Academic All-Big Ten Badgers

Let's step away from the field for a moment and give credit to to the Badger football players who earned academic All-Big Ten honors:

Zach Brown, Gabe Carimi, Nate Emanuel, Bradie Ewing, Antonio Fenelus, Matthew Groff, Will Hartmann, Jordan Hein, Aaron Henry, Tyler Holland, Peter Konz, Andrew Lukasko, Prince Moody, Brad Nortman, Chukwuma Offor, Curt Phillips, Devin Smith, Blake Sorensen, Scott Tolzien, Mickey Turner, J.J. Watt, Drew Woodward.

That's eight starters, five key reserves, and a smattering of special teams contributors. Nice work in the classroom, fellas!

UW-Indiana halftime thoughts

You know me: it's tough to be satisfied with the halftime score when we should be up something like 31-7 or even 31-0. Indiana is every bit as unimpressive as Purdue was last week, but the fact that this game isn't over yet is an indication of just how well we played last week and how flawed we've been today.

-Seems like it's time to get David Gilreath off returns for a game or two, it's clearly not working for him this year. That fumble couldn't be blamed on blocking.

-Scott Tolzien started shaky, the touchdown pass to Isaac Anderson notwithstanding, but got better. Of course, that's when Garrett Graham and Anderson got the dropsies, pissed away our great field position, and led to Indiana's second touchdown.

-We should be running the ball up the ball every play. John Moffitt had a terrific block on John Clay's first long run. On Clay's touchdown run, Kevin Zeitler had a nice initial combo block with Peter Konz, then moved on to the linebacker and Clay ran into the end zone untouched.

-Did you notice O'Brien Schofield and Chris Maragos make the play on kickoff coverage? I like the move to play our best guys on special teams.

-What an athletic play by Maragos on that pick. Bad decision and pass by Ben Chappell, but Maragos showed his old wide receiver skills to haul the pass in.

-This is the best Montee Ball has looked thus far, although it's probably just because the blocking is better.

-Indiana's pass defense really is horrible, our guys are wide open consistently. And yet their run defense appears to be worse.

-Interesting that we've only see the end around once so far, to Gilreath. After last year's success with this play against IU, and last week's success with Kendricks running it, you'd have expected to see it more. But that's probably what makes Paul Chryst such a good offensive coordinator.

-Around the conference, I see Iowa is losing at halftime, undoubtedly setting them up for yet another second half comeback that analysts can hyperventilate about.

-Finally, another shoutout to our rookie of the year, Chris Borland. He makes tackles for loss, stops runners short of the sticks, returns kickoffs into the other team's territory. What an awesome find by the coaching staff, can't wait to see him get better and better during his time in Madison.

Let's step on their necks early in the second half. They've had success attacking Niles Brinkley, it would be nice to not let that snowball.

Line not offensive at all

After thinking about it, I thought the offensive line played perhaps its best game of the year against Michigan State. The first two series were rocky (Jim Polzin reported that John Moffitt offered reporters $15 not to mention his early whiffs, funny stuff), but after that the play was really solid. We ran the ball effectively against what was by far the best run defense we've faced this year, and Scott Tolzien was given time to throw.

The interesting thing is, that wasn't the offensive line as it was projected at the beginning of fall camp. In fact, only the starting tackles were as projected. As far as I could tell, the line shaped up like this:

LT: Gabe Carimi
LG: John Moffitt
C: Peter Konz
RG: Kevin Zeitler
RT: Josh Oglesby

His camp injury aside, Carimi is a given, although the hold he was called for against MSU was pretty ugly. The fact that Oglesby has been largely unmentioned thus far can only be seen as a positive. The quality of competition he's going to face is about to getting dramatically better, hopefully he's built up enough confidence to play well against the likes of Ohio State and Iowa.

The interior spots are most interesting, though. Apparently Jake Bscherer has settled into a career as a backup. Is Travis Frederick healthy enough to go, or has Konz just played well enough to keep him on the bench? Same goes for Bill Nagy and Zeitler at right guard.

Tough to say. Without extensive video review it's often hard to determine the effectiveness of individual interior linemen. But it seems clear that Bob Bostad has about eight starting-caliber linemen at his disposal. Even better, not one of these linemen is a senior. As well as the offense has played so far, it's not a stretch to say that with just about everyone scheduled to return next year, the Badgers' 2010 offense could be one of the best we've had.

Scoreboard watching

Wednesday night I was watching some show on the Big Ten Network where Dave Revsine was interviewing John Clay. The theme of the show seemed to be breaking down plays on film, a la Ron Jaworski, although the level of analysis does not reach Jaws'.

Revsine asked Clay to break down his lon touchdown run against Fresno State, and John didn't have much to say. Because, basically, John took the handoff, ran through a huge hole, and then ran faster than anyone on the Bulldogs' defense.

He did say, though, that he looked up at the Jumbotron in the north end zone at Camp Randall, saw himself slowing down, and veered off a bit to keep separation. I'd read stories about guys doing that, but never a player at Camp Randall. I laughed, thinking about how far we've come in such a relatively short period of time. When we were in school, the most sophisticated use of the scoreboard was the animated "check your drink for bees" and "block that kick" prompts.

As for tomorrow's game, I'm looking forward to it. Wofford apparently runs the option, which was my favorite offense as a young college football fan in the 1980s. I loved Oklahoma under Barry Switzer. Jamelle Holieway was my favorite player; when I played football in backyard or a nearby park, I was him or Jerry Rice. When he got hurt in 1987, I was crushed. In art class that year, I drew a picture of him standing, with crutches, on the sidelines of the Nebraska game.

OK, too much information ...

Anyway, the option is fun to watch, but it's got to be a bitch to defend. With all the ball fakes and sleight of hand, you've really got to watch close, as Cal Poly showed us last year. So, you ask, why does Tappa love the option but hate the Spread, which employs many of the same principals? Easy: the option combines precision and athleticism with an emphasis on road-grading lines and power.

That said, if Wofford comes into Madison and pulls off the upset, I will rip up my Jamelle Holieway drawing and never try to run the Wishbone on Madden '95 ever again. They appear to be missing their best running back, but I'm guessing they have similar players to plug in.

On our side, I want to see us run for at least 300 yards. Scott Tolzien's passing proficiency thus far this year has been a pleasant surprise, but if we're going to win in the Big Ten, we've got to get back to Wisconsin football, anchored on offense by the run game. Hopefully John Moffitt will be back at center, but I'm not counting on it. Travis Frederick or Peter Konz are fine fill-ins, but we need Moffitt to beat Big Ten teams, and he needs to get some game work before Michigan State.

Defensively, I see O'Brien Schofield having a bunch of big hits in this one, even if some of them come on Wofford's quarterback shortly after he pitches the ball. The key in this one will be our linebacker play, let's see how disciplined those guys are.

Wisconsin-Fresno State thoughts

Very satisfied with the Badgers' win, lots to like. And, once again, lots on which to improve.

But let's focus on the former.

-The defense looked horrible in the first half, but the kids rallied to play a great second half and make big plays in overtime. Also give Dave Doeren for making appropriate adjustments.

-O'Brien Schofield was outstanding again, in the backfield a lot. He's playing at a much higher level than I anticipated thus far this season.

-Great play, of course, by Chris Maragos on the interception at the start of the second overtime. Fresno's quarterback, as noted earlier, had a lot of air under his throws all day, and it came back to hurt him there. Our defensive backs certainly struggled, but also made a few huge plays that they can hopefully build on.

-At one point it seemed like Johnny Clay's long touchdown run was going to be the story of the day. And it still might be. Our running game was punchless to that point, and Clay gave it a jolt. It reminded me of the first time I saw him, in the 2005 state championship game, when he busted out several runs like that against Wisconsin Rapids. It didn't look like he was running that fast, but nobody caught him.

-Another solid performance for Scott Tolzien. He had another play where he hung in against the blitz and converted a third down. Most importantly: no interceptions. No Curt Phillips, which was the sensible strategy given how important every possession was.

-Really like what Nick Toon is doing this season, most of his catches seem to come in important situations, not just that touchdown catch in overtime.

-We didn't seem to blitz as much as last week, wonder why.

-Boy, I hope our offensive line is healthy for the start of Big Ten play. Good for Peter Konz for holding his own after Travis Frederick went down, though.

-I thought Fresno would go for two after scoring the touchdown in the first overtime. Pat Hill, after all, is an eccentric genius of a coach. Don't know if you've heard this before, but his motto is "Anyone, anytime, anywhere." It's unbelievable that this guy doesn't have a WAC title to his name.

-My favorite moment of the game had nothing to do with the outcome of a play. There was a pass play to the perimeter where one of our guys made a tackle, and Jay Valai came up and decleated a Fresno lineman. That was 5-9, 201-pound Jay Valai absolutely blowing up 6-2, 280-pound Joe Bernardi. The hit adds to Valai's rep as a big hitter, and Bernardi will be embarrassed when that replay is shown.

-Michigan State loses to Central Michigan at home, maybe that game isn't as imposing as it looked eight days ago.

It's too nice outside to stay on the computer any longer, will think about this some more later. Happy to be 2-0, can't take Wofford too lightly. Seriously.

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.