NFL Badgers

Last week Corby asked me my thoughts on the most successful Badgers currently playing in the NFL. [ADD: In general, this is based on 2008 performances.] What do you think?

1. Joe Thomas

2. Jim Leonhard

3. Owen Daniels - did you realize he had the third-most receiving yards of any tight end this year?

4. Lee Evans

5. Chris Chambers

6. Mark Tauscher

7. Casey Rabach

8. Aaron Stecker

9. Jim Sorgi

10. Alex Lewis

11. Nick Hayden

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.

How does Evridge compare?

Following the Ohio State loss there was grumbling about Allan Evridge's play, perhaps made more raw by his game-ending interception thrown back across his body right to a Buckeye defender. Edward opined that this is the worst quarterback play we've gotten since Mike Samuel.

Knee-jerk, I agreed with him. But, because I'm a nerd, I decided to check the numbers and see just how his performance compares to the Badgers' starting quarterbacks of the last 16 seasons. Let me roll them out there, then tell me what you think.

Quarterback rating: Average - 130.6, Evridge - 125.4 (Note: I couldn't find Brooks Bollinger's 1999 rating anywhere, and he only threw 140 passes that season)

Completion percentage: Average - 57.8%, Evridge - 56.6%

Yards per completion: Average - 13.2, Evridge - 13.1

Touchdowns: Average - 12, Evridge (projected) - 13

Interceptions: Average - 7.6, Evridge (projected) - 10

Attempts per interception: Average - 31.8, Evridge - 30.5

Seems like if anything, Evridge is negligibly below average in most of these categories. Now let's see where Evridge ranks among the other 15 starting quarterbacks' seasons in key statistical categories. Average would be eighth or ninth in these rankings.

Quarterback rating: Best - 1993 Darrell Bevell, 155.2, Worst - 2004 John Stocco, 109.8, Evridge - ninth, 125.4

Completion percentage: Best - 1993 Darrell Bevell, 67.8%, Worst - 2001 Brooks Bollinger, 51.4%, Evridge - 11th, 55% (Note: Bevell holds the top three spots on this list, Bollinger three of the lowest five — and he's the one who's had an NFL playing career!)

Yards per completion: Best - 2003 Jim Sorgi, 16.1 (thank you Lee Evans!), Worst - 1994 Darrell Bevell, 11.1 (that's why he was so accurate), Evridge - 10th, 13.1

Yards per game: Best - 2005 John Stocco, 224.6, Worst - 1998 Mike Samuel, 97.9 (how does a team go to the Rose Bowl throwing for less than 100 yards per game?), Evridge - seventh, 179.8

Touchdowns: Best - 2005 John Stocco, 21, Worst - 1998 Mike Samuel/1999 Brooks Bollinger, 6, Evridge - ninth, 13 (projected)

Interceptions: Best - 1998 Mike Samuel/2001 and 2002 Brooks Bollinger, 4, Worst - 1997 Mike Samuel, 13 (maybe that's why he threw 82 fewer passes the next year), Evridge - sixth, 10 (projected)

Attempts per interception: Best - 1999 Brooks Bollinger, 70, Worst - 1997 Mike Samuel, 19.5, Evridge - eighth, 30.5

Here again, Evridge's numbers are average or slightly below average. So from a strictly statistical standpoint, Evridge really isn't horrible, he's middle of the road for Badger quarterbacks in the last 16 seasons. That would be OK if expectations were for this to be a middle of the road Wisconsin team. This had a chance to be a really good one, but mediocre quarterback play has been one of the factors why it is now staring down a .500 record halfway through the regular season.

Badger classic: Wisconsin 17, Ohio State 10

Over the summer I recorded the Big Ten Network's re-airing of Wisconsin's 2003 win over Ohio State at Camp Randall, which ended the defending national champions' 19-game winning streak. This being the five-year anniversary of that game, and with a Camp Randall night game against OSU scheduled for October 4, what better time to review that game than now?

-That was a nasty night, weather-wise. It wasn't such a bad day, but as gametime approached things got worse. Up here in Scandinavia, we got the same rain and wind that Madison got, which knocked my satellite reception out moments before the opening kickoff. I was miffed, but the feed came back soon enough.

-I would really like to remember this as the Lee Evans/Matt Schabert Game. The game-winning touchdown pass was a thing of beauty, a perfect route run by our All-American coming off knee surgery, the kid from Ohio who had been shut out to that point. Schabert was coming in off the bench cold, hadn't done much of anything to that point, and threw a perfect pass. Later he picked up a big first down on a naked bootleg. Never to be heard from again ...

-But whenever that game comes to mind, it's as the Robert Reynolds Chokes Sorgi Game. Five years hasn't really made me any less mad about the incident.

First Reynolds chokes Jim Sorgi, and no penalty is called. Then, Reynolds' coaches leave him in the game -- hey, he was their leading tackler that night, can't pull him, right? Then, after committing what was a borderline criminal act, Jim Tressel suspends him ... for one game!

Sure, he apologized afterward, but they were hollow words. With about five minutes to play in that game it looked like Ohio State was going to win, with Reynolds' choke of Sorgi a big reason why.

Not surprisingly, several years later Reynolds was involved in a domestic dispute with his then-wife. According to the AP story, "She said she was afraid because her husband is 6-foot-3 and 247 pounds and has a 'violent past.' She told police this wasn't the first time Reynolds had been violent, although only one report was previously filed with authorities." The Sorgi choking was mentioned at the bottom of the story.

All this self-righteousness from me aside, here's hoping Reynolds has gotten control of his violent side and is leading an honorable life nowadays.

At the time, with Maurice Clarett still a vivid memory, it seemed like Tressel was building a renegade program for the new millennium. The Buckeyes have seemingly cleaned up their act since.

-It's still baffling to me that if Sorgi was hurt so badly he couldn't speak, that if his throat or esophagus or vocal chords were that badly injured, why wasn't he taken to a hospital, or at least to the locker room? Instead he just looked like a sad little boy on the sideline, while Reynolds marched on.

-Ohio State these last 2-3 years is much, much better than they were in 2002-03, national title notwithstanding. It speaks to the overall strength of the rest of the college football world — specifically the SEC — that the Buckeyes have not won a national title with these players.

-OSU's offense in 2003 was very average, as was our defense. The Buckeyes' defense was fierce, though — Will Smith, A.J. Hawk, Will Allen, Chris Gamble. And what about B.J. Sander, the best third round draft pick in Packers history?

-Our guys looked slow wearing white shoes.

-Matt LePay commented in one of the many interviews airing around the broadcast that Barry Alvarez preferred playing teams like Ohio State because they are no frills. I feel exactly the same way — forget the Spread, line up and play football like men. Used to feel the same way about playing Michigan, until they decided to import the same offense Northwestern uses.

-Brandon Williams played really well early, did a nice job finding openings in the defense.

-Booker Stanley and Matt Bernstein were terrific pounding out tough yardage on the ground. That game showed the need for our program to have three capable tailbacks.

-Anttaj Hawthorne played a great game up front, flashing the promise that made him seem like a future NFL player. Alas, it was not to be.

-Spotted a true freshman Joe Thomas wearing #82 in the Jumbo package, funny.

-Still get goosebumps watching the end of a big Badger win like this one, even when the outcome is known ahead of time and I'm watching it on my living room floor by myself. Let's get 'em again this weekend!

Statistical leaders: Offense

Okay nerds, you sick of these numbers yet? I'm not. (Please, Michigan Week, get here soon!)

Here are the leaders of the Alvarez-Bielema era in key statistical categories.

OFFENSE
Yards per game: 1993 (455.2), 1994 (423.6), 1999 (417.2), 2007 (408.8). I don't think people remember just how explosive that 1993-94 offense was. Had Lee Deramus not been injured that '94 team could have been absolutely awesome. And that '07 average being so high is a testament to Paul Chryst.

Rushing attempts per game: 1999 (53.0), 1993 (50.3), 1998 (50.0). Whether rushing attempts are a cause or an effect is debatable, but the fact is our three Great Teams rushed the ball more than the other 12. The first two are the same in rushing yards per game, but the 2006 team is third ... thank you, Ron Dayne.

Passing yards per game (fixed, thanks Toohey): 2005 (228.4), 1995 (221.7), 2003 (217.9), 2001 (213). Several points here:

1. John Stocco's 2005 was so overlooked because for three-quarters of the season everyone was still bitching about how bad he played in 2004. But what a season!

2. 1995 and 2001 are our only two non-bowl years since 1993. They were also seasons that got Darrell Bevell and Brooks Bollinger's butt whipped.

3. Is it really that surprising that Jim Sorgi ('03) has stuck in the NFL this long? He was a nice quarterback in college, and more pro-style than just about anyone we've had.

4. Last on this list: 1998, when Mike Samuel and friends passed for just 113.6 yards per game. Unreal.

Third-down conversion percentage: 1993 (58.3%!), 1996 (47.4%), 2005 (46.6%). The '93 team's margin of 'victory' here is staggering. Imagine how demoralizing it had to be playing against that team, when it converted so many of its third-down chances. Remember, UW's average in this period is 43.6%. Why again did the '96 team only go 8-5?

Turnovers per game: 1998 (0.8), 1999 (0.9), 2005 (1.1). On the other end of the spectrum, the '94 team turned it over 2.2 times per game. Obviously an important factor in a team's success.

Penalty yards per game: 1995 (25), 1997 (34.4), 1993 (35.1), 1998 (35.3). Funny, I don't remember that '95 team being an exceptionally disciplined bunch.

Points per game: 2005 (34.3), 1999 (34.1), 1998 (31.8), 1994 (29.8), 1993 (29.5). Few surprises here, except that the '98 team averaged almost 32 points per game while throwing for just over 100. A testament to Ron Dayne and, I presume, Jamar Fletcher.

So there you have it, another post that reinforces that we win big when we run the ball well and run it a lot. It's fun seeing a stat, seeing where it ranks, and remembering who was involved in making it happen.

Commemorative Badger Sports Illustrated

Last week while we were waiting in the checkout line at Pick 'n Save Jana spotted the magazine shown at right — Wisconsin: A celebration of Badgers Football from Sports Illustrated. She asked if I wanted it and I initially said no, then relented.

Glad I did. Although I assumed it would contain nothing I didn't know already or hadn't read before, that was not true. Lots of good stuff in the magazine:

-Crazylegs Hirsch feature
-Alan Ameche feature
-Ron Dayne feature
-All-time team
-Preview of this season, along with a P.J. Hill feature
-Barry Alvarez feature
-Jim Sorgi piece

Beyond that there are a lot of great photos. If you live in Wisconsin and see it in the store, snatch one up, it'll be a nice addition to your collection. Cover price is $7.99.

It's Sorgi time!

It's hard to believe, but Jim Sorgi is going into his fifth NFL season this year. Hard to believe because, playing behind Peyton Manning, he never sees the field.

That's going to change for awhile, at least as long as Peyton is recovering from left knee surgery. Sorgi's running with the Colts' first-string offense, which gives him access to the likes of Reggie Wayne, Marvin Harrison, Dallas Clark and others.

For those of you starved for live football, it's coming on Sunday, and Sorgi will be on center stage as the Colts play the Redskins in the Hall of Fame game. It's at 7 p.m. CST on NBC, so no excuse not to watch or Tivo/DVR the thing. Hopefully our guy will play well.

Although it seems like Sorgi is destined to be a career backup, maybe if he strings together enough strong August performances and regular season relief showings, someday he'll get a shot at starting.

This Bud's for us: Jon Budmayr commits

Word leaked Tuesday that Bret Bielema landed a commitment from a pretty darn good high school quarterback by the name of Jon Budmayr of Marian Central Catholic in Woodstock, Ill. Seems like a good kid, and a good quarterback prospect. He also impressed at the Nike Football Training Camp in Ohio recently (thanks for the heads-up, Schwib).

Bud, as he will be known here from now on, chose UW over Notre Dame, Nebraska, Illinois, and Iowa, among others. Not bad.

Schwalbach emailed me excitedly Tuesday night, opining that top-tier quarterback recruits are starting to see that Madison isn't such a bad place to play. I'm not sure. Bud isn't exactly a Jimmy Clausen-type recruit -- Scout has him as the 55th-best QB prospect. And while Curt Phillips ended up being pretty highly rated, he wasn't at the time he committed.

But so what? All I care about is that they end up being effective players for Wisconsin. Think about our recent quarterbacks: Donovan, Stocco, Sorgi, Bollinger. None of those guys was the next coming of Ron Powlus coming out of high school, and all played well enough to win a bunch of games as college starters. Two guys even carved out nice little NFL careers for themselves.

Given the receiving talent we attract to Wisconsin and the coaching they receive; Paul Chryst's modern offense; and the relative success of the aforementioned Badger quarterbacks of the last decade, we should see a higher caliber of QB recruit matriculating to the alma mater. But if not, we'll probably be OK anyway.

Wisconsin-Indiana thoughts

Wow, what a great win! As disappointed as I was Saturday - losing a game I expected us to win - tonight's win is even sweeter - winning a game I was sure we'd lose. My quick initial thoughts:

-Felt like the Texas game.
-Butch now has a signature moment as a Badger.
-On the day their coach was confirmed a cheater and a liar, Indiana did not deserve to win.

-Butch came up huge late, but to me it was Flowers and Bohannon who were the heroes. Flowers had a great offensive first half and did a nice job on Gordon, even though he ended up with 23 points. J-Bo, obviously, had the breakout shooting game we've all been waiting for, at just the right time!

-You know why J-Bo and Flowers were knocking down those 3-pointers? Because they caught the ball ready to shoot, not catching it and waiting for the defenders to get on them like sometimes happens when we're being so deliberate. Today's ironic headline: The Cap Times' "J-Bo not just a gunner anymore." It was a well-reasoned story, but I was happy he came out gunning tonight!

-In the pregame, Gene Keady said Indiana would come out playing zone, so I expected them to be good at it. Not the case. We had tons of wide-open looks in the early going, even if they were perimeter shots, just didn't make them. I made a note that if we lost, it was because we didn't take advantage of their poor early defense.

-Love the resilience in the first half. The shots weren't falling, White was killing us, even the fat kid scored a couple times - but we never let it get out of control.

-D.J. White is a really good player, but he looked like Wilt Freaking Chamberlain in the first half. It reminded me of the Sweet 16 game five years ago against Kentucky where Marques Estill ate us alive and Bo refused to double down on him. In this game, that refusal paid off - White slowed down in the second half and they were just 3-for-13 on 3-pointers.

-IU is talented, but missing something that makes a good team an elite team. Probably defensive stoppers - we scored only 66 points, but I think we had a very good offensive game.

-Schwib emailed me earlier today about the Kelvin Sampson news, and he compared it to our Shoe Box game against Western Michigan. Very similar, good call. Indiana knew this guy was in trouble when they hired him, now they've got to deal with his continued naughty behavior. Will they fire him? Apparently they can do it without buying him out. Makes you wonder more about Gordon's de-commit from Illinois ... bet Illini fans are having a field day with this.

-Stiemsma played some good minutes in the first half on both ends.

-Krabby once again hit the boards hard, and had a nice bank shot, but was again tentative finishing around the basket. Here's a comparison for you: Joe Krabbenhoft is the Badgers' Dennis Rodman, pre-bug out.

-Jim Sorgi in the house! In this mug shot he looks like a cross between my brother-in-law Nick and Tony Romo.

-After Saturday's mess, I thought this game was very well-officiated. We only shot five free throws, but only deserved that many, shot mostly jumpers. They shot 20 because they attacked the rim. The key was that the refs let our guys play defense on Gordon without sending him to the line time after time like NBA refs to with Dwayne Wade.

-Gordon and Wade: an apt comparison? I envision Gordon as an NBA point guard, but Wade makes a go of it at roughly the same height (6-4).

-Great play by Landry to tip in his own miss. We hit the offensive boards well all night.

-As mentioned at the top, really happy for Butch. He's been here for some great teams and great games, and stepped up big - he wanted that last shot. He was wonderful against Texas - but everyone will remember Flowers' shot and steal. He was big against Pitt in Madison last year, but I remember Alando. Here's his moment to remember - even if it was a bank shot!

Thought it was funny that Larrivee called him the Polar Bear, though ESPN/Lavin/Musberger had copyright on that.

-That's our seventh road win this year. Today's email said that we had the fifth-most road wins of any major conference school in the last two years - perhaps a better indicator of program strength than home court dominance.

-Another 20-win season, five-for-seven under Bo - should have been six if not for that loss to North Dakota State. Who would have thought this was possible 15 years ago?

Badgers in the NFL: an '07 recap

Went to the Packers game yesterday, with a much better outcome than my last trip to Lambeau. Got a chance to watch former Badgers Mark Tauscher and Alex Lewis, but Brian Calhoun is hurt. As I saw Ron Dayne having another solid game, and when I got home and saw Jim Sorgi at quarterback for the Colts and Chris Chambers catching a touchdown for the Chargers, it got me thinking what a nice season this was for UW alumni in the NFL. Let's run it down:

-Michael Bennett, Buccaneers: 241 yards rushing, 1 TD.
Has over 3,600 yards rushing for his career.

-Brooks Bollinger, Vikings: 391 yards passing, 1 TD

-Brian Calhoun, Lions: 35 yards rushing

-Chris Chambers, Chargers: 970 yards receiving, 4 TD. Has over 6,200 career receiving yards.

-Owen Daniels, Texans: 768 yards receiving, 3 TD

-Ron Dayne, Texans: 773 yards, 6 TD. Has over 3,700 career rushing yards.

-Lee Evans, Bills: 849 yards receiving, 5 TD. Has over 3,700 career receiving yards.

-Jamar Fletcher, Texans: 19 tackles

-Nick Greisen, Ravens: 30 tackles

-Erasmus James, Vikings: 7 tackles, 1 sack

-Jason Jefferson, Bills: 11 tackles

-Al Johnson, Cardinal: 14 starts at center

-Matt Katula, Ravens: 16 games at long snapper

-Ross Kolodziej, Cardinals: 3 games

-Jim Leonhard, Bills: 54 tackles, 2 interceptions, 6 starts at safety

-Alex Lewis, Lions: 29 tackles, 1 forced fumble

-Jason Pociask, Jets: 1 reception

-Casey Rabach, Redskins: 15 starts at center

-Mike Schneck, Falcons: 12 games at long snapper

-Jim Sorgi, Colts: 132 yards passing, 1 TD

-Scott Starks, Jaguars: 22 tackles, 1 interception

-Aaron Stecker, Saints: 448 yards rushing, 5 TD

-Mark Tauscher, Packers: 16 starts at right tackle

-Joe Thomas, Browns: 16 starts at left tackle

-Brandon Williams, 49ers/Rams: 10 games, 2 fumbles

Lots of Badgers in the NFL. You could just about field a whole team of them, here's how it would look:

Offense: Sorgi, Bennett/Stecker, Dayne, Thomas, Tauscher, Rabach, Johnson, Dan Buenning (Bucs), Evans, Chambers, Daniels
Defense: James, Jefferson, Kolodziej, Anttaj Hawthorne (cut by Raiders in training camp), Greisen, Lewis, Fletcher, Starks, Leonhard, Rogers, BJ Tucker (last seen with 49ers)

Looking at these lists something strikes me: for a program built on defense and running the ball, the pro players we've produced have been offensive skill position players and linemen known for their pass blocking. It wouldn't be entirely surprising if none of those defensive players were on NFL rosters come September. Hopefully Ike, Shaughnessy, Casillas, et al can reverse that trend.

Looks like the Bills and Texans are my favorite teams other than the Packers. Also, if you would have asked a fan in 2000 which former Badger running back would be playing the best at the end of the 2007 NFL season - Dayne, Bennett, or Stecker - who would you have said?