Wisconsin-Minnesota: 2005 pictures

Snowed in one recent morning so I spent some time cleaning up my Hotmail Inbox. Found these pictures from Mr. Scott Burch, taken at the 2005 Wisconsin-Minnesota game. Most people will remember that game for Jonathan Casillas's blocked punt and Ben Strickland's recovery for the game-winning touchdown, but many of us will remember Toohey's similar second-half explosion. Others will remember the Toren-Tappa bipartisan Baggo dominance.

The Metrodome: Minnesota built it, Wisconsin owns it

Another fun trip to the Metrodome has come and gone, the last time we will see the Badgers leave that dingy stinkhole victorious. For the record, UW went 4-0 in front of me at the dome, all four games - '95, '97, '05, '07 - memorable in their own way.

Here are a few pictures from our group at the event. Special thanks to Tim Toohey for the photos, Matt and Megan Schwalbach for the hospitality and the pictures, Chris Toren for the early tailgate work, and everyone else for chipping in on the fun.



The group: Molle Polzin, Erik Olson, Brian Hermann, me, Matt Schwalbach, Tim Toohey, Will Bottinick, Eric Werner, Megan Schwalbach, Chris Toren, with Jim Polzin keeping play-by-play notes on the coaches' postgame handshake.



This was either the Badgers chopping down the goalpost with Paul Bunyan's Axe, or them beating the crap out of those annoying UM cymbals players who stood right on the end zone line.



Maybe next year, Chris - always a good sport. Feuding friends Toren and Toohey in a light moment, presumably before Toohey spilled a beer all over his seat. For the record - Toren and I emerged as Baggo champions once again, although not before dropping a game to Schwalbach and Hermann.



EO, me, and Will, taking a break from discussing The World Without Us (started reading it today).





Nothing says college football like a parking lot surrounded by skyscrapers. Welcome to Minneapolis, home of the least college-like atmosphere in the Big Ten. Even if it's not college-like, it's still tons of fun. Highlights from this spot:

-Will learns Baggo
-Molle smells brocoli
-I drop not one, but two Rolling Rocks
-The best: Toren sees a kid peeing near his Pilot, confronts him: "Hey Gopher guy! Did you pee on my car?" Then he knocks the beer out of the guy's hand. Represent! Replays were inconclusive as to whether or not the guy actually peed on the car, but Chris took care of business.








No one can deny that Will made it count. This one's for the girls.

Friday Night Lights dimmed

MINNEAPOLS -- I'm sitting here at Schwalbach's house, watching the snow fall ... already? I suppose we used to have lots of snow on Thanksgiving most years growing up, but not lately. Had a nice meal last night at Pepito's with Toren, Schwib, Polzin, Toohey, Eric Werner, and Will, Olson, and Molle showed up later to add to the meaningful discussion.

Shockingly, few wanted to talk about the Wisconsin high school football championship games, except for someone who asked me if I'd even gone to the Iola-Scandinavia game on Thursday. I did, with Mr. Austin and Greg Loescher, but not much to report there. Some shaky early offense and special teams play put the Thunderbirds in a 14-0 hole halfway through the first quarter, and it was a steep uphill climb the rest of the way. Had I-S played a perfect or near-perfect game, Stratford could have been beaten, but there's a reason they've won five gold balls in a row - depth, execution, strategy, experience.

Great season for Iola, though, lots of fun to watch and a terrific galvanizing event for the community.

Sign of the game, held by a Stratford fan: "Iola has the car show, but we have the titles." Clever.

-Another easy win for the basketball team last night. Didn't see it, but looking at the box score, saw the Marcus Landry and Jason Bohannon led the way with 17 apiece - very encouraging. As ajs posted Friday, there's been talk that J-Bo had knee surgery over the offseason and that's set him back. I haven't seen evidence of a lingering injury or recovery, more of a deal where he's not shooting well ... although that could be a byproduct of not having his legs just right.

Never really worried about Landry, no reason for him to force his offense in these cupcake games, but nice to see that he still has it nonetheless. If we can find ways for him - and Jon Leuer - to play the 3, especially on defense, that makes our lineup awfully imposing from an shot-blocking perspective.

-Interesting to be up here in Gopher country and gauge fans' attitudes toward Tim Brewster. I suppose you have to be optimistic, but he is about to be responsible for the worst season in school history. His saving grace is allegedly his recruiting prowess, but given the number of de-commits he's had lately, that prowess is far from a given.

One member of our party wants to see if Brewster and Bret Bielema shake hands before the game, given Bret's words about how "Minnesota has been good to us" lately and Brewster's reaction to that. Hey Tim, it's not a false statement, and Minnesota has been good to Ohio State, Notre Dame, USC, et al in recent years. Do something about it.