P.J. and Pressley in the pros

What a great day for former Wisconsin running backs yesterday, as P.J. Hill and Chris Pressley were both signed by NFL teams. The only downside to Hill signing with the Eagles is that it comes because Brian Westbrook, one of the key players on my fantasy team, might be out with a concussion. It's doubtful P.J. will see much playing time, but whatever, he'll be able to hang out with Jack Ikegwuonu.

As Dave Heller says, with B.J. Askew out for the season Pressley has a better chance of playing. After all, teams don't sign fullbacks to sit, that's usually not a position where teams stockpile guys ... unless it's the Packers.

Free agent thoughts

A little bit surprised that P.J. Hill and Jonathan Casillas weren't drafted, their issues notwithstanding. The nice thing is, their baggage (injuries for JC, running into Open Pantrys for PJ) are pretty much irrelevant now that they'll be in pro camps.

Thoughts on these guys and the other free agent signees:

Hill, Saints: The consensus is New Orleans was a good landing spot for P.J., what with Deuce McAllister leaving, but I don't know. Pierre Thomas was pretty good last year (for my fantasy team!), Reggie Bush is Reggie Bush, and Mike Bell and Aaron Stecker have been solid pros. I'm guessing P.J. doesn't make the team and ends up on someone's practice squad.

Casillas, Saints: Conversely, as long as Casillas gets healthy, I think he makes this team on the merits of special teams play. I can see him being a guy who plays on those units for several years while he puts on weight and learns a defense, then makes an impact there in his third year.

Andy Kemp, Vikings: I hope he's terrible with Minnesota, gets cut, and goes on to a successful career somewhere else.

Mike Newkirk, Rams: Can't see him making the team, unless he can do some things on special teams.

Chris Pressley, Bengals: They've got a lot of average players in the backfield, but if Pressley is similar to his competition in talent, he may get an edge because of his character and leadership abilities, both sorely lacking in Cincinnati.

Bill Rentmeester, Chargers: Joins Michael Bennett in San Diego. Stop me if you've heard this before, but ... he can make this team with standout special teams play. Actually, of all these guys he's got the best track record, so it's not implausible.

Jason Chapman and Dave Peck were invited to try out with the Redskins and Bears. Of those two Peck has a better shot of making someone's roster, since he's a long snapper.

Draft notes

A couple interesting Badger-related tidbits in the latest Sporting News. The first are related to the NFL Draft:

-Travis Beckum is the second-ranked tight end, Kraig Urbik the third-ranked guard, and Chris Pressley the fourth-ranked fullback.

-P.J. Hill is ranked 36th out of 49 early entry candidates.

-There is a pretty interesting profile of Matt Shaughnessy. The last concert he attended was Van Halen in Milwaukee, with David Lee Roth fronting (Burch approves). answering "I daydream abou my first sack being called by ..." he answered "For some reason, Dick Vitale. I don't know why. He just has a great sports voice."

Dick Vitale doing football is absolutely frightening.

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.

Badger classic: Wisconsin 38, Minnesota 34

Here's an anecdote anyone with multiple children can relate to: On June 21 I recorded the 2005 Minnesota-Wisconsin game on the Big Ten Network. On November 11 I was able to devote two hours to watching it.

Very fun to watch it again. Actually, it was the first time I'd seen the television broadcast, having attended the epic with most of the same friends I'll be with at Camp Randall this Saturday.

The thing I couldn't shake was that Minnesota seemed to play much like we've been playing this year. They seemed to have the better players and the better game plan, but kept making mistakes that let the other team escape with a win.

Just think about the last sequence of events. Soft defense allows a John Stocco-to-Brandon Williams touchdown. Stupid facemask penalty lets the Badgers kick off from the 50. Inability to handle the onside kick leads to a weird bounce that Maroney recovers inside the Gopher 10. The Gophers, who had been running at will all day, couldn't convert on third-and-short. Kucek fumbles a perfectly good snap. Their returner fumbles the kickoff.

That's six things that had to go wrong for Minnesota, and right for Wisconsin, for that outcome to take place. And they all did.

What a day!

-It occurred to me during the game that 2008 isn't the first time Wisconsin fans have been skeptical of Bret Bielema. Think back to 2005. In 2004 he came in and completely reinvigorated the Badger defense. Then, in 2005, the defense he coordinated was porous, leading UW fans everywhere to question Barry Alvarez's decision to promote him to head coach. Bielema had a tremendous rookie year in 2006, before a so-so 2007 and a borderline disastrous 2008.

The point is, Coach B has rebounded from tough seasons before, and I have faith he will again. But I think we'd all rather avoid the tough seasons altogether. Maybe this is part of the inescapable maturation process of a young coach thrust into prominence early on.

-The thing is, Bielema's 2005 defense was so decimated by injuries it's hard to tell if he could have done anything to make that unit a plus. Brandon Kelly, who barely saw the field at all last year as a senior, played a lot. Hell, Gino Cruse played a lot.

-A ton of guys who will lace up their spikes for Wisconsin on Saturday played in that game. Kraig Urbik. Chris Pressley. Matt Shaughnessy (who looked so thin and fast). Jason Chapman. Allen Langford. Mike Newkirk. DeAndre Levy (who I never realized recovered the fumble on the last kickoff). Jonathan Casillas, the one everyone remembers for blocking Kucek's punt. Aubrey Pleasant. Shane Carter.

Perhaps that paragraph illustrates why this year has been so frustrating. We've got a lot of guys who have been through a lot of wars, so to consistently lose games because of mental errors defies reason.

-Williams and Stocco had awesome games. Brian Calhoun was an incredible back.

-This has been a high-scoring rivalry this century. Look at the winners' point total since 2000: 41, 42, 49, 37, 38, 38, 48, 41.

-Bryan Cupito missed the game for Minnesota, and you've got to think that if he'd started at quarterback instead of Tony Mortensen they would have hit on a big pass play or two that could have sealed the deal for the Gophers.

-As exciting as the end of the game was, the first half was really boring.

It's going to be tougher to get tickets to see this game in Minneapolis in the future, which is too bad, it's always been fun. Then again, it's seemed to get nastier and nastier over the years, which is good for the rivalry but not the blood pressure.

But even if I never see another Wisconsin-Minnesota game out of state again, we'll always remember that day in the Dome when Kucek dropped the snap.

UW-Michigan State thoughts

I don't even know what to say. Seriously. This week after week of getting kicked in the balls by one thing after another is really starting to have a residual effect on my psyche.

We should have won this game by three touchdowns. Two 100-yard rushers. Holding Ringer to 54 yards. Their quarterback goes 19-for-44 and their butterfingered receivers drop seven passes.

And yet ...

Sigh.

Deep breath.

(Kick wall.)

-Where to begin? How about the officiating? Looks like in the end we racked up 121 penalty yards. I'd estimate that about half of them were no-doubters, about a quarter of them were toss-ups, and about a quarter of them were ridiculous.

-Kudos to Michigan State's offensive coordinator for his innovative game plan of calling passing plays, having his receivers run near our defensive backs, and lobbying for interference calls. It worked marvelously. Better than actually trying to complete passes to a bunch of guys with hands like that guy from the movie Necessary Roughness, I think his name was Featherstone (same color jerseys, too).

-Then again, someone named Blair White (wasn't she on The Facts of Life?) had 164 yards receiving, so they had something working.

-Can someone explain the back-to-back penalties on our coaching staff following the John Clay touchdown that set up their last touchdown? Bielema just said the refs' explanation was that our defense came onto the field too quickly after the play was over, and that he's never been warned or even talked to about a penalty like that before. Oh my god ...

(Break: Listening to the postgame I just heard a McCain ad featuring a stuttering Joe the Plumber and threw the radio through the window.)

-We ice the game with a rare third-and-1 conversion ... and a hold on Moffitt. Iffy call, seems like John got his arm outside the lineman and the guy fell over, but it didn't even need to be that close. We didn't need to hold their linemen -- we ran the ball so effectively it was like Sinbad was on the Spartans' line.

Second straight week something like this happened. Last week we overcame it, this week we crumbled.

-Why in the hell did Bielema call timeout when State was setting up for that last-second field goal? They were rushing onto the field for what was admittedly a very makable field goal, but we gave them time to get things straight. Maybe if he hadn't wasted our third timeout with that foolish challenge earlier in the half he could have called a third straight timeout.

The radio guys just said calling the timeout was a good move because we only had 10 guys on the field. Oh, so that makes it good coaching. Sheesh.

Bitter cloud lifting? Not yet ...

-If Michigan State is the Big Ten's third-best team, then this truly is an awful conference.

-At least the running game got going today, and found that rhythm in the second half. The only thing that stopped it was our play calling or penalties. P.J. looked confident. Clay ran hard and hit holes. His touchdown run was beautiful, especially the blocking. Chris Pressley got a seal on the outside linebacker. Eric Vanden Heuvel and Kraig Urbik doubled down on the edge. Andy Kemp pulled nicely, and Nick Toon held the cornerback at bay. Perfect execution.

On P.J.'s touchdown run Billy Rentmeester and Gabe Carimi had nice blocks.

-Toon showed signs of being a playmaker at wide receiver.

-Final yardage: Wisconsin 431, Michigan State 312.

-Had a feeling that Phil Welch was going to miss that field goal, but didn't think it would come back to be decisive.

-Also had a feeling State would call a fake field goal, but in the first half. Terrible designed play -- snap to a defensive end? Gee, can't believe he didn't catch it.

-Brad Nortman and Daven Jones had great execution on the punt Jones downed at the 1, but the refs thought otherwise. Which one of them saw that as a touchback? Either way, Bielema should never have challenged it, there was no way a replay could have overturned it.

-One holding call on Niles Brinkley was particularly galling. The refs got him for a hold when there was no contact until after the ball was already past the receiver. Unreal.

-Welch's kickoffs were too short for my liking.

-In a way, this was very similar to our win over Michigan State in the Big Ten Tournament. State for the most part outplayed us in that game but foul trouble on their bigs, which their fans would pin on refereeing, let us creep back in, and Flowers' steal stole the game for us late. This was the football equivalent of that, only with us on the losing end. Payback's a bitch ... but I'm glad we got that win.

Another week, another loss like this. If I had any hair left I'd be pulling it out. I can't even take satisfaction with Minnesota and Michigan losing ... maybe just a little.

Jana just handed me Charlie, so I'm wrapping it up. He's smiling, so I guess I should be, too. Our performance today keeps me from wrapping up hopes of doing something else positive this season. But just barely.

UW-Fresno State thoughts ... yeaaaaaaah!

Charlie is set to be baptized in about 10 hours, and that's probably what I'll remember about this weekend for the rest of my life, but ...

What a great win! Billy Rentmeester with the save!

We beat a really good team in front of their hostile crowd in THE BIGGEST GAME IN SCHOOL HISTORY! So Fresno State fans can take all those cute little T-shirts they had made up for the game and use them to clean the kitchen next week.

I'll be honest: for the last hour in my head I've been writing, in my head, a rant about the preposterous overturned fumble call. More on that later. But now, thankfully, I'll focus on the positive, with an emphasis on the second half.

-Did you notice how we switched things up on kickoffs? In the last one of the first half it only went to about the 25, fielded by Fresno's up back. In the first kickoff of the second half, Fresno's returners moved up and Philip Welch kicked it into the end zone. Maybe this is how we have to do things without Taylor Mehlhaff's big leg.

-Did you notice how on several plays Chris Pressley started out split wide, then moved back to his customary fullback spot? Who are we trying to kid with that initial formation? He ain't going anywhere on a passing route lined up out there.

-On Devon Wylie's touchdown the announcers harped on Casillas for missing a tackle, but I thought Jay Valai's was worse. But Valai played a good game overall — Bear never got off, and Jay made some nice plays around the line of scrimmage. Any game in which I'm not making many notes about the secondary is a good game.

-Everyone will be raving about Fresno blocking another punt, but that one was on Brad Nortman dropping the snap, which was fine. He catches it cleanly, they don't block it. The defense made a great stand after the blocked punt.

-Did you hear ESPN2's Joe Tessitore's orgasm after that blocked punt? Embarrassing.

-Kraig Urbik was offside twice in the second half, and I thought we were dangerously close to completely losing our composure, but we kept it just enough to persevere.

-A disturbing trend in the second half was not running or throwing to receivers at first down yardage on third down.

-That punt that bounced into their blocker was the big break we needed to get over the hump in the second half. Rod Gilmore's comment afterward was classic: "That play is essentially a turnover." You think?

-That option that Evridge ran deep in Fresno territory was a curious call, although he ran it relatively effectively. But there was a holding call on it, not surprising.

-Bringing in Clay when we did was a nice move, but why not keep feeding him the rock? He ran well in his limited chances. A tough 112 yards for P.J. as well, he ran with authority behind some stubborn blocking.

-When Wylie fumbled, you could hear palpable disappointment in Tessitore's voice. I then wrote down "Really stupid challenge by Pat Hill." Who knew.

You know why teams don't want to play you at Fresno, Pat? It's because of refereeing like that overturned fumble. That was so clearly a fumble it was not even close. All three announcers certainly thought so, as would any impartial viewer. Unless you can get neutral-conference officials for a matchup like this, you run the risk of officiating deciding the outcome.

Which it almost did tonight. Not only did Fresno get three points, but we were deprived of the ball deep in their territory. Then, we clipped on the ensuring kickoff return, putting us in bad field position.

After Fresno kicked the field goal, Tessitore said, disappointedly, like his dog has rabies: "And Wisconsin holds."

BCS teams ought to think long and hard before scheduling games either at WAC schools or using WAC officials.

Tessitore: "Finally a home game break for Pat Hill!" Hooray for horrible officiating!

Thankfully that's the end of my rant, rather than my entire game recap.

-Evridge and Kyle Jefferson were not on the same page tonight. Allan looked Kyle's way several times but they never came close to a completion. It would be nice to have KJ's deep play threat going into Big Ten play.

-Won't say much about Evridge's cramping until I hear more about it. But what about Jae McFadden's club on his right hand? What was that about? He wasn't in on as many tackles as he has been the first two weeks, wonder if that was a factor.

-What a great punt by Fresno to pin us deep late.

-But what a time for Billy Rentmeester to have the biggest run of his career! It was certainly unexpected, but the type of contribution that can turn a good season into a great season.

I'm exhausted, and will be up with Charlie soon for a middle of the night feeding, so I'd better wrap it up. But again, great win, and I'd like to think this keeps us in the top 10 for at least two more weeks. More to come Sunday.

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.

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.

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!

The Lance Smith situation

It's been a couple weeks now, but it seems like Lance Smith is off the team. Again. I won't go into details about that situation, but in a nutshell, it's sad that a kid given a chance to escape a tough lot in life through athletics has messed up that opportunity.

From a strictly roster management standpoint, my initial thought was this:

Four good running backs seemed like too many. Three good running backs seems like not enough.

Anyone else agree with me?

The 2004 situation where Anthony Davis and Booker Stanley and Dwayne Smith all went down, leaving Matt Bernstein to start at tailback in a huge game at Iowa, reminds me of this. With P.J. Hill being injury prone (like Davis), Zach Brown being sort of a plugger (like Stanley and Smith), and John Clay being young and tall, it's not inconceivable that all three could be too nicked up to play at some point. Leaving ... Bill Rentmeester, Chris Pressley, or Erik Smith to play tailback?

Sure, call me Bob Bummer, but it's happened before and it could happen again. I'd much rather manage one talented back who can't get enough playing time than deal with a lack of talented backs.

Chris Pressley, blogger

Got a press release last week from Jeff D'Alessio of the Sporting News indicating that Badger fullback Chris Pressley and I will soon share more than a love of Camp Randall on Saturdays.

Wisconsin Badgers fullback Chris Pressley will add “sports columnist” to his media guide bio this fall.

Pressley is among 22 college football players who will write weekly columns in Sporting News Today, the nation’s first digital daily sports section. The players will cover topics on the field and off it, from the big game of the week to the life of a student-athlete.

SN Today launches on Wednesday, July 23rd. The free product will offer year-round coverage of college football and basketball, the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball, NHL and NASCAR. Readers can sign up to receive SN Today at sportingnewstoday.com.

SN Today’s roster of player columnists includes Heisman hopefuls, preseason All-Americans and all-conference picks:

Marvin Austin, North Carolina
Alex Boone, Ohio State
Antoine Caldwell, Alabama
Hunter Cantwell, Louisville
Jonathan Crompton, Tennessee
Chase Daniel, Missouri
Cullen Harper, Clemson
George Hypolite, Colorado
Tyson Jackson, LSU
Michael Johnson, Georgia Tech
Alex Mack, Cal
Sen’Derrick Marks, Auburn
Colt McCoy, Texas
Ryan McDonald, Illinois
Scott McKillop, Pitt
Mike Nixon, Arizona State
Curtis Painter, Purdue
Todd Peterson, Nebraska
Chris Pressley, Wisconsin
Ryan Purvis, Boston College
Myron Rolle, Florida State
Pat White, West Virginia

That's a pretty impressive lineup for TSN. Glad Pressley will be able to take part in it, from all I've read about him he seems like a thoughtful kid, far from the stereotypical student athlete. It will be interesting to see what form SN Today takes - if these athletes' writings will be in blog form or look like a regular newspaper column.

The other interesting thing about this: I got a press release from a legitimate publishing organization, and I imagine Sporting News sent this to other independent bloggers covering the other universities on this list. A sign of Mainstream Media acknowledging the grassroots importance of blogs like this one.

Lindy's picks Badgers 11th

Picked up my first college football preview magazine of the year, which has got to be a record for the earliest I've ever bought one of these things. As regular readers of this blog know, even though the Internet has an abundance of free information on any subject imaginable, including college sports, I still prefer to pick up these big print magazines as I've been doing for the past 20 years.

The magazine is Lindy's, which picks Wisconsin to finish 11th in the nation, second in the Big Ten behind Ohio State. Here's what they say:

Old School Still Leads to New Year's
Bret Bielema has established himself as a coach, winning 21 games in his first two seasons and taking the Badgers to consecutive New Year's Day bowls. Wisconsin has become one of the country's most consistent programs and something of an anachronism. Look, how cute, the Badgers still use a blocking fullback. But there's really nothing cute about Wisconsin, which grinds and grinds ... and has won at least nine games in seven of the past 10 years.

THE GOOD NEWS: The Badgers are back to pounding the opposition with one of the best sets of backs in the country -- P.J. Hill, Lance Smith and Zach Brown. If the quarterback situation can get settled, the defense should allow Wisconsin to contend for the Big Ten title.

THE BAD NEWS: The quarterback situation IS unsettled. It was assuemd that Kansas State transfer Allan Evridge would win the job. We'll see. Dustin Sherer is the other option. It's no one's fault, but injuries have plagued this team the past two years, including this spring.

OUR CALL: Asking Wisconsin to get past Ohio State for the Big Ten title is probably too much. But winning 10 isn't out of the question if the Badgers can overcome a tough early conference schedule.

Not too much to argue with there, although I don't quite get the blocking fullback comment. While it's clear traditional fullbacks like Chris Pressley aren't on everyone's roster anymore, lots of teams still use them. Too much Spread on the writer's brain, methinks.

I'll be posting other nuggets from Lindy's in the days ahead, and also keep a running average of where national media outlets are picking the Badgers. We'll stick with print media for now, given the fluidity of Internet predictions, then pool some web-based picks near the end of the summer.

Football thoughts: Feeling hollow about '07, good about '08

OK, had about two days to digest the finality of the 2007 season. On Tuesday, I said if you feel like complaining about a 9-4 season, I feel sorry for you, but ...

This isn't a complaint, but this season does leave me feeling hollow, especially after blowing a shot at 10 wins. This feeling really set in for me the week of the Ohio State game, when I realized that everyone had picked us to finish ahead of the Buckeyes, and here they were in position to run away with the Big Ten. How often does Wisconsin enter the season as a consensus choice to play in a BCS game? Once every 6-8 years? That's why this season, without any major milestones, feels empty. I like that comparisons are being made to the aftermath of the 1998 Outback Bowl loss to Georgia, that is exactly what I was thinking of later Tuesday - we'll have a shot at something special next year, but after this year it won't be expected, we won't be ranked in the top 10 to start the season.

In a way, I felt the same way in March about the basketball season. Here we had our best team in modern times, our best player ever ... and a bunch of teenagers from Ohio State won the Big Ten regular season and tournament titles, and UNLV's gunnin' grad student beat us in the second round. So what did we actually win, other than some very memorable regular season games? At least we made it to #1 and won 30 games for the first time in school history.

I'm starting to sound like one of those spoiled kids who enrolled at UW in 1998 and complained when we missed a bowl after the 2001 season, so let's get back to talking football, mainly with an eye on the future.

Quarterback
When Tyler Donovan was a backup, he looked horrible, and I feared the day he might have to start. Then he became a starter and, despite his flaws, was one of our all-time tough guys and played pretty damn well. This is why I'm not too concerned yet with Allan Evridge. He looked overwhelmed when inserted into game action this season, but give him a full spring as the starter, all the reps with the first-string line and receivers, and I think he'll be fine. I am excited to see what Curt Phillips is all about, but hope Evridge is good enough that Phillips can redshirt, then start for four years. This position is more important than ever, and may be the difference between another 8- or 9-win season and a truly special one.

Running back
Feeling good here if everyone stays. Even if one guy leaves, we should be OK, but we need three solid guys back there. As should have become clear by now, I still think P.J. Hill is our best guy by far. Lance Smith is fast but dances too much at times. Zach Brown is tough but doesn't have P.J.'s burst. John Clay is an unknown going in.

You know another guy I'm happy is coming back? Chris Pressley. Not so much for his on-field play, although it's solid, but because he strikes me as the kind of thoughtful, charismatic locker room leader type that great teams need, like a Joe Panos or Chris McIntosh.

Receiver
Beckum's back, he's a known entity. It remains to be seen whether he puts on weight and works on blocking (and how that affects his receiving) or if he stay sat 225 or so and remains the same type of player - a dominant college player. Very excited about him and Garrett Graham in two-tight end sets next year. Kyle Jefferson had a nice rookie year but tailed off late, he can put on 20 good pounds without losing his athleticism. Who's the other starting wideout? My money is on Daven Jones. Something strikes me about this kid - he had to fight to get to Madison, then he worked his butt off on special teams this year. We really just need 25 catches or so out of that spot, and I think he can get them.

Offensive line
Marcus Coleman is the only loss, and while he was good and will be missed, we usually come up with a good center. Really liked Gabe Carimi's freshman year, and he can put a good 20 pounds on the 292 he played at this season. I think he could be the first four-year starter at left tackle since McIntosh. Unless Josh Oglseby is as good as advertised and pushes Carimi to right tackle, which I would not mind seeing. Figure Andy Kemp and John Moffit will play left guard and center. And Kraig Urbik might be the best of any of these guys, wherever he ends up. This should be a strong position.

Defensive line
Matt Shaughnessy is a nice player, but I would really like to see him dominate in his senior season - no more second team All-Big Ten, how about first team All-American? I think he's got it in him. Feel pretty good about Kirk DeCremer and/or O'Brien Schofield opposite/behind Shaughnessy, they showed good signs this year. Worried about defensive tackle - think Chapman will come back strong, but Brandon Hoey apparently has injury problems and if Jeff Stehle were capable, he would have played this year. Mike Newkirk reminds me of Ben Herbert from earlier this decade - a nice swing DL who is too small to be a regular DT. Hoping one or both of these junior college recruits can give some quality snaps - the coaches would not have brought them in if they didn't think it was necessary.

Linebacker
This position should be very strong next year. Jonathan Casillas is on the verge of an All-American performance for his senior year, he's so fast. DeAndre Levy is so versatile, and I rarely find myself fingering him for missed tackles. The key to this unit, and maybe the whole defense, is Elijah Hodge's knees. if he can stay healthy and practice regularly and play, our run defense gets a lot better. And though he's a liability in coverage, Jae McFadden is a pretty good nickel or dime LB, depending on whether or not Levy lines up at end.

Secondary
This all depends on whether or not Ike returns. If he does, we're average here. If he doesn't, we're well below average. Let's assume he's off to the NFL. Ordinarily I'd like the Langford-Henry pairing, but both are coming off knee injuries, and we saw what that did to corners like Brett Bell. Shane Carter has great ball skills, but missed so many tackles this year. Strong safety is a crapshoot. It looked like Aubrey Pleasant got benched in the Outback Bowl, and it's hard to argue with the move. Jay Valai was OK, but Kim Royston continued to miss tackles as well. As noted earlier, apparently Chris Maragos will get a shot here, hopefully he can bring some consistency. Bottom line: we need Ike's ability to neutralize top receivers.

Special teams
David Gilreath was clearly a shot in the arm for the return units, and let's give credit to the blocking as well - he wasn't making something out of nothing, he was making something out of the window of opportunity presented him. In the kicking game, no matter who replaces Taylor Mehlhaff and Ken DeBauche, there will be a drop-off. It just can't be as big as the drop-off in the post-Davenport/Pisetsky/Stemke years, when the kicking game was god-awful. Also: long snapper Steve Johnson graduates, but we usually find an NFL-caliber guy there.

Coaching
This year, there were two games where we didn't seem prepared to play: Penn State and Tennessee. That's curious, since you think we would have been fired up coming off the Illinois loss, and we had a month to prepare for the Outback Bowl. Only two games in my mind were well-played all the way around: Indiana and Michigan.

Other than that, the defense wasn't as good as expected, but my sense is that had more to do with injuries and things like the Jamal Cooper dismissal than coaching. Still, the tackling needs to improve, and the safety situation needs to improve. Offensively, the staff seemed to get along fine without Henry Mason, but it sure would be nice to have him back. Hopefully Paul Chryst won't leave, as seems to be a possibility this time each year.

Leaders
Don't laugh, this has been an important part of all our best teams. My nominees: Pressley, Beckum, Casillas, Langford. These guys need to set the tone for the offseason and keep things headed in the right direction come fall.

So, 2008 in a nutshell:

-Feel good about: running back, receiver, offensive line, linebacker, return game
-Could go either way on: quarterback, defensive line, secondary with Ike
-Worried about: secondary without Ike, kicking game
-Overall: Feeling pretty good. Depending on how things break, this team could win anywhere from seven to 11 games.

My fingers are sore, what do you think?

UW-Ohio State postgame thoughts

The better team won. Even though Ohio State is not up to the standard of recent top-ranked teams, they looked good today, mainly in the fourth quarter. Here's why they won:

-They didn't beat themselves. How many blocking-related penalties did we have today, especially on kick returns, 20? How many fumbles? Poor passes? Ohio State didn't do that.

But mainly ...

-The Buckeyes' lines completely dominated play. From my vantage point, our skill position players are every bit as good as theirs, if not better, especially if PJ and Swan are healthy and play. Wells will get a lot of pub, but he wasn't touched on his touchdown runs, any one of our backs could have converted those opportunities. Their D-line had 10 sacks, although Donovan didn't help things by immediately tucking the ball at the end of his drop and making a beeline for the nearest defender.

Other thoughts:

-Have you ever seen Bielema as fired up as he was after that chop block call on Randle-El? I liked it, seemed like a bad call but couldn't tell for sure. Even if it was bad call, why do we still play Randle-El? All he seems to do is generate negative plays.

-Great pass and catch by Donovan and Beckum on the play immediately following what could have been a crushing penalty.

-Glad to see Pressley still involved in the offense, can't remember seeing him catch a pass before.

-Too many short fields for the Ohio State offense.

-Donovan still seems to be struggling progressing beyond his primary read. Case in point was a third quarter play in which he stuck on Beckum all the way and threw incomplete, even though Travis was tightly covered and Hubbard was more open five yards further downfield.

-Boeckman continued to hurt us with his legs, which just killed me.

-Did Vanden Heuvel's absence (Bscherer subbing) hurt us? I'm guessing EVH would have struggled to contain OSU's pass rush just as much. The Buckeyes have a scary young defensive line.

-Didn't like the second fake punt call, even if it might have worked, but the way they were moving the ball at that point it was probably worth a shot.

-Great catch by Robiskie, although Boeckman's pass probably wasn't intended for him. Those are the kind of breaks great teams make for themselves.

-Brown played pretty well today against a stingy defense. I think he'll be a four-year backup, next two years to PJ and/or Smith, after that to Clay or someone else, but he'll be a factor the whole time, like and Eddie Faulkner or Dwayne Smith.

-Hubbard really contributed today too.

-Brian Hartline = Curt Schroeder. The guy was hurt after every play he was involved in.

-Bielema just said it doesn't look good for EVH, Langford and Chapman; Chapman was down a couple times. We really need him against Michigan.

-Let's appreciate Beckum while he's still here - what a big-time athlete and gamer. He was the most talented guy on the field today - 140 yard and a touchdown. Hopefully he feels he needs to put on weight or work on his blocking and doesn't go pro after this season.

A little bit disappointed because we were in position to win but got beaten in the area the program is built upon - playing physical football. Still think we've got a great chance to pull an upset at home next week.

Wisconsin-Northern Illinois/Mr. Belding thoughts

Love the Big Ten Network. Last night after watching Friday Night Lights on DVD, I turned on the BTN's Friday Night Tailgate to find the fat guy with glasses interviewing Dennis Haskins - Mr. Belding from Saved By the Bell - at Purdue. And let me tell you, Beldo is fat! I'll be he's put on 50 pounds since the SBTB salad days; the picture at right is from 2004, and he's even heavier now. Apparently Haskins tours college campuses encouraging students to pursue their dreams. Inspirational.

At the end of the interview, Haskins delivered a great line: "Jordan! My office, now!" Mike Hall, the host, follows up with "Now that is great journalism! I feel like listening to Kasey Kasem and dancing The Sprain." Made my night.

I also love the Big Ten Network because yesterday they showed the UW-Northern Illinois game, which I missed last Saturday. Northern is obviously in bad shape, so not too much to comment on, certainly nothing negative. Some thoughts:

-Glad to see Pressley getting some carries. No reason not to use the fullback to mix things up a bit, especially when he was a successful tailback in high school. Fullback dive was always a great play in old school Madden, a quick hitter for 3-4 yards.

-Another touchdown for Garrett Graham, who I predict will be an all-Big Ten tight end in two years.

-Loved PJ’s long TD run, and my favorite part: Kyle Jefferson maintaining a block on NIU’s safety that let PJ get beyond that last level, which he needs help to do. PJ went over 1,000 yards in the game, good to be back on that track, third year in a row with a 1,000-yard rusher.

-I think UW is really going to miss Jae McFadden against Indiana.

-Glad to see Mike Newkirk get a sack and three hurries. Seems like he’s really been struggling, and not because he’s not working hard, so to see him rewarded like that was nice.

-UW’s time of possession edge: 39:37 to 20:23. Wow.

-Nice game for DeAndre Levy with 2.5 tackles for loss. It’s easy to forget he led the team in sacks last year, but he’s an important part of the team’s pass rush. The Badgers had 10 TFL overall, very encouraging.

-Shane Carter obviously needs work tackling and angles, but he’s got great ball skills. I see him being a big part of trying to contain Hardy.

-Another penalty on Langford. Didn’t expect him to regress this season.

-Good line by Larrivee when they brought Alvarez in to the box in the third quarter: “And now someone who’s popular not only here but in Nebraska.” Barry chuckled and brushed it off, but that’s a legitimate issue. Let’s discuss next week.

Wisconsin-Illinois predictions

Have a few minutes before the Iola-Scandinavia homecoming parade starts - day care takes Will and the kids down to watch, and it's fun to watch them ... the parade, not so much. Wanted to throw out some predictions for tomorrow's game.

-Jefferson has a big game. Illinois has a good corner that I think is going to limit Swan.
-PJ is going to carry the ball 40 times, or at least I hope so, because that will mean we're either winning or close. But I'm not predicting a 200-yard game or anything like that; as much as J Leman looks like a linebacker cliche/prototype (in the same sense as AJ Hawk or Brian Urlacher) - distinctive haircut, interesting name, talks a good game - I think the fellas are motivated to establih the run game after they took PJ out of last year's game, and Leman is held in check.
-Any runs that aren't from PJ will come from Gilreath or Beckum on end-arounds, and if they go single back when PJ is resting, it'll be Pressley or Rentmeester as the lone back for pass protection.
-Crooks is back this week, should help the running game, should be an upgrade over Mickey Turner.
-Ike has a shutdown game - on Benn?
-Casillas does a good job shadowing Juice Williams, but Hodge and the safeties struggle to contain Mendenhall.

It seemed like I had more thoughts than this while drifting off to sleep last night ... will add them later.

The fact that Illinois is favored in this one is getting a lot of play nationall, and it should because this sort of thing doesn't happen often. That, plus the fact that Illinois dominated us for a half last year in Madison, should provide all the motivation the Badgers need.

Wisconsin 26, Illinois 22