Best of the decade: How I voted

Here's how I voted:

Best play of the decade
Football (Oct. 15, 2005) Jonathan Casillas blocks a punt that Ben Strickland recovers for a touchdown with 30 seconds left to complete a 10-point comeback in the final three minutes and give UW a 38-34 win at Minnesota.

Maybe the most excited I've ever been at a Badger sporting event. Those of us who were in that dump of a dome will never forget it.

Close #2: Men’s Hockey (March 26, 2006) Jack Skille scores the game-winning goal in the third overtime against Cornell to advance to the Frozen Four. My brother and I were there, what a tremendous game. The aftermath of this one was a little different than the Casillas-Strickland game, since they'd been playing for about six hours, we were dead tired, and had a long drive home ahead of us. Andy and I waited in line at a concession stand behind Darrell Bevell during one overtiem intermission, he had just been named the Vikings' offensive coordinator, good guy.

But it's hard to argue with Michael Flowers' shot to beat Texas (watched it in my bedroom) or the Scott Starks Purdue play (watched it somewhere in Central Washington at in-laws' house).

Best Student-Athlete of the Decade
I chose Devin Harris. Chris Solinsky, Joe Thomas, Dany Heatley and Alando Tucker are my runners-up. Jimmy Leonhard, too.

Best Team of the Decade
2005-06 men's hockey. Why them and not any of the women's national champions, who were more dominant? Because there are a lot more teams playing Division 1 men's hockey, tougher to reach the top of the mountain.

Who did you vote for?

Three questions from Edward

Regular reader Edward was nice enough to comment on a recent post in which he posed me three interesting questions. Here goes:

Am I going to jinx the Badgers by going to Evanston next weekend to watch them (Badgers at Northwestern is always both exciting and terrible)?

Yes, Edward, you are. I thought about seeing if NU had tickets available for the game, since it's an easy drive for me and my wife and mom would probably find some things for the boys to do in Chicago.

But then I remembered that my dad, brother, and brother-in-law went to Evanston in January to watch the Badgers play basketball, and even though we had a ton of UW fans in attendance, we lost. Glad we went, and we'll probably go again. But watching the Wisconsin football team lose on the road -- which I have not experienced since the 1998 Michigan game -- is excruciating.

The game this Saturday is really important -- for a 10-win season, January 1 bowl implications, an outside shot at a Big Ten title -- so I figured I'd play it safe and watch the game on TV. In addition, I will be wearing the same clothes I've worn every other Saturday this fall.

I think the final score of this game will be something like 24-23.

What do you think the chances of Iowa and Penn State losing and Wisconsin getting into the BCS are?

Slim and none. I'd peg the odds of either Iowa or Penn State losing at 3:1, both at 20:1. It's a long shot that Minnesota beats Iowa. I'd peg the odds of Wisconsin getting into the BCS at 100:1. Word is out that the Big Ten isn't all that hot this season, and the Ohio State-Iowa game reinforced that to the rest of the world. Plus, TCU and Boise State going to deservingly take two BCS spots away from BCS conference schools.

What is up with the bad couple weeks for Badgers in the NFL? I kind of follow them in the NFL but ... Owen Daniels gets injured for the season after Jaworski calls him the best TE in pro football, Chris Chambers gets cut because, apparently, they thought his personal life was getting in the way of his play and Jim Leonhard suffers a broken thumb. Are any Badgers actually having a good year in the NFL?

I was thinking the same thing Monday night while watching the Browns-Ravens game. The Browns are one of what seems like 10 god-awful teams in the NFL, and they are dragging the best former Badger in the pros, Joe Thomas, down with them. So I turned to this handy link I found on Twitter, which informed me that:

-Lee Evans caught two touchdown passes last week.
-Chambers averaged 20 yards per catch.
-Matt Shaughnessy had his second career sack. He's looking like a guy who turns out to be a better pro than collegian.
-Leonhard had a nice game, and might not necessarily be out.
-Some other guys did some other intangible things.

I think the ascension of Daniels, Leonhard and Thomas was something of an aberration, and what we saw last week is more in line with typical Badgers-in-the-NFL production.

Big Ten all-decade team

As is my summer ritual, I finally cracked into my first college football preview magazine last week. This seems almost quaint now that we're seeing preseason top 25 rankings on the Internet before the bowl games are even over, but I'm old-fashioned that way.

Here's the first thing I found interesting in the Athlon book: a Big Ten all-decade team. Athlon's rule was that no school could have more than four players represented, and Wisconsin had four: Joe Thomas, Travis Beckum, Erasmus James, and Jamar Fletcher. All worthy choices. Here are the entire teams:

Offense
Drew Brees, Mike Hart (gag), Damien Anderson, Braylon Edwards, Charles Rogers, Beckum, Thomas, Greg Eslinger, Jake Long, Robert Gallery, Levi Brown

Defense
James, Mitch King, Lamarr Woodley, James Laurinaitis, Paul Posluszny, A.J. Hawk, Dan Connor, Vontae Davis, Jamar Fletcher, Bob Sanders, Mike Doss

Special teams
Nate Kaeding, Travis Dorsch, Ted Ginn, Antwaan Randle El

Great teams, not too much to quibble about. Davis on defense is one I question, beating out Marlin Jackson. Lee Evans was the third wide receiver. Hart was apparently a unanimous selection, while I still maintain that he is the most overrated college football player in recent memory. What about Laurence Maroney or Marion Barber? As good as Minnesota's running game was for much of the decade, they should have more than just Eslinger.

The balance of teams represented does clearly illustrate who has been the league's weak sisters this century: Northwestern, Indiana, Minnesota, Illinois, and Michigan State.

Lee and T.O.

The other night while driving around I heard Bucks announcer Ted Davis jokingly referring to the Bills' signing of Terrell Owens. Made me laugh, too -- can you really see the good, hard-working people of Buffalo putting up with that clown?

If he helps the Bills win, sure. What I'm most interested in, naturally, is what T.O. can mean for Lee Evans.

It seems like ever since the Bills drafted Evans and he began producing at a slightly above-average level, people in the know have said A. He needs a decent quarterback and B. He needs a complementary receiver.

At least he has B now. T.O. will attract so much attention, both from opposing defenses and the media, that Evans will be able to quietly thrive. Trent Edwards isn't a great quarterback, but he's not bad, either, and T.O. might make him even better.

It would be really nice to see another Badger to take the next step, a la Joe Thomas and now Owen Daniels, to Pro Bowl-caliber player. Evans is the most likely candidate, and now that he has a better running mate that has a better chance of happening.

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

Joe Thomas: 11th-best player in the NFL

Or so said Peter King in his NFL season preview, which landed in my mailbox last week. That's pretty amazing: Joe Thomas is 11th best player in the NFL! It happened so quickly, and so quietly. Earlier this summer Sporting News called Joe the best tackle in the AFC, but he was probably still overshadowed by Walter Jones and Flozell Adams in the NFC.

Just goes to show you what a premium position left tackle is, and what a supreme talent Joe is.

Can't remember the last time a former Badger was considered one of the top 10-20 players in the NFL. Did Troy Vincent ever reach those heights? Maybe Paul Gruber.

Wisconsin's all-time Top 10 athletes

Last week my brother-in-law Nick (Sorgi-Romo) Barbera emailed me a link to an SI.com feature on Wisconsin's Top 10 all-time athletes. It's interesting -- here's the list:




10. Joe Thomas
9. Tony Granato
8. Pat Richter
7. Michael Finley
6. Red Below
5. Mark Johnson
4. Alando Tucker
3. Ron Dayne
2. Suzy Favor-Hamilton
1. Alan Ameche



Here's my top 20:
20. Gene Englund
19. Lee Kemp
18. Joe Thomas
17. Mark Johnson
16. Sara Bauer
15. Chris Solinsky
14. Al Toon
13. Alando Tucker

12. Amy Wickus
11. Cathy Branta
10. Kathy Butler
9. Robert Butler
8. Arlie Mucks
7. Pat O'Dea
6. Dave Schreiner/Pat Harder
5. Alan Ameche
4. Mike Eaves
3. Ron Dayne
2. Pat Richter
1. Suzy Favor-Hamilton

Don't know some of these names? Visit www.uwbadgers.com and do some research. Please return and discuss.

We're #7 - our offensive line, that is

Just how good is the Badgers' offensive line? Lindy's has it as the seventh-best unit in the country.

"The Badgers, near-permanent residents of this list, have lots of versatility and standout guard Kraig Urbik, making life easier for a new starting quarterback."

The "near-permanent residents" phrase is what gets me. The Wisconsin line is almost always in this top 10, and when they're not I take exception. But is that reputation deserved?

We've always had top-tier linemen, from Joe Thomas to Dan Buenning to Casey Rabach to Chris McIntosh to Cory Raymer. And we always seem to have one of the best running attacks around. Here's where we've ranked nationally in rushing yardage recently:

2007: 22nd
2006: 37th

2005: 37th

2004: 52nd

2003: 37th
2002: 33rd

Good, but not great. Surely many of the rushing attacks ahead of ours have been unbalanced teams playing lesser competition. But while our attack was more balanced than, say, Navy's, our pass protection has never been iron-clad.

This year's unit looks to be pretty solid: Gabe Carimi and Eric Vanden Heuvel at tackle, Urbik and Andy Kemp at guard, and John Moffitt at center. Urbik's a star, Carimi might become a star this year or next year, Moffitt shows promise, Kemp and EVH are fairly average. Josh Oglesby is the star-in-waiting.

Maybe that's what it takes to have one of the 10 best offensive lines in the country. Maybe it's unrealistic to think that an offensive line will feature five all-conference types. Maybe after all these years, my expectations for the offensive line are greater.

If the Badgers' offensive line is the seventh-best in the country, we'll be all right this year.

The newest Badger

This morning at 2:22 a.m., Jana gave birth to Charles Edward Tappa. Charlie was 20.5 inches long, 7 pounds, 8.4 ounces.

I understand that's a little bit tall for a newborn, and sure enough: when my mother-in-law went home to check the mail for us, there was a scholarship offer for Charlie from Indiana University! I'm holding out hope he'll play for Tony Bennett in Madison.

When Will was born in May 2004, I had to walk him around OB unit to keep him calmed down in the first day or so. One of the stories I told him was the story of the 1993 Wisconsin Badgers, who magically shook off decades of poor play to win the Rose Bowl. We went through the two-deep, position by position. Haven't had to do that yet -- Charlie has been a terrific sleeper thus far -- but at least I have some fresh material for him: the 2006 hockey national champions, All-American Alando Tucker, Joe Thomas, the 2008 Big Ten basketball champions, etc.

It's early, but it's hard for someone like me not to daydream about taking Will, Charlie and Jana to Camp Randall on fall Saturdays in the not-so-distant future. Those are some of my best memories of my dad and brother growing up, and hopefully my boys and I will make similar memories.

God willing, these two will follow their father, uncle, grandfather, and many other wonderful people to Madison for college. When I graduated from UW 10 years ago, most of the best moments in my life took place there. They're still great memories, but nothing beats holding your newborn child ... even if they end up going to Northern Michigan.

New NFL Badgers

Congratulations to Jack Ikegwuonu, Taylor Mehlhaff, Paul Hubbard and Nick Hayden, who became the latest former Badgers to be selected by NFL teams.

Ike went in the fourth round to Philadelphia. The Eagles have two good corners in Lito Sheppard and Asante Samuel, but it seems like Sheppard wants out of Philly. Doesn't matter much for this year, since Ike isn't going to play while he's rehabbing his injured knee. The Eagles have been pretty successful drafting and grooming cornerbacks over the years — then letting them go in free agency. Ike landed in a good spot, hopefully his injury and off-field issues don't inhibit him from reaching his professional potential.

Checking the Saints' depth chart, it appears that Martin Gramatica is the lone kicker in New Orleans right now. God, I hope Taylor beats out out that little brat! Apparently Gramatica kicked pretty well in the Saints' last three games last season, and was expected to compete with Olindo Mare for the kicking job. If Mehlhaff can stick, what a great place to start his career — a dome. Ryan Longwell's whining for years about the advantages dome kickers have may have turned off some fans (read: me), but he's right.

Hubbard's going to have an uphill battle to win a job in Cleveland, which led by Joe Thomas had a terrific offense last season. Braylon Edwards is the go-to guy at wideout, they recently acquired Donte Stallworth, and Joe Jurevicius is a good #3. Paul will have to beat out the likes of Tim Carter, Josh Cribbs, and Travis Wilson for a job. It'll help if he can show value as a special teams player.

The Panthers came into the draft looking to address their defensive line, but didn't take a D-Lineman until Hayden in the sixth round. So that bodes well for his chances of sticking. Carolina's other guys at defensive tackle are Damione Lewis, Steve Williams, and Ma'ake Kemoeatu; their ends are Julius Peppers, Tyler Brayton, Charles Johnson, and Stanley McClover. So basically, Peppers and a bunch of nobodies. It'll be interesting to see if Hayden can stick at tackle, since he weighs less than 300 pounds.

Just read that the Packers signed Ken DeBauche, who we saw at Crazylegs yesterday. Don't figure he'll make the team, but it will be good for him to get in an NFL camp and show what he can do; guys bounce around so much at those kicking positions that you just need to impress one team. And Luke Swan signed with the Chiefs. Here's hoping Marcus Coleman gets a shot with someone.

Which of these Badgers ended up in the best situation?

And in other news, Jim Leonhard signed with Baltimore after spending his first three seasons in Buffalo.

Vote for Joe Thomas!

Joe Thomas had a great rookie season in Cleveland, helping the Browns into playoff contention and making their offense one of the best in the league.

Now we can vote for him in a Rookie of the Year competition. Realistically, he has no shot - Adrian Peterson is the overwhelming favorite, Patrick Willis had a great season, and Joe is an offensive lineman.

Last week it was announced he would be going to Hawaii for the Pro Bowl, good for him. The UW press release said he's the first Badger Pro Bowler since 2005, when Chris Chambers and Mike Schneck went. Really, Mike Schneck? Mamas, train your boys to be long snappers.

-On another note: did you see that Northwestern hired Mike Hankwitz to be their defensive coordinator? Interesting. Northwestern has never had a good defense, so we'll see if Hank can turn that ship around.

Badgers on Facebook

My brother and I were talking about Facebook the other day, and he made this not completely untrue statement:

"Dude, when people like you are getting into Facebook, that's when you know it's not cool any more."

Ouch, but I do have a history of coming in past the prime time of cultural phenomena: downloading music, cell phones, online shopping, direct payroll deposit, high-speed Internet at home. We've purchased DVR four years after TiVo became popular, but DirecTV keeps messing up and we haven't gotten it hooked up yet.

So I don't have a great track record as an early adopter, but I'm trying to change that (why does nobody seem to care about all my Twitter messages?). However, among my long-time close friends, only Butch and Toohey have signed up for Facebook, which makes me as cutting edge as all my college-aged cousins and 40-something co-workers.

If/when you decide Facebook is for you, a. Become my friend, b. Sign up for Facebook's best Badger fan community:

http://www.facebook.com/add.php?api_key=c24ac9233116fef04c3e92aee417d3d2&next=?refuid=3097947

The coolest thing about this is the Badger trivia section. With plenty of time to kill over the holidays, I answered every last one as quickly as possible, and ended up in fourth place. Then I took the time to create about 50 questions, which put me in first until the guy I overtook for the lead noticed and created 60 more. Game on, Jeremy David Jones.

Since I found out about this community from my old college friend Vikram Naik, I joined his team and saw where we ranked among other teams. Not high - Toohey is stuck on a goose egg. But I did see who led other "teams" of trivia guessers: Zach Hampton, Justin Ostrowski, Marcus Coleman, Brandon Kelly, Brad Thorson. Looking further at these teams, I found Matt Bernstein, Paul Standring, Joe Monty, Kurt Ware, Darrin Charles, Mike Allen, RJ Morse, Jonathan Clinkscale, Kalvin Barrett, LaMarr Watkins, Andrew Weininger, Mark Gorman, Josh Balts, Ryan Flasch.

There's nothing that remarkable about finding these guys there; after all, they were/are college students, and that's what college students do nowadays. It was just cool to see these names again, as I'd forgotten most of them. Also: didn't see too many all-conference types on there. Is it too much of a hassle for a star college athlete to put himself out there on a social network? I think it makes these kids seem more like regular students.

-On another note, Mike Lucas is reporting that Bob Palcic is leaving UW to be Rick Neuheisel's offensive line coach at UCLA. Bring your guitar and canoe, Bob, Ricky's a real player's coach.

Lucas says Bob Bostad will probably take over, which makes sense. He'll probably do fine - the tight ends are better than ever right now. Bostad was here only two years, but he did a good job replacing Jim Hueber and upholding our reputation for producing top-notch offensive lines. Can't give him too much credit for Joe Thomas, but give him lots of credit for plugging holes created by graduation and injuries.

Defense

The Wisconsin defense was not as good as we thought it would be this year. Last year's unit ranked near the top of the national rankings in many key categories, and seven starters returned. The key positions to examine: defensive end, middle linebacker, and the two safety spots, not coincidentally the spots vacated by graduating seniors.

Two items in the news today illustrate why:

-Roderick Rogers was signed by the Broncos off their practice squad. Even though, as this story says, he was a two-time all-conference pick, I never thought he was an irreplaceable member of the defense; certainly never thought he was NFL-caliber, but apparently he is, and I'm glad. The struggles in the defensive backfield show just how good he and Joe Stellmacher were. In retrospect, Stellmacher really overshadowed Rogers, who was a darn good player in his own right.

-In The Cap Times Mike Lucas writes about Elijah Hodge's injury troubles this season (he also writes about Abdul Hodge, veers off onto Erik Ainge for a few paragraphs, and I think may have made his picks for the Iowa caucuses). Here's a guy who I thought would step in seamlessly for Mark Zalewski, and he may have, had he not been hurt. There is no such award, but look for Hodge to be our comeback player in 2008. The experience Culmer St. Jean and Jae McFadden got because of injuries to Hodge and DeAndre Levy will pay off as well.

On another note, I was talking to a friend about Joe Thomas last week and he asked me if Joe was having a good rookie season. Since I'm not an offensive line expert or Ron Jaworski, I couldn't tell, but responded that since the Browns offense was doing so well this year, he must have been at least holding his own. Yesterday he was named a Pro Bowl alternate, so he must have done OK.