the national title.

-While relaxing in a hot tub last night, I saw a replay of the Badgers' win over Minnesota (was that only a week ago?), mainly the fourth quarter. Some new thoughts:

On the play before Tyler Donovan's fourth down conversion run, he completed a pass to Sean Lewis, who looked really natural as a receiver subbing for the injured Travis Beckum. Thing is, Lewis appeared to push off the Gophers' DB.

On several running plays Gabe Carimi seemed to be a half-step behind the snap count, coming out of his stance slightly after the rest of the line. Didn't make a difference, though, the Minnesota guys were so slow Gabe was able to get into his block anyway.

That last touchdown Minnesota scored was even more of a fluke than I originally thought. The guy who ended up scoring, Ralph Spry, was pretty far away from the action when it happened. Also, Shane Carter was standing behind the intended receiver and Aaron Henry, if he had gone up to make a play on it, the ball might not have bounded away so high and far.

Zach Brown's last touchdown run was a thing of beauty, he did an awesome job keeping his balance and staying on his feet.

After Minnesota's botched fake punt, it appeared that Ken DeBauche hustled over to say something to the Gophers' punter, Justin Kucek. May have been innocuous, but looked like Kenny was taunting him. Kenny also pulled something like this earlier in the year when a returner had a long run called back by a penalty, forget the game. After blasting Clint Brewster for his actions and words, it's only fair to bring this to light - wish Kenny wouldn't do that.

Watching Donovan elude sacks brings to mind Michael Vick - looks like a video game character darting back and forth. Unfortunately, during one of those instances against Minnesota, while he was dancing we had three guys wide open that were missed - maybe if TD hangs in there and throws the ball instead of dancing, he hits one of those guys.

Still like Kirk DeCremer a lot, he's always around the ball.

Finally, after watching Bret Bielema's mad dash to shake Tim Brewster's hand after the game several times, I don't think there was anything wrong with it. The first time I saw it, BB looked a little too eager and gleeful. Then I thought "He just wanted to get back to his team," but after the handshake he turned around and jogged to nowhere, a la Jim Valvano. But after seeing it for a third time, it didn't seem that inappropriate, just weird. Especially since all the Badgers who weren't parading around the Dome with Paul Bunyan's Axe were exchanging pleasantries with their Gopher counterparts.

It's funny - even though I knew the outcome and was there in person, watching the final seconds unfold and the postgame with the Axe, and explaining it to Will (who didn't really get it yet), I was still giddy and excited. That's what Badger sports still do to me, I guess.

Sunday morning thoughts

-The injury to Jason Chapman seems serious enough to likely keep him out of the Michigan game, so my thoughts for the D-line - DeCremer starting at DE, Newkirk playing more at DT - are about to come true, although not in the way I imagined. That's a huge blow to an already thin unit. Really wish some of those early games had been more lopsided so Stehle and Cascone could have gotten more experience.

-Here's another kick in the groin for non-Big Ten Networkers: the Badger basketball team kicks off exhibition play tonight at 7 p.m. against Edgewood in a game on the BTN. UW also plays Wednesday night against Eau Claire on the BTN. No big deal you say? These are just two of at least 21 games I count that will be on the BTN. So this fight isn't over just because the Wisconsin-Ohio State game is over, or at least it shouldn't be.

-Our Iola-Scandinava Thunderbirds advanced to the state football semifinals with a thrilling 29-22 win over private school power Stevens Point Pacelli Friday night. The game was played just down the block from our house, and we've never seen suge a crowd for a game, great atmosphere. Next up is Fennimore, Luke Swan's alma mater, and I just hope our kids don't have the feeling they just won state by beating Pacelli ... although I can't imagine our coach will let that happen.

-West Bend East lost to Watertown in the state volleyball finals last night in their first trip to state since 2001. Seems like the proper team won, as East was mainly an undersized group of scrappers who fell behind 2-0 and rallied in its first two matches at state. Apparently many of their key players went to my grade school, St. Frances Cabrini - SFC Warriors represent!

-Can't believe Michigan is in position to be a top 10 team, when they still haven't beaten anyone. Tell me why they were ranked #12 yesterday, about 10 spots ahead of us, with the same record, same amount of quality wins (zero), but more losses to I-AA teams.

-Andy and I watched the LSU-Alabama game, what an exciting game with talented athletes and great coaches. Then you switch on Illinois-Minnesota ... zzzzzzzzzz. I've been a Big Ten defender all the way, but it's now reached the point where the SEC is so much better than our conference that there's no way to spin it. Florida's domination of Ohio State in the title game last season was emphatic, and if LSU survives to face the Buckeyes in New Orleans this year it will be another rout.

-Yi Jianlian played really well for the Bucks in their win over the Bulls last night. Our much-hyped rookie from China shows a nice shooting touch, and should be able to combine with Redd for a tough-to-defend pick and roll combo. My favorite thing about him last night was his aggressiveness against some tough interior defenders. At one point, he went up for a dunk and had it blocked, thought he got fouled. But a couple minutes later he drove to the rim and tried to dunk again - and had it blocked again, cleanly. I liked how he stayed on the attack.

-Marquette lost a potential contributor when Trevor Mbakwe was lost for the season with a knee injury. The kid seems to have gotten a raw deal, held up from practice by the NCAA clearinghouse, now injured. They're pretty thin inside, which will probably preclude them from winning anything really significant this season.

UW-Ohio State halftime thoughts

Like the way we're playing with them. This is shaping up like our previous three wins at the Horseshoe.

-Most of you didn't see this, but BTN had Matt Fischer, backup kicker and #96, starting at defensive tackle. Risky move. ;)

-Before the game I said to Andy that we should try some trick plays today - why not? Before the fake punt, Andy said they should try it just then; I disagreed, and he was right. Terrific pass by DeBauche (wasn't he a high school QB?) and terrific catch by Standridge - I've never understood why he's on kick coverage teams as a backup punter, but he made a beautiful grab.

-Like the way we're blitzing, bu they're not really effective - the route is too long or we're running right into blockers.

-OSU's offensive line started out playing really well, although our front seven did some nice things against them late. My sense is that their skill position guys are pretty much like anybody else's in the Big Ten, but the o-line opens up bigger holes and pass protects long enough for fairly average receivers to get open.

-OSU has five sacks, but don't blame our offensive line, those are coverage sacks.

-Donovan looks a little jittery in the pocket.

-Did anyone else notice DeBauche put his arm around Small and point to the flag thrown on the latter's big punt return? Hilarious!

-Shaughnessy and Fischer, er, Hayden are playing well, especially #92.

-Gilreath's fumble was overturned, but before the kick I muttered "Just hang onto the ball David." His mistakes are outweighing his big plays right now.

-Why can't we sack Boeckman? He's not that slippery? We brought down Kellen Lewis five times last week but can't get to this statue?

-Here's an idea: Kirk DeCremer should be starting with Newkirk swinging around to spell all four line spots. DeCremer is always around the ball making plays, and Newkirk would get just as many reps.

-Brown is running about as well as can be expected, he's not playing tentatively. Still wish we had PJ.

Should be a good second half, especially if we can somehow draw even.

UW-Illinois in-game thoughts

Had a feeling Mehlhaff was going to miss his first FG attempt today, no matter where it was from.

Can't win with this field position.

Have we been down by more than seven yet this year? The offense has done a great job answering scores, but not this year.

Carter not playing well again. Time to try Royston there?

They're selling out to stop the run - where are the play actions and screens?

Really like how DeCremer is playing, Levy too.

Defense again can't get off the field on third down - maybe the biggest difference between this year's team and last year's.

Their fullback makes a circus catch - oh my god - and they go up 17-0 next play. This is about to get ugly.

What an awesome catch by Beckum. Interesting that they seem to be covering him with Davis - good coaching move by Illinois. Even more so if Swan can't go in the second half.

Missed a couple plays. Any word on why Hodge isn't playing? Injuries, or just not a good matchup against this offense and personnel?

UW-MSU thoughts

My first thought, as it was after the Iowa game, was that we survived. In the postgame, LePay said "Survive and advance," which is exactly what this is, especially when you look at all the other top 10 upsets.

-MSU is better than I thought, but for all the talk about how they're more disciplined under Dantonio, several mental breakdowns on the decisive UW field goal drive ended up being the difference.

-Mehlhaff and DeBauche are reminiscent of Stemke and Money/Pisetsky, true difference-makers in the kicking game. Hope we can replace them next year.

-Here's the difference between the program today and five years ago: depth. Think about all the guys missing today: Ike, Hubbard, Valai, Crooks, Randle-El, Jefferson, Graham for a time, Chapman was dinged up, as was Urbik. Yet the replacements made enough plays to win. The drop-off to the reserves is not as great as it once was.

-Evridge is going to need to play this year. Donovan is taking a lot of shots. I like his guts.

-Randle-El needs to leave the program. He talks about being a leader, but he pulls stuff like that asinine punching match today. He's coasting by on his name.

-Nice job by the defense on the last two plays. I was praying they wouldn't throw at Strickland, but he jumped that slant nicely. And everyone sniffed out the final play and stopped it - finally!

-Vanden Heuvel did a nice job on Saint-Dic.

-My guess is that without Smith next week, the change of pace running plays will be end-arounds from Gilreath and Beckum.

-Great hustle by Casillas to run down Ringer, a drive that ended with a field goal. Reminded me of Ike running down McFadden in the Cap One Bowl.

-Pretty good pass rush today. Hayden is playing better this year, and DeCremer is a great addition to the rotation.