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.

Those were pretty bad kicks, though. On the field goal attempt at the end of regulation their coach seemed to mouth "you've got to be kidding me."

As for the game in general, I don't feel bad at all about needing overtime to beat that team. We did not play poorly. They have great athletes and a unique scheme that they execute really well. Our offensive coaches found ways to exploit their weaknesses, particularly in the passing game, and the running game got it going at just the right time.

After a season full of Wisconsin finding ways to lose it should have won, it was refreshing to see the Badgers find a way to win a game they probably should have lost.

-The lasting impression of this game I'll take with me is Andy Kemp after the game-winning extra point, ripping off his helmet and running down the field in celebration. These seniors deserved to go out with a win.

-Boy did John Clay and P.J. Hill run hard in the second half, those were some tough runs that they finished with authority. P.J. went over 1,000 yards today, fourth year in a row.

-Kudos to Dustin Sherer for a game well-played. He took what was there -- which was a lot -- and while better passes could probably have resulted in quicker scores, he still made most of the completions.

-Speaking of quicker scores, can you remember a game in which we were on the negative side of the time of possession ledger to such an extent? Poly's ability to grind the ball in modest but consistent increments, and our ability to hit big plays, led to that disparity. I'd rather not see it again.

-My favorite player of this season will probably end up being Allen Langford. That overtime touchdown catch by Barden aside, he played another good game, limiting a receiver with more physical ability with technique and strength. A good guy for Niles Brinkley, Mario Goins, and Aaron Henry to learn from.

-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.

-Too bad so many people missed that ending, either because they left early or never came in the first place. Great game.

-Cal Poly may have been able to finish in the middle of the Big Ten pack this year. Off the top of my head only Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan State, and Iowa are clearly better.

-Football goes to overtime against Cal Poly, basketball against Iona. Eye openers when people see the scores on the Bottom Line, but at least we won.

-We should be in line for a nicer-than-deserved bowl game, but of even greater importance will be the extra practice opportunity. We're losing a lot of guys next season, and the replacements need a lot of work, especially along both lines.

Three wins in a row to close the regular season, and one more game, hopefully against a team we haven't played before or recently. We can all take a deep breath ... and start worrying about the basketball team.

UW-Indiana thoughts

Finally, a nice relaxing Saturday where the Badgers score a comfortable win. Indiana is bad, and the few talented players they do have are hurt or hurting, but we took care of business with a dominant performance.

Six-hundred total yards. Three 100-yard rushers. Fifty-five points. Every last one of those things is important -- it reminds these guys that when they play to their potential, it takes a helluva team to stop them. The Hoosiers were not close to being that team today.

-When did I say David Gilreath isn't fast? He isn't a traditional burner, but on that 90-yard touchdown run he looked plenty fast. Otherwise he was remarkably shifty and efficient, and Indiana remarkably inept, on that end-around Paul Chryst kept calling. The best game of Gilreath's career (that punt return fumble aside), much welcomed.

That 90-yarder was a thing of beauty, from the blocking to Gilreath's inside deke that froze the Indiana DB just enough to let him sprint to the end zone.

-When P.J. Hill is at his best, his dancing results in better-than-expected runs. When his dancing isn't working ... well, that didn't happen today so let's just enjoy it. P.J. was at his best, showing patience, balance, strength, and bust. Two good games in a row, and 1,000 yards is actually within reach for him now.

-Still love what John Clay is bringing to the table. He chews up yardage with his long strides, and he shows great athleticism, like when he hurdled that guy today. The coaches still need to figure out a rotation that works out well for both Clay and Hill. P.J. was in a groove in the first quarter but had only one carry in the second.

-And what about Zach Brown? That fourth down catch he made in the first quarter was important for getting us off on the right foot and ensuring we played with the lead all day. I've never see that route out of our offense; maybe from Brian Calhoun.

-Thank got the Big Ten Network didn't have a better view of Chappell's fumble late in the first half. I thought that a different camera angle might have shown that his knee was down. The play stood, and we never looked back from there. Great play by Jay Valai to force the fumble.

-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?

-Gilreath's first touchdown was called a run, but was actually a pass that turned out to be a lateral. That play earlier was not completed and was a live ball. Better execution would make that a slightly forward pass.

-The backup defensive linemen played well. Dan Moore got a good push. Patrick Butrym made a nice play on a fourth-and-1 stop. Jeff Stehle had a sack late.

-Was it just me, or did Bret Bielema's coat seem like the kind you can get for $10 at Steve and Barry's?

-BTN color analyst Chris Martin was using his full vocabulary today. Particularly impressive was when he described Indiana's wide receivers as "linear" who gave Hoosier quarterbacks a good "catching radius." Huh? I guess most receivers are ... non-linear? And lesser receivers give their quarterbacks ... a catching circumference? Leave it to a Northwestern guy to bring these words to a football broadcast.

-Our kickoffs and kickoff coverage were decidedly mediocre. And what was Mario Goins doing fielding kicks? Let Gilreath handle them all, and block, Mario.

-Other lowlights: Matt Shaughnessy roughing the passer, handing Indiana three points; Dustin Sherer's interception was a terrible pass; a delay of game call after an incomplete pass; 12 men on the field on a late Indiana punt. Thankfully the Hoosiers were bad enough that these weren't critical, but don't let the score fool you, the mistakes are still there.

This win was bittersweet. Again, the opponent was lacking, but it showed that we were capable of overcoming sometimes sloppy play to win in dominating fashion. That hasn't happened much this year.

Now let's keep that Axe!

UW-Iowa thoughts

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."

That sums it up. Because let's face it, this Iowa team that crushed us today is, at best, marginally above average. In this year's Big Ten, that could be enough for a top three finish, but that team has good lines and a good back and not much more.

Right now, that's a lot more than what you need to beat the Badgers.

-I really hate to say "I told you so," especially when it involves the subpar play of an amateur athlete who's out there trying his best. But does anyone still think Dustin Sherer is a better option at quarterback than Allan Evridge? With a couple exceptions, Sherer was pretty bad today. His accuracy was spotty. He locked onto his primary receiver and never seemed to progress from there. He's not mobile. He threw two picks and was a couple inches from throwing four or five.

The offensive line protected reasonably well, and we had receivers open, but the passing game never hit a rhythm today. I thought Scott Tolzien looked better at the end, but circumstances and personnel force you to take that with a grain of salt.

Who should start next week? Right now I'd say Tolzien, but might change my mind in a couple days ... or a couple hours.

-The BTN crew was going on and on about Shonn Greene and touting him as a Heisman candidate, but my mom could have run for 100 yards behind that offensive line today. On most of Greene's successful runs he wasn't touched for what seemed like 10 yards, and while he did show some nice moves and toughness to make everything he could out of those runs, his performance today was a reflection of his line's dominance.

Or our defensive front's ineptness. Forget getting into the backfield and recording tackles for loss. These guys were getting dominated at the point of attack, putting all the pressure on our defensive backs to make saving tackles.

-On Greene's first touchdown run, DeAndre Levy took a bad angle. Greene showed terrific patience, just waiting for our defenders to run themselves out of position to make a play.

On Greene's second touchdown run, he broke about 73 tackles. On his third touchdown run, Shane Carter ran himself to the wrong side of the Iowa blocking wall, and was in no position to even get a hand on Greene. On Greene's fourth TD run, he ran untouched until he was about 15 yards past the line of scrimmage.

Last year the problem on defense was overpursuit and bad angles to the ball. This year it seems to be the opposite problem, guys playing tentatively, then reacting after it's too late. Having never been an effective defensive football player myself, I imagine there's a fine line between the two that you need to hit to be effective. I can't remember another Badger team struggling so much to toe that line.

-John Clay ran fine, but BTN's Chris Martin said his pad level needed to be lower -- good point. Clay's a legit 6-2 and needs to make sure he's hitting linebackers in their stomachs, not their shoulders. Also thought P.J. Hill ran reasonably well until getting hurt. If his ankle was hurt, why was he standing on the sidelines? When I hurt my ankle enough to sit out at noontime hoops, no way I'm standing after that. Unfortunately he's on the verge of complete irrelevance.

-Iowa's tough against the run, but why did we throw the ball 20 times in the first half with a scattershot quarterback making his first start?

-The hang time on Brad Nortman's punts seems to be about a second less than it should be, doesn't it?

-The announcers commented that O'Brien Schofield was late getting on the field for the first play of the second half. After we kicked off. After knowing all of halftime that the first play from scrimmage in the second half would have our defense on the field. This is the stuff that's killing us.

-Josh Oglesby really struggled at tackle today, flat-out whiffing on pass rushers several times and committing at least one penalty. On the other side of the line, Eric Vanden Heuvel played fine, but there was one pass play, a designed swing pass to Zach Brown, where EVH was supposed to get out and block an Iowa cornerback in space, a la Joe Thomas. There's only one Joe Thomas.

-Officiating by no means cost us this game, but I wanted to bring to light two calls that really killed us. The first was a roughing the passer penalty on Jonathan Casillas. From the replays BTN showed, that looked like a horrible call. Iowa scored a couple plays later.

The second was the punt preceding the blocked Nortman punt. The refs got Prince Moody for hitting Andy Brodell after he apparently called fair catch. The replays showed a second or two before Brodell fielded the ball, and I never saw his hand go up. Brodell had to be calling for a fair catch the second the ball left Nortman's foot, or else it would have been caught on camera. He may have gotten his hand up, but I didn't see it. The offsetting penalties nullified what would have been a first down and made us re-kick, and we know what happened next.

-POSITIVE BADGER PLAY ALERT: The first two drives on offense and defense in the second half were solid. And Philip Welch continues to make the placekicking game the least of our concerns. Also thought our cornerbacks played well, or at least they didn't get beat badly today by Iowa's pedestrian quarterbacks and receivers. Sounds like Mario Goins has a concussion, though, hopefully he'll be all right for Illinois. Brown showed a spark late.

-If you would have told me that we'd outgain Iowa 409-375, hold them to 1-of-10 on third down conversions, and go 3-for-3 on field goal attempts, I would have liked our chances.

Where do we go from here? If you're like most of the people who've voted in the poll in the right-hand corner, not to a bowl, that's for sure.

How did you find Badgercentric?

Back in February I took a look at the keywords that led web searchers to this blog. We're up to 5,929 keywords in about 11 months as of September 1, and I thought it might be interesting and funny to look at some of the new additions. Hopefully none are repeats:

#11 Mario Goins and Potrykus
#18 Kurt Reineck (pretty sure you're the only one, buddy!)
#106 Diamond Taylor Packers (huh?)
#142 Sherman and Polzin and Favre
#143 The timing was nothing short of predominant
#286 1993 West Bend East High School state champion baseball team (yay!)
#315 Brian Rafalski Waupaca
#341 Fluffy Fingers
#417 What's on Tappa (my other blog, a health column)
#410 Tom Crean tan
#428 Chad Henne's parents
#649 Michael Flowers Lance Bass (wrong Bass, dude)
#681 Pimped out Cornhole boards (gotta get me one of those)
#914 Faith Hill (you know, because of all the country/western posts)
#960 Jenna Fischer Rentmeester (Billy, you lucky dog!)
#990 Just climb on her and think of Stanley

Tackle leaders vs. Marshall

In reviewing the box score of Saturday's win over Marshall, something really jumped out at me: the tackle chart. Jae McFadden led the way with nine total (four solo, five assisted),but check out who came after:

Dan Moore 3-3-6
Mario Goins 5-0-5
Jeff Stehle 3-1-4
Erik Prather 3-1-4
Jason Chapman 2-2-4
Elijah Hodge 2-2-4
Chris Maragos 3-0-3
Blake Sorensen 2-1-3
Kevin Claxton 2-1-3

Of the top 10 tacklers, only four were starters: McFadden, Goins, Chapman, and Sorensen. It's quite possible that next week, only McFadden and Chapman will be starting. Hodge, Sorensen, and Prather will likely be the second-string linebacking unit starting next week, pretty solid. And Maragos hasn't played as much on defense as I thought he would, seems like Aubrey Pleasant is the first safety off the bench.

Ideally Moore and Stehle use this as a springboard to more meaningful playing time in relief of our regular d-linemen.

My hope is that the tackle chart looks like this after a few more games this season -- it'll mean we had some blowouts. Either that or a rash of injuries.

UW-Marshall halftime thoughts

Similar halftime score to last week, similar feeling of disappointment, but we ended the first half much better than last week.

What an atrocious start, absolutely embarrassing. Give credit to The Marshalls (what Will has been calling them), they played well, but we were awful. 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.

At one point I wrote down "Each play is worse than the last." Then things got better.

-How is their big stiff tight end consistently open? We had struggles keeping up with Akron's tight end last week.

-The first holding call on Maurice Moore was borderline, and helped kill some momentum for us early.

-Niles Brinkley subbed in for Mario Goins at corner and seemed to play better.

-Nice half by Lance Kendricks. Maybe he breaks out a year earlier than I've predicted. (BTW, someone tell Travis Beckum to stop running up and down the sideline so much -- he's sitting out to rest his hamstring, right?) They've done a nice job containing Garrett Graham.

-Allan Evridge wasn't all that sharp on our last touchdown drive, the guys were just extremely wide open. Still, he got the ball where it needed to go. His first pass to Kendricks was very nice.

-The defense has to make a big play here. The pass rush is pressuring this Cann guy, but no sacks.

-Marshall has some great names. Darius Passmore? Best name ever for a wide receiver. Chubb Small? Perfect name for a rapper, or for a guy who got beat up a lot in high school.

-Wanted to point our Andy Kemp and John Moffitt pulling on short-yardage plays again, what a nice dimension to have. Chris Pressley threw a nice block in space on Zach Brown's touchdown run.

-Rough first half for red Big Ten teams against green visiting teams --Ohio State losing to Ohio at halftime? They'll still win by 40.

Season preview

So here we are, perched on another season that could hold big things for the Badgers. Many people are calling for a BCS bowl for UW, and mentioning "Wisconsin" and "national title" in the same sentence, although never throwing "will win the" in between. Ohio State is the clear favorite, but we've seen clear favorites fall before, right?

But from my basement, it doesn't seem like this will be the season Wisconsin will end its Big Ten championship drought. It seems more like a nine-win season that ends in Orlando or Tampa.

The schedule's too tough. The question marks too abundant. The injury bug too vicious.

Of course, the Badgers' schedule and roster have looked less promising in years past and the team has produced big results; 1998 comes to mind. But there's a folly in college sports comparing teams more than a couple years apart. The Badger football program in 2008 is completely different than it was in 1998 — coaching staff, offensive approach, home stadium.

I'm not going to waste bandwidth discussing the well-hashed out keys for the season: quarterback play, secondary inexperience, defensive line injuries, kicking game questions. Here are my two biggest keys for Badger success this season:

The offensive line has to block better. Sounds obvious, right? But it's not. As I wrote earlier this summer, I believe our offensive line has been overrated as a result of many years of producing top-notch blockers and good running games. Recently, the State Journal's Tom Mulhern wrote a good story about the alarming rate at which Badger quarterbacks have been sacked in recent years.

The pieces are in place for this to be a really good line. Kraig Urbik is one of the best guards in the country. Gabe Carimi is an athletic youngster who has the makings of a star. Andy Kemp and Eric Vanden Heuvel have tons of starting experience at guard and tackle. And John Moffitt was promising in his first experience last year.

The offensive line has to be dominant this year. If this line is stellar, everything falls in place: the running game grinds out 4-plus yards per carry, setting up reasonable distances on second and third down; less pressure on Allan Evridge to be anything more than a game manager, more time for him to read defenses and his young receivers to get open; more touchdowns, less field goal attempts for our unproven kickers; scoreless drives ending further up the field, lessening the pressure on a true freshman punter; a decisive edge in time of possession gives the defense rest and makes opposing offenses more predictable.

For all the talk of Ron Dayne and Tom Burke and Brent Moss, the Badgers' Rose Bowl teams of the last two decades have been built around Joe Panos and Cory Raymer and Chris McIntosh and Aaron Gibson. The 12-1 team of 2006 is inexplicably overlooked, but it was led by Joe Thomas. If the 2008 offensive line rises to the occasion, this year can be special.

How will the defense play under Dave Doeren? Like the San Antonio Spurs and Bret Saberhagen, the Badger defense seems to adopt an every-other-year performance schedule. Dominant in 2004 and 2006. Sieve-like in 2005 and 2007. But, as cautioned earlier, past performance means nothing, given the completely new cast of characters.

That said, the defense could be special in 2008. When Bret Bielema came on board in 2004, he gave a jolt of energy to a unit that had gone stale under Kevin Cosgrove. When Mike Hankwitz came in in 2006, his new approach worked well. Can Doeren do the same thing now that he's running things himself?

As much as energy and scheme play into it, it depends on a lot the play of certain individuals. Matt Shaughnessy has to elevate his play beyond the second team all-conference level he's been at the last two years. Deandre Levy and Jonathan Casillas have to make as many big plays as they did in 2006, if not more. Shane Carter has to round out his game and become a better tackler.

Most of the preseason focus on the defense has been on the new guys who need to step in and contribute: Mario Goins, Niles Brinkley, Jay Valai, Jae McFadden. Their play is important, undoubtedly — if any of those guys are terrible and suitable replacements aren't found, the defense is in trouble.

But to me, the key is more our good players playing great. If Shaughnessy, Casillas, Levy, et al are spectacular, the newbies' warts won't be as visible.

So in a nutshell, I think it is more important that our good players perform at a great level than it is for our unproven players to perform at an acceptable level. If the first happens, the second will be a natural byproduct.

Big Ten Network: More Polzin please!

Tonight Jim Polzin, who in my opinion is one of the top three Badger football beat writers, made his debut appearance on the Big Ten Network. He briefly answered the host's question about what Bret Bielema will be looking for Saturday against Akron, touching on new cornerbacks Mario Goins and Niles Brinkley.

In our house the program was pre-empted by Barack Obama's acceptance speech, but we watched Big Ten Tonight right afterward. My wife, an avowed Obamaniac, was considerably more excited to see Jim. Looks like we have another Polziniac on board.

Here's hoping BTN viewers get a steady diet of Jim (heh heh) throughout the course of the season. The good news is it seems Time Warner and Comcast are breaking down and carrying BTN. Because you don't want to miss the Akron game!

We're talkin' about practice

Over the weekend I was able to record the Big Ten Network's broadcast of a Badger football practice, which appears to have aired about two weeks ago. Allan Evridge hadn't yet been named the starter, and Jonathan Casillas wasn't hurt yet.

Missed the first half-hour, but was able to catch the 11-on-11 red zone drills, which was fun. Some observations from that:

-Kyle Jefferson had two pretty bad drops, including one in the end zone, and drew some pretty sharp criticism from Bret Bielema ("That's weak Kyle!"). Gotta make those catches Kyle!

-Zach Brown had a nice catch, as well as a nice touchdown run from a Spread-type formation.

-O'Brien Schofield ran a nice stunt to come clean on a pass rush. It would be nice if this kid gave us 5-6 sacks this season, because my sense is he's seen as a placeholder for now.

-David Gilreath made a nice catch on a ball thrown behind him.

-Overall Evridge looked pretty good, didn't have any critical errors and his passes were generally on target.

-Dustin Sherer did not look good. He threw a terrible pass in the end zone that Mario Goins picked off. Sherer did, however, come right back with a nice pass to Garrett Graham.

-John Clay ran well, but it was three other things he did that stood out: he looked confident on a blitz pickup, made a nice catch out of the backfield, and chipped on a pass rusher on his way into a passing route. These were not things he was asked to do in high school, but are so important in earning him playing time this year.

-Mickey Turner lined up at fullback with the second string in some formations. He's a pretty versatile blocker.

-BTN showed a lengthy clip of what, as far as I can tell, was P.J. Hill and some other Badgers talking about what they were eating. Riveting stuff. As has been reported elsewhere, P.J.'s body looks better than I remember it.

By the way, there's a new line from Bodog on how many yards and touchdowns P.J. is going to run for this year: the over-under on yards is 1,075, touchdowns is 13-1/2. I'll take the over on yards, the under on touchdowns.

-Gerry DiNardo and Howard Griffith were talking about the linebacker position, and how the Badger defense is built to defend the Spread. Really? I suppose so, but let's start seeing that come to fruition with some killer performances against Spread teams.

-On a similar note, Bielema told the crew that he thought with so many Spread offenses used nowadays, running a traditional offense gives Wisconsin an edge. Who prepares to face a fullback or two tight ends nowadays? Good point. His other valid point was that the Badger defense doesn't see actual Spread much during practice.

-DiNardo sees nine wins for the Badgers, Griffith 10. Both see a January bowl for the team (USC and West Virginia are the only other teams in college football to play in January bowls in each of the last four years). I don't know, it all looks good on paper, but something isn't quite sitting right with me.

We'll see.

Breaking down the depth chart

Bret Bielema announced the Badgers' opening day depth chart last week, and here's what it looks like. Not many surprises, but a few things I feel compelled to comment on.

Offense
Quarterback
4 Allan Evridge, 6-2, 212, Sr.
18 Dustin Sherer, 6-4, 213, Jr.

Again, feeling strangely confident in Evridge. What might hold him back is not his performance, but the inexperience of his receiving corps, although we have arguably the best group of tight ends in the country.

Tailback
39 P.J. Hill, 5-11, 236, Jr.
30 Zach Brown, 5-11, 207, So.

Is John Clay #3, or is Bradie Ewing? I really hope it doesn't matter.

Fullback
44 Chris Pressley, 6-1, 259, Sr.
34 Bill Rentmeester, 6-1, 248, Sr.

Sounds like Pressley's going to miss the opener with a broken finger. Doesn't matter much, as long as we can run out of two-tight end sets, as I think we can.

Wide Receiver
85 David Gilreath, 5-11, 165, So.
1 Nick Toon, 6-3, 214, Fr. OR
13 Daven Jones, 6-1, 200, So.

Wide Receiver
3 Maurice Moore, 5-11, 167, So. OR
7 Kyle Jefferson, 6-5, 175, So.
6 Issac Anderson, 5-11, 176, So.

Right now, this looks like the weakest group of Badger wide receivers since 2002, when Lee Evans' injury forced Jonathan Orr, Brandon Williams and Darrin Charles into prominent roles prematurely. Then again, two years ago I might have said the same thing about Luke Swan and Paul Hubbard. If Jefferson becomes the big-play guy he can be, and Gilreath becomes the slippery underneath guy a la Williams, they'll be fine.

H-Back
9 Travis Beckum, 6-4, 235, Sr.
84 Lance Kendricks, 6-4, 227, So.

Tight End
89 Garrett Graham, 6-4, 237, Jr.
36 Mickey Turner, 6-4, 252, Jr.

Really like what this group can do.

Left Tackle
68 Gabe Carimi, 6-8, 301, So.
78 Jake Bscherer, 6-7, 294, Jr.

Left Guard
75 Andy Kemp, 6-6, 315, Sr.
60 Jake Current, 6-4, 278, Fr. OR
66 Peter Konz, 6-6, 300, Fr.

Center
74 John Moffitt, 6-4, 323, So.
76 Bill Nagy, 6-4, 300, So.

Right Guard
63 Kraig Urbik, 6-6, 332, Sr.
70 Kevin Zeitler, 6-4, 285, Fr.

Right Tackle
71 Eric Vanden Heuvel, 6-7, 324, Sr.
67 Josh Oglesby, 6-7, 328, Fr.

Three true freshmen on the two-deep, as well as a redshirt freshman in Oglesby. I don't see a big drop-off in the line next season.

Defense
Left End
50 O’Brien Schofield, 6-3, 232, Jr.
45 Dan Moore, 6-2, 280, Jr. OR
97 Brendan Kelly, 6-6, 230, Fr.

Left Tackle
91 Jason Chapman, 6-4, 285, Sr.
95 Patrick Butrym, 6-4, 264, Fr.

Right Tackle
54 Mike Newkirk, 6-3, 264, Sr.
79 Jeff Stehle, 6-6, 290, Jr.

Right End
92 Matt Shaughnessy, 6-6, 253, Sr.
99 Kirk DeCremer, 6-5, 230, So. OR
93 Louis Nzegwu, 6-3, 228, Fr.

Sam Linebacker
11 DeAndre Levy, 6-3, 228, Sr.
42 Erik Prather, 6-3, 227, Jr.

Mike Linebacker
47 Jaevery McFadden, 6-3, 220, Jr.
15 Culmer St. Jean, 6-1, 228, So.

Elijah Hodge isn't even on the two-deep. After his brother's outstanding career at Iowa, he was one recruit I was really excited to get, second only to Beckum in that recruiting class. But he couldn't beat out St. Jean, who was no world beater last year, and McFadden, who doesn't appear to be the second coming of Mike Singletary. Hopefully he can still pull it together and contribute in his last two seasons.

Will Linebacker
2 Jonathan Casillas, 6-2, 226, Sr.
27 Blake Sorensen, 6-1, 217, So.

Sounds like Casillas won't play against Akron, and I would bet he's not on the field much against Marshall. We're going to need him against Fresno, though.

Left Cornerback
23 Mario Goins, 6-1, 186, Fr.
7 Aaron Henry, 6-0, 191, So. OR
26 Antonio Fenelus, 5-10, 175, Fr.

Interesting to see Fenelus's name here, didn't count on him being in the mix so early in his career. I like Goins' size.

Strong Safety
12 Jay Valai, 5-9, 197, So.
8 Aubrey Pleasant, 6-1, 198, Jr.

Free Safety
25 Shane Carter, 6-2, 202, Jr.
21 Chris Maragos, 6-0, 189, Jr.

Right Cornerback
17 Allen Langford, 5-11, 189, Sr. OR
29 Niles Brinkley, 5-10, 177, So.

Special Teams
Punter
98 Brad Nortman, 6-3, 215, Fr.

Placekicker
96 Matt Fischer, 5-11, 179, Jr. OR
18 Philip Welch, 6-3, 190, Fr.

Long Snapper
81 Dave Peck, 6-5, 246, Sr.
57 Drew Woodward, 6-4, 228, Jr.

Holder
21 Chris Maragos, 6-0, 189, Jr.
98 Brad Nortman, 6-3, 215, Fr.

Punt Returners
85 David Gilreath, 5-11, 165, So.
3 Maurice Moore, 5-11, 167, So.

Kickoff Returners
85 David Gilreath, 5-11, 165, So.
3 Maurice Moore, 5-11, 167, So.

If Gilreath and Moore are indeed our starting receivers, that's not a lot of beef out there. Jefferson's no sumo wrestler, either. Weight and strength are not necessarily a prerequisite for success at the position, but they certainly help beating jams and in the running game.

Finally: what's with all these "ORs" that started popping up on the depth chart a couple years ago. It's a two-deep, not a three-deep — make up your mind and pick someone!

Badger-related Family Day thoughts

Most of Jana's shots from Family Day were of her immediate family, but here are a few other random shots from the day. Comments below.

-Jay Valai is a real ham. If you haven't seen them, he's been interviewing his teammates for a uwbadgers.com in a feature called Man-to-Man. Read Monday that he wants to become a broadcaster after he's done playing. He looks like a natural, and a fun kid to be around.

-Then I saw Aubrey Pleasant, last year's starter at strong safety, and the guy who it appears Valai (or maybe Chris Maragos) will supplant. As I watched him sign autographs for kids, I wondered what it must feel like to be such a public candidate to be replaced at your position. I suppose all you can do is keep plugging away and contribute however possible. Hopefully Pleasant will still be a contributor this year.

-Most of the starters were seated at tables and signing autographs for people, something we didn't do because what the hell is Will going to do with an autograph? Two who weren't were Niles Brinkley and Mario Goins, who could be our starting cornerbacks against Akron. Good things have been written about their play lately, which along with two bottles of Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat is helping me sleep at night.

-As noted Monday, Will and I met Kyle Jefferson, who got off to such a great start last season as a true freshman but whose play leveled off and who has had the drops in camp. We need him to be a producer this year.

-Some guy, #87 with "Watt" on the back of his jersey was active playing catch with kids and seemed to really be enjoying himself. Big guy, good build, never heard of him. Read Monday in a couple different places that he's a transfer from Central Michigan named J.J. Watt who will play defensive end for us. Apparently he's a 6-6, 265-pound Pewaukee native who has looked really good in practice and could probably have contributed this season had he not been ineligible because of transfer rules.

-Backup quarterback James Stallons is skinny, Jim Sorgi skinny. Freshman punter Brad Nortman is big, for a punter. Defensive end Louis Nzegwu seemed smaller than the 6-3 he's listed at, probably because he was letting his hair go. Defensive end Brendan Kelly, who had some nice things written about him last week, is built well for a true freshman.

-Bradie Ewing, the walk-on freshman running back everyone's been raving about, has a solid build, thick calves (running backs coach John Settle says he's pushing Johnny Clay for the #3 spot, interesting). Wide receiver Isaac Anderson is tiny. JUCO defensive end Dan Moore is solid, looks taller than his listed 6-2 but lighter than his listed 280 - maybe 6-3, 265, still plenty big to play defensive line.

-The biggest celebrity sighting I had was of Cap Times sports editor Adam Mertz, who at first didn't recognize the sweaty, Field Turf-covered bald guy calling his name from the Camp Randall turf. Mertzy was there with Rob Hernandez of the State Journal promoting Badger Beat, a Cap Times-State Journal joint Badger coverage web venture coming soon. Looking forward to it.

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.

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.

Better get back on the field, P.J.

There's been a lot written lately about the Badgers' running back situation: Lance Smith will play in the Outback Bowl, P.J. Hill is still hurt/now he's feeling better, Zach Brown was impressive late in the season, John Clay has looked good in bowl practices, Quincy Landingham is transferring.

The Journal Sentinel published a story that is as pointed as any thus far, particularly the headline: "Hill Losing Ground - Backups Show Promise." In it, running backs coach John Settle says, "I try to be sensitive to the fact he did have a serious injury," running backs coach John Settle said. "But once you go through all the tests and it's negative ... you've got to go."

Wow, challenge issued. My initial reaction to reading this quote is that P.J. Hill is not a wuss - you don't reach the level of football he has reached, playing a physically demanding position, without a high degree of toughness. This seems like one of those scenarios you see in a football movie: the guy is hurt and the coach tells the trainer to stick him with a huge needle so he can play even though it's going to be to his long-term detriment. You hope your favorite program doesn't do that.

Then again, put yourself in John Settle's shoes. The tests show P.J. isn't hurt any more, at least not to the extent he was, and since he's still the most proven entity in your backfield, you'd like to nudge him back on the field and play through it.

It reminds me of a time in seventh grade when I missed two games in the St. John's basketball tournament with a bad ear infection. (I was our second-leading scorer, and in one of the games I missed our top scorer, David Holton, scored all 37 of our team's points.) My coaches later said they would never have missed a game for that reason. But if I had played, my health was so bad I would have been mostly useless. P.J. probably feels the same way, only unlike me, he looks out at the field and sees capable replacements.

This is at least the second time the coaching staff has publicly called P.J. out like this (we all remember the "get tough pills" comments from BB last season), and I hope it was the desired effect - helping him get back on the field quicker, not straining his relationship with his coaches. Because P.J. Hill at 90% is still better than 90% of the backs in the country at 100%.

-Caught Bielema's TV show Wednesday afternoon on the Big Ten Network. At the end he fielded a question about which young players had impressed him during bowl practices. Good question, but the answer was too wide-ranging: Clay, OL Josh Oglesby, WR Nick Toon (right), DE Patrick Butrym, DE Louis Nzegwu, LB Kevin Rouse, LB Blake Sorensen, DB Mario Goins, and DB Otis Merrill.

Yeah, that narrows it down to just about every scholarship true freshman who didn't see action this season (except Sorensen, who had a very nice year). Still, even though Bielema's answer wasn't terribly enlightening, it got me excited for next year and the stars and contributors of tomorrow - one of the best things about college sports. Last week ajs mentioned the spring game, and I think I'm going to try to make it down this year - if only they still had it the same weekend as Crazylegs.