Shelby Harris

While feeding Charlie at 3 a.m. Monday night, I had a chance to watch the Division 1 state champoinship game between Hartland Arrowhead and Homestead. The two teams were meeting for the third straight year ... yawn. Much better game than the last two, however, and Homestead pulled out the win.

I focused in on Wisconsin recruit Shelby Harris, same as I did with Big Foot's Travis Frederick last week. Let me tell you: watching one lineman for an entire game and not focusing on the ball is both difficult and tedious.

But it was revealing. As with Frederick, in Harris I saw an athletic big body who did not exactly dominate, but showed flashes of how he did dominate against lesser teams, and how he could be a contributor at the college level.

Harris looks like a defensive end. It seems like I've read in places that he's a defensive tackle prospect, but he's not built that way, and the pad level he plays at is better suited for end. He played off blocks well. Arrowhead often attempted to cut block him on runs to the opposite side, but he showed good footwork to avoid those type of blocks. He's quick.

At times he was overwhelmed by Arrowhead's linemen, especially by double teams. This is forgivable, as Arrowhead has some really big boys up front. If he ends up at end in college, he won't see double teams like that, but in high school he's one of the biggest kids and has to play inside. He pursued plays well, but didn't seem to have a thirst for contact like some kids have. Even so, he had some nice hits.

Another impressive player in the game was Arrowhead kicker Jeff Budzien. Apparently we're not recruiting him, and I'm not sure why. Philip Welch had a nice freshman season, but as Cal Poly would tell you, you can never have enough good kickers.

Two other notes of local interest to me:

Waupaca won the Division 3 title with an exciting win over Reedsburg. I'm told that Wisconsin is interested in Comets quarterback Brock Jensen as a walk-on. Brock did most of his damage in the title game running the option, and he's a nice athlete, but he also put up some great passing numbers this year and showed a decent arm in Madison. We've got Jon Budmayr coming in at that spot, and are happy with him, but it would be cool to see a local kid end up in Madison.

The player of the game for Waupaca against Reedsburg was Mike Solberg, a tough running back who also assisted on a big tackle on the Beavers' two-point conversion late. Solberg looked like every bit the prospect Bradie Ewing is. He and Jensen will probably have plenty of offers from Division II and III colleges, but the allure of suiting up for the Badgers has to be strong.

Langford, Graham named All-Big Ten

Congrats to Allen Langford and Garrett Graham, who were named All-Big Ten on Monday. Especially Langford, who was one of the few bright spots in an otherwise dreary season.

Always playing second fiddle to Jack Ikegwuonu, Langford was the less physically gifted of the two cornerbacks in his class, but he consistently received praise for his technique and grit. Then he blew out his knee last year, robbing him of the little speed he had. All he did was respond with a near-flawless senior season, leading the conference with 11 passes defended in league play. Seldom was he embarrassed in coverage. Good for him.

Graham probably didn't have the season he would have wished for, but he still led Big Ten tight ends in receiving. He should do some great things next year.

Also receiving all-conference honors were linebacker Jonathan Casillas, honorable mention; defensive lineman Jason Chapman, honorable mention; wide receiver David Gilreath, second team; running back P.J. Hill, honorable mention; guard Andy Kemp, honorable mention; linebacker DeAndre Levy, honorable mention; defensive tackle Mike Newkirk, second team; fullback Chris Pressley, sportsmanship award honoree; defensive end Matt Shaughnessy, honorable mention; guard Kraig Urbik, second etam; safety Jay Valai, second team; tackle Eric Vanden Heuvel, honorable mention; kicker Philip Welch, honorable mention.

Tell you what, that's a lot of honors for a team that went 3-5 in the conference.

Newkirk overachieved this year, he finished fourth on the team in tackles and led with eight tackles for loss. If Shaughnessy was honorable mention -- and that's about what he deserved -- then O'Brien Schofield should have been, too, he had 7.5 tackles for loss and led the team with five sacks. Loved the energy Valai brought to the defense, even if didn't always seem to rub off. And what about Niles Brinkley? He led the team with four interceptions and had nine pass breakups.

UConn's tough

Not much shame in losing to UConn, that team is tough. They have some flaws -- they appear to play a little bit out of control at times, and I'm not sure they have enough outside shooting to get through the season unscathed, especially in the Huge East -- but with those guards and that size and muscle up front, they're as good a bet as anyone to be the team that denies Carolina the national championship.

I didn't realize the game was televised until a couple minutes into the second half. The Badgers were making a nice run at the time, and had a chance to close to within one point on a Krabby free throw ... when Landry fell into the lane prematurely. Ugh.

After that it got ugly quickly. UConn's press really took us out of our game in the second half, and we ended up with something like 20 turnovers. Jordan Taylor looked like a freshman and was overwhelmed, but the other guys weren't too great against it, either.

My player of the game: Rob Wilson, for continuing to attack Hasheem Thabeet. He showed some guts charging the lane and drawing two fouls. I think there's a role for Wilson this season, just not sure exactly what it is yet.

Keaton Nankivil played well, the only Wisconsin player in double digits. When he went out with foul trouble, we got our answer about how Bo will line 'em up against big teams -- no one taller than Landry, who looked like a point guard standing next to Thabeet.

A little worried about J-Bo, who was 2-for-8 from the field. That's understandable, given the Huskies' guards, but he looked shaky on his free throws and missed both.

UWM's up next, and they shouldn't be quite as challenging as UConn.

Nice win for the hoops team

Looks like a convincing win over San Diego last night at the Paradise Jam. Honestly, I thought this was a game that we would probably lose, SD being a tournament team last year with all its starters back.

Followed as much of it as I could on the uwbadgers.com in-game blog, which is well done, I recommend following the action there is you can't watch or listen to a game.

Looks like another big game for Pop, with 22 points, 8-for-13 from the field, looks like he's really picking up his game. A number of other solid performances too --Nankivil with eight points, four boards; Jarmusz with eight points and a buncha floor burns; Landry with nine points and nine boards. J-Bo is struggling with his shot, missing two free throws in the OT win over Iona and going 2-for-10 from the field against San Diego.

Chance for a signature win tonight against UConn, although I think it's a long shot. That's a damn talented team. A.J. Price is going to be a great test for Pop. We don't have an obvious answer for Hasheem Thabeet, but this might be a chance for Ian Markolf to get some minutes, or for Jared Berggren to take off the red shirt.

Sunday morning thoughts: Graham Harrell a Badger?

Texas Tech did get embarrassed last night by Oklahoma, but anyone who's seen the Raiders play this year has to be impressed by Graham Harrell. The other day I was reading Sports Illustrated, a story about all the great quarterbacks in the Big 12, and it casually mentioned that coming out of high school Harrell chose Tech over, among several other schools, Wisconsin.

Really?!?

Seeing how he's thrived in Mike Leach's pass-happy offense, it's hard to see how Harrell would have ever considered playing for the Badgers. Maybe the fact that we have more quarterbacks in the NFL than Tech is a bigger drawing card than we think!

But imagine Harrell had ended up in Madison for his college ball. It's not a stretch to think that we'd be in contention for a BCS bowl today, warts and all. I'll go into it more later, but looking back on this season, it's apparent that subpar quarterback play sparked the negative momentum that snowballed mid-season and threatened to turn it into an outright disaster. Thankfully Dustin Sherer and the receivers have improved to the point where this year has just been disappointing, ending in a bowl game but not the one we'd hoped for.

Again, though, imagine if Graham Harrell had been slinging balls for Paul Chryst's offense for these past few years ...

Big Ten thoughts:

1. Penn State. They deserve to be ranked higher nationally.

2. Iowa. This one's shocking to me, kudos to Kirk Ferentz for turning the program around after several years of decline. Let's see if they can keep it up.

3. Ohio State. To me, they don't deserve a BCS bowl bid, but I'm hoping they get it to improve our holiday destination.

4. Michigan State. Never a legitimate contender, shouldn't have beaten us, but in a break from the past, they stopped beating themselves and took care of business on a regular basis. Too bad we couldn't say the same about ourselves.

5. Northwestern.

6. Wisconsin. Hard to believe that ending up middle of the pack would be okay, but given how we were feeling about things after that Michigan State loss, I'll take it.

7. Minnesota. Does Brew really have them on the right track, or did they just get back to where they were under Glen Mason: padding their record against a weak non-conference schedule, beating the conference's weaklings, and winning a game or two they shouldn't have.

8. Illinois. This was the Goofs' signature win, remember? The one that had fans lobbying Joel Maturi to extend Brew's contract -- against a team that finished 5-7. The Illini arguably underachieved even more than we did this season, which has to be disconcerting for their fans considering the Zooker's track record. That much talent shouldn't lose seven games.

9. Purdue. Not the fate Joe Tiller deserved, he made that program relevant again and invigorated Big Ten offenses.

10. Michigan. Did you see where Rich Rodriguez said he didn't realize Michigan had so little talent coming back and if he had, he might not have taken the job? Way to throw your players under the bus, jerk! Add that to the fact Michigan didn't seem to do its homework regarding Red Wristband's buyout from West Virginia, and you have a stunningly comprehensive lack of due diligence for a high profile job opening. Hopefully these bad vibes continue for RichRod.

11. Indiana. Guess they didn't defend The Rock very well this year, whatever that is.

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.

We should be worried about Cal Poly

As I write this, the poll in the upper left says 20 yes, 17 no. Frankly, I just can't understand the 17 no votes. Have you seen these Badgers play this year? Sure, they're capable of lining up and going toe-to-toe with Ohio State and completely outplaying Michigan State. They're also capable of turning the ball over like it's covered with jelly and committing penalties like they have stock in Yellow Flag Corp.

Besides that, Cal Poly appears to be a helluva tough opponent. I can't wait to see what they do. Apparently they run the Wishbone but throw the ball to a 6-6 dude who is probably the best wideout we'll face this year, and do it to the tune of almost 50 points per game.

Even after reading multiple accounts of their defensive style, I have no idea what their scheme is going to look like. It is supposedly good at stopping the run but vulnerable against the pass. We'll see if the Badgers can exploit that. Last week's performances by Isaac Anderson and Nick Toon were encouraging, and bet on Garrett Graham bouncing back from a subpar showing.

And let's not abandon the notion that we can pound these guys on the ground. They may give up less than 100 yards rushing per game, but they haven't faced an offensive line or running backs like ours.

There have been stories written about the potential for this game to be a real dud from an atmosphere standpoint. Some have even referenced our game at Indiana two weeks ago -- come on, there's no comparison. It would be a shame if Badger fans didn't give this Senior Day the respect others get; for all the disappointments this season has brought, these seniors have given us a ton of great memories over their four years and they deserve one last triumphant bow.

Wisconsin 41, Cal Poly 36

Travis Frederick

It's state championship time for Wisconsin high school football, always a fun time of year if you're a fan. Tonight UW recruit Travis Frederick and Walworth Big Foot are playing against Wautoma in the Division 4 title game at Camp Randall, and I watched the first half.

Couldn't get a great gauge on the guy. He looks bigger than the other kids, but since most of the linemen are bundled up everyone looks a little bigger than usual. He seems to be pretty mobile, and Big Foot likes to get him pulling and blocking downfield. Problem is, Wautoma's defense is pretty quick and oftentimes the play flowed right and Frederick was downfield looking for someone to block while the ball carrier was getting blocked. Whenever he does engage a defender he gets the job done convincingly. He's listed as 6-5, 310, but he looks a little shorter than that, and I see him fitting in at guard or center.

I'm recording tomorrow's Division 1 game tomorrow, which for the third straight year features Homestead vs. Arrowhead. Defensive line recruit Shelby Harris plays for Homestead, I'm hoping for big things from him. And don't forget about Waupaca, which plays Reedsburg at 10 a.m. in the Division 3 title game.

One last note on the Division 4 game: When Schwib and I were in Oshkosh, Wautoma was in our coverage area. If memory serves, in 2000 they tried to drop their football program but the school board didn't let them. To go from the brink of extinction to the state title game in less than a decade is pretty incredible.

Christmas in Detroit?

Are we getting ahead of ourselves in regard to bowl destinations? InTom Oates' column following our win over Minnesota on Saturday he had a good line about Phoenix being 32 degrees warmer than Detroit in December. Which naturally makes the Insight Bowl a more attractive destination than the Motor City Bowl.

At first blush, I'd agree, but ...

-As the Journal Sentinel notes, we aren't guaranteed a bowl berth, even though we're bowl-eligible. A win over Cal Poly on Saturday would do the trick, but that's a really good team and far from a sure thing for us.

-In that Oates column Chris Pressley says:

• "I'll go anywhere, but I don't really want to go to Detroit," fullback Chris Pressley said. "I want to go somewhere warm."
  

The talk around the breakfast table at the Polzin house Sunday morning was that we're in no position to badmouth any potential bowl destination. Some day -- perhaps even this year -- going to Detroit will be our only option, and I sure as hell would rather go to Detroit than go to no bowl game. Implying that we're too good for any bowl game is arrogant, and I don't want our program to be in that spot.

(I actually don't think that's what Pressley is implying, it probably is just as simple as wanting to be warm.)

Detroit wouldn't be so bad. We'd take the whole family, get to see Jana's family, etc. Can't imagine many Badger fans share my feelings.

UW-Edwardsville thoughts

Can't tell too much about this game given the competition, but you have to like how we didn't mess around and stuck a fork in them early in the second half. The rationale for scheduling games like this, aside from racking up some base wins, is building confidence.

Look at Jon Leuer, who was far from a given entering this season. Games like this give him a chance to know he can score from all over the court. Look at Jason Bohannon, who is learning exactly where he has to get on the floor with this new 3-point line. Look at Marcus Landry, finally The Man after three years as a complementary player.

Leuer was obviously the player of the game. Maybe he doesn't get 25 points in a game this year, but I would be thrilled if he had four or five more 15-point games and averaged around 10. Three dunks, all with authority, are what people are going to remember, but the variety of moves he used to score his first three buckets were even more important. He hit both of his 3-pointers, but eight of his 10 field goal attempts were 2-pointers, which is where he needs to be more and more often. That was encouraging.

-Jordan Taylor throws a nice alley-oop, doesn't he? It's clear that he gets it. Interestingly, he didn't score, but 12 other Badgers did.

-Nineteen assists -- nice.

-At least three times tonight Trevon Hughes was stationed in the left corner and got clean looks at 3-pointers. I don't remember that configuration last year, but he seemed very comfortable there and made a couple of those treys.

-Still don't see who's going to fill Michael Flowers' lockdown perimeter defender role. My sense is Bo is trying to get Rob Wilson to the point where he can do some of that, and these games are opportunities to see what the freshman can do. He's a little bit too out of control right now, although I like the energy he's bringing.

-Did I infer or flat-out write that we don't have any shot blockers this year like we did last year? Sorry Marcus.

-Tim Jarmusz = the next Joe Krabbenhoft in training, but a more confident shooter.

-Kevin Gullikson has obviously dropped some weight, wouldn't be surprised to see him get minutes this year, although right now he seems to be at the fringe of the rotation at best. He's also got what appears to be a really nasty tattoo on the inner bicep of his left arm. Why, Kevin?

-Guess Ian Markolf isn't redshirting. At least he made it worth hsi while, scoring a second after getting into a game for the first time in his career. He is well-built. Jared Berggren's fate this season is still undecided.

-I liked that in the second half we didn't just play YMCA ball and sprint the ball up the court. We pushed tempo when appropriate but otherewise just executed really well in the halfcourt. Could we have scored 100 points against that team? Probably, but that doesn't help you at all later on when we play teams that match or exceed our athleticism.