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.

Anthony Davis, eh?

Can you believe that in over 300 posts on a blog called Badgercentric there has not been one mention yet of Anthony Davis? The Anthony Davis who is Wisconsin's second all-time leading rusher, with 4,676 yards and 42 touchdowns? Who was just incredible his first two seasons, before injuries derailed his college career?

Well, here's the first. Was reading a pretty good Mike Lucas story today on Tyler Donovan's emotions during the NFL Draft, and what his future in the CFL looks like. It's funny, because several times during the draft Saturday I made a remark to Polzin like "Hey Jimmy, the Ravens just took Donovan, time to get to work." Interesting to see that NFL teams actually were talking to Tyler, although it would probably have just been for tryouts.

Anyway, back to Davis. According to Lucas's story, Davis played the last couple years for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats before being traded to the Toronto Argonauts in December. Unfortunately, the Argos' website indicates AD was released three weeks ago.

Davis was on my mind last fall when we were debating here how the Badgers' current running back depth chart should shape up. Some people indicated that they wouldn't be disappointed if P.J. Hill moved on, since Zach Brown, Lance Smith and John Clay could fill in just fine. I disagree. When you find a superstar back - like Davis was his first two seasons - the dropoff to guys who are just pretty good can change a season.

When Davis got hurt in 2003 and 2004, Badger fans probably thought it would be no big deal since Dwayne Smith and Booker Stanley were waiting in the wings. They proved capable, but the offense bogged down at times. It wasn't until Brian Calhoun came in the next season that the offense again had a dynamic threat out of the backfield, and that side of the ball was explosive for the Badgers.

My point is, when you have a guy who's a true game-changer right off the bat, you ride him as long as he can, because the guys behind him might not necessarily be better.

Thanks for a good year, Badgers

It was inevitable, but I was still hoping it wouldn't happen. When I hopped on Google Analytics yesterday morning, I noticed that traffic on the blog had dipped roughly 30% Saturday from Friday. Could it be because the basketball team lost, unofficially ending the 2007-08 Badger sports season?

Unfortunately, I think so.

A few weeks ago Andy said to me "What are you going to write about when basketball season's over? Because I don't want to read about your freaking personal life." The feeling is mutual, bro.

What am I going to write about?

-Sporadic Badger news. For instance, Tyler Donovan just signed with a CFL team, the Edmonton Eskimos. That's really great, the CFL is a better fit for a mobile quarterback like Tyler, and hopefully he finds a long, successful career north of the border. Maybe he turns into the next Doug Flutie. Badgers in the NFL Draft will get some coverage.

-General Badger thoughts. For instance, I plan on reflecting on the careers of the four departing senior basketball players, my favorite Badger games, etc. Maybe I'll dig into recruiting more, especially key basketball prospects like Jamil Wilson and Evan Anderson. When the preseason football magazines start coming out in June, we'll take a look at those, and break down some of the key Badgers for this fall's team.

-With the Badgers done, I can focus my sports energies on the Brewers for better or worse on Brewercentric. Head on over there and check out the discussion, Walt and the guys have been getting the hang of group blogging.

-General pop culture stuff. For instance, Jana and I watched Michael Clayton on Saturday and liked it. Tilda Swinton was excellent, Clooney was good, as were all the other key players. It was a bit confusing, and might not have been as good as all the hype surrounding it .. sort of like The Departed. But we're still glad we watched it.

-The Office is going to start airing new episodes again too, right?

-If you do want to read about my freaking personal life, Jana and I are blogging about our adventures in parenting at Raising Tappas. Will is good for a yuck a day, and we'll have our hands full with #2. (And by the way: we test drove those three vehicles on Saturday, and are a heavy lean to the Honda Odyssey. Yes, Badgercentric's going minivan. Maybe I'll try to grow a ponytail to compensate for my middle-age insecurities.)

When I started this blog in late September the day before the Iowa game, it was really just as a writing outlet and a way to keep in touch with friends and family. And that's what it will remain going forward. But in just over six months it's brought me in touch with so many more people, including old college buddies with whom I'd lost touch, and been a terrific experience.

If you've been visiting every day and choose to scale back, no hard feelings, I'd probably do the same. But Badgercentric isn't going anywhere, and I'm already looking forward to what the 2008-09 Wisconsin sports season has in store.

Purdue pursuing Chryst

The Lafayette Journal & Courier is reporting that Purdue is pursuing Paul Chryst to be its next coach, in a scenario like the one where Matt Painter came on board and assisted Gene Keady for a year before taking over. Interesting. For the various reasons Potrykus spells out in his story, I don't think will happen. Chryst seems like a Madison guy who is made for being a coordinator, and he knows it, but as Tom Mulhern points out in the State Journal , he did recently interview for the Washington State job.

While losing him would not be catastrophic, in my opinion, it would sting. Chryst has added a level of diversity and consistency to the Badger offense that wasn't there under Brian White and Brad Childress. Who knows, maybe it was Alvarez's influence on the scheme, and only late in his career did he embrace the importance of a competent passing game.

Chryst has done some wonderful things with the offense, most notably in 2006 when he lost all his skill players and three offensive linemen from the powerhouse 2005 unit. His role developing John Stocco and Tyler Donovan can not be understated, and he will be key to getting Allan Evridge up to speed for 2008, and hopefully Curt Phillips for the four years following.

Hopefully whatever happens, it happens quickly. We've got about a month left in the recruiting race and losing a successful offensive coordinator could really hurt.

Wisconsin-Tennessee thoughts

Tough loss. Tennessee definitely deserved this one, but it's a game we could have won without an extraordinary effort. It boiled down to some things that have plagued us all season, and some unexpectedly subpar coaching calls at times. Don't want this last game recap to be overwhelmingly negative, but that's what sticks out right now.

-Really have to like the way the defense played in the second half. But ... the Vols converted on so many third downs that we never got the decided field position edge that we needed. A number of bad missed tackles and familiar culprits - Elijah Hodge, Shane Carter, Kim Royston - that gave UT 15-20 yards a crack more than they should have had. Not getting off the field in these situations was the big difference between this year's defense and last year's.

-More execution gaffes: Hubbard's fumble, Jefferson's drop, all those procedure penalties, Donovan's underthrown last pass. Using two timeouts early in the second half also hurt.

-Two of Chryst's calls really struck me as bad from the snap: the pitch left to Smith on third-and-five, and the fourth down call in the fourth quarter that had Donovan rolling right with nobody even remotely open. We're Wisconsin, run the ball right at them on those plays. Reminded me of the option call at UNLV.

-The field seemed very soft, lots of guys slipping around. Wasn't a difference-maker, though.

-We seemed to have more fans there, or at least our fans were much louder than the assembled hillbillies wearing orange. (Sorry, made it almost 14 hours into the new year before a bitter slip.)

-Not sure why Beckum wasn't more involved, if he was well-covered, if Donovan was missing him, or, least likely, if he wasn't prominent in the game plan. If you would have told me four hours ago that he wouldn't get the 40 yards he needed for 1,000 on the season, I would have laughed.

-Thought the staff took too long to put P.J. back in during the second half. He played great today, no signs of rust. I'll follow up on this later this week, but is there still doubt that he's our best back? He is our best chance to consistently beat good teams by controlling the ball on the ground.

-Hodge's missed tackle or two aside, the linebackers played well. Hodge made a nice play to block the field goal attempt - thought we almost got an extra point earlier. Casillas and Levy were constantly around the ball, Casillas in the backfield, Levy in coverage. Schofield and DeCremer also made nice plays in the second half.

-LePay just said the senior class ends up as the winningest class in UW history - 40-11. Congratulations to these guys.

Disappointing end to a season that didn't deliver on high expectations, but we played a close game on January 1, won nine games for the fourth straight year, had a winning Big Ten record and went undefeated at home. If
you feel like complaining about that, I feel sorry for you.

Look for a more detailed season recap or two in the coming week.

Wisconsin-Tennessee halftime thoughts

All in all, pretty happy to be down only seven at halftime. We really haven't done anything to slow down their offense, and we've been inconsistent with the ball. If Donovan can survive one more half we have a shot at this thing.

-Really going to miss Mehlhaff's kickoffs, that's been a real positive for this team for four years.

-Could you get a worse person to announce your starting lineup than Heath Shuler? Yes - Matt Kenseth. Would have been nice if someone had gone over Ike's name with him beforehand.

-O'Brien Schofield did in fact start at defensive end, but hasn't done much. Will be interesting to see if he or Kirk DeCremer starts there next year.

-In the second half, watch how far Erik Ainge sets up in the shotgun, might be a reason he doesn't get sacked often.

-On that note: we're not getting any pressure on Ainge, so why not drop eight guys and make them beat you six yards passing at a time?

-Jae McFadden and Josh Nettles both should have had picks very early; had they, it would have dramatically changed the complexion of the game.

-Interesting end-around call to Lance Smith, that usually goes to a receiver. Reminded me of watching Dan Pallante's Wing-T at Fremont Ross.

-Did you see the two men in motion penalty that wiped out Brown's touchdown run? I didn't.

-Nice first half for Garrett Graham - four catches, 37 yards, and a nice box-out block on Donovan's touchdown run.

-What a stupid call by the Vols to run that trick play. They were moving the ball at will without trickery. Interesting concept for a trick play, though.

-Donovan has to go down as one of the toughest players in Badgers history, we'll miss that. He's taken a lot of vicious hits; not sure if they're dirty or not - they seem so at first, but replays make them just look like hard hits - but Bielema's lobbying that they were resulted in a nice 15-yard penalty in our favor on the last touchdown drive. Really don't want to see Evridge taking snaps until the spring game.

-P.J. Hill is clearly our best running back today. He's running quicker and getting a better lean than Zach Brown.

-Great drive to end the first half, really needed that to have a chance. Beautiful play call by Chryst on Crooks' first catch of the year.

-During a commercial I flipped on the Cotton Bowl and heard an overmatched announcer wading through the Arkansas starting defense. Pat Summerall is back! Why?!

Should be a good second half between two evenly matched teams. It's going to come down to halftime adjustments, specifically Can we stop their passing game?

BCS thoughts

The big news for Badger fans stemming from tonight's bowl shakeout is that we're playing Tennessee in the Outback Bowl. That'll be a good matchup - pretty much like Arkansas last year, only this team has a better passing game. The Vols were the overwhelming preference of Badgercentric votes, who voted cast 11 of 16 votes for Tennessee. More as we move toward the game. Here are the initial reactions from this corner after tonight's announcements.

-I like what Fox did putting cameras with different teams, a la CBS and the Selection Sunday show. Did you see how packed Hawaii's arena was? The enthusiasm was great.

-So we get LSU-Ohio State for the whole ball of wax, eh? You might be expecting whining or a rant from me about now, but you know what? These are the probably the two best we have this year after he regular season ... which says something about the mediocrity of college football this year.

-Or it says something about the excitement and unpredictability of college football. Matt Hayes of the Sporting News is typically highly ignorable; his shtick is to eschew thoughtful analysis in favor of one-liners aimed at filling his Inbox with hate mail (and believe me, I've had several written before hitting delete and not giving him the satisfaction). But he wrote something published on Yahoo last night that was pretty good, read it here. He wrote that USC and Oklahoma should emerge to play for the national title. Can't disagree that those two (or Georgia ... or Virginia Tech) are the most deserving teams at the time, and there should be a playoff, but as is often said, in college football every week is a playoff, and these teams faltered for whatever reason.

-Best thing about the title game matchup: no spread offenses, just real men lining up and trying to beat each other up. I will get off this tangent someday.

-Happy for Kansas getting a BCS bid, but did they deserve it over Missouri? Hell no.

-Michigan gets a January 1 bowl in a year where they lose four games, including one to a Division I-AA team. There is no justice. Unless Tim Tebow scores about seven touchdowns on the Wolverines' sorry-ass defense. If Zach Brown and Tyler Donovan put 37 on these losers, Tebow can.

-Strangely, I feel happy for Illinois, even if their Rose Bowl bid does signal a beast to be reckoned with to our south.

-Best non-January Bowl: Sun Bowl, with South Florida playing Oregon, if Dennis Dixon is playing. Or, as usual, the Holiday Bowl: Arizona State vs. Texas.

-Michigan State gets Boston College (free fallin'!) and Oklahoma State is excited to play Indiana (JUST ASK MIKE GUNDY! HE'S A MAN!). Good for the Hoosiers shaking off their bowl drought in honor of Terry Hoeppner. Poor Penn State, which gets Texas A&M in the Alamo Bowl in what should be a home game for the Aggies.

-By my count Wisconsin beat just three bowl teams this year: Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana. Iowa did not reach a bowl - and didn't deserve to. And Purdue stole Minnesota's coveted spot in the Motor City Bowl - guess those Gopher band geeks will need to make "'07 Beat Miami (OH)" patches for their letter jackets.

-I'm going to take the Heisman poll off the blog tonight, but we got 36 votes. The final: Darren McFadden 14, Tim Tebow 7, Glenn Dorsey 6, Todd Reesing 3, Colt Brennan 2, Chase Daniel 2, Pat White 1, Chris Wells 1. Here's betting Tebow wins, but like this season, anything can happen.

Darren McFadden for Heisman, more Badger-Gopher thoughts

A month or so ago I jinxed Rashard Mendenhall by trumpeting his Heisman Trophy worthiness, and this week I did it to Glenn Dorsey. By Glenn was hurt and didn't do much yesterday as LSU became the latest top-ranked team to lose.

So now I'm plugging Darren McFadden. How big was he yesterday? Four touchdowns, 200-plus yards rushing, a man among boys against a talented defense.

If I had to bet my mortgage on who wins, I'd put it on Tim Tebow, who has had a fantastic season, but McFadden is a special player who comes along once in a generation for a conference - like a Herschel Walker for the 2000s - and he's not as much a product of the system as Tebow is.

-How exciting was that game yesterday? That was the most exciting game I've seen since LSU beat Alabama ... or since Kentucky beat LSU ... or since LSU beat Auburn ... or since LSU beat Florida. I can't remember an elite team playing this many thrilling games, maybe ever. And they're not just close games, they're games with lots of tension and big plays.

How big was Arkansas to get off the mat after blowing its lead several times to rebound and finish off the Tigers on their home field? The more I watched yesterday's game, the more I appreciated Wisconsin's win over Arkansas in the Capital One Bowl. That was a damn good team - take all of yesterday's key contributors, throw in Tony Ugoh (the Colts' starting left tackle), two great defensive ends (including top 10 pick Jamaal Anderson), a great corner in Chris Houston, and a great linebacker whose name escapes me - and beating the Razorbacks was quite an accomplishment.

One big absence, though: Peyton Hills. Pretty sure he didn't play in Orlando, and he made a ton of big plays yesterday.

-Although I love an upset like Arkansas', I am sick to my stomach about the possibility of a wholly undeserving Ohio State team playing for the national title.

-While relaxing in a hot tub last night, I saw a replay of the Badgers' win over Minnesota (was that only a week ago?), mainly the fourth quarter. Some new thoughts:

On the play before Tyler Donovan's fourth down conversion run, he completed a pass to Sean Lewis, who looked really natural as a receiver subbing for the injured Travis Beckum. Thing is, Lewis appeared to push off the Gophers' DB.

On several running plays Gabe Carimi seemed to be a half-step behind the snap count, coming out of his stance slightly after the rest of the line. Didn't make a difference, though, the Minnesota guys were so slow Gabe was able to get into his block anyway.

That last touchdown Minnesota scored was even more of a fluke than I originally thought. The guy who ended up scoring, Ralph Spry, was pretty far away from the action when it happened. Also, Shane Carter was standing behind the intended receiver and Aaron Henry, if he had gone up to make a play on it, the ball might not have bounded away so high and far.

Zach Brown's last touchdown run was a thing of beauty, he did an awesome job keeping his balance and staying on his feet.

After Minnesota's botched fake punt, it appeared that Ken DeBauche hustled over to say something to the Gophers' punter, Justin Kucek. May have been innocuous, but looked like Kenny was taunting him. Kenny also pulled something like this earlier in the year when a returner had a long run called back by a penalty, forget the game. After blasting Clint Brewster for his actions and words, it's only fair to bring this to light - wish Kenny wouldn't do that.

Watching Donovan elude sacks brings to mind Michael Vick - looks like a video game character darting back and forth. Unfortunately, during one of those instances against Minnesota, while he was dancing we had three guys wide open that were missed - maybe if TD hangs in there and throws the ball instead of dancing, he hits one of those guys.

Still like Kirk DeCremer a lot, he's always around the ball.

Finally, after watching Bret Bielema's mad dash to shake Tim Brewster's hand after the game several times, I don't think there was anything wrong with it. The first time I saw it, BB looked a little too eager and gleeful. Then I thought "He just wanted to get back to his team," but after the handshake he turned around and jogged to nowhere, a la Jim Valvano. But after seeing it for a third time, it didn't seem that inappropriate, just weird. Especially since all the Badgers who weren't parading around the Dome with Paul Bunyan's Axe were exchanging pleasantries with their Gopher counterparts.

It's funny - even though I knew the outcome and was there in person, watching the final seconds unfold and the postgame with the Axe, and explaining it to Will (who didn't really get it yet), I was still giddy and excited. That's what Badger sports still do to me, I guess.

All-Big Ten: Where the Badgers landed

A mediocre season of football in the Big Ten has concluded, and the conference's all-league teams have been announced. The lack of true star power and bona fide first round picks is a good indicator of conference's overall strength. Scanning the lists released by the coaches and media shows a number of Badgers honored. Let's run them down:

Coaches
First team: TE Travis Beckum, CB Jack Ikegwuonu, K Taylor Mehlhaff
Second team: RG Kraig Urbik, DE Matt Shaughnessy, P Ken DeBauche
Honorable mention: S Shane Carter, LB Jonathan Casillas, C Marcus Coleman, QB Tyler Donovan, DT Nick Hayden, WR Paul Hubbard

Media
First team: Beckum, Ike, Coleman
Second team: Urbik, Mehlhaff, Shaughnessy
Honorable mention: Carter, Casillas, DeBauche, Donovan, Hayden, RB P.J. Hill

Thoughts:

-Beckum should have been first-team last year, not second team and honorable mention, so it's nice to see the right call made this year. We'll see how All-American honors work out for him, there are some other good ones out there, and Becks' perceived blocking deficiencies might hurt him there.

-At first Ike's honors puzzled me, since he seemed to regress this year after a terrific sophomore season. But he did lead the conference in passes defended in league play, and had great games against James Hardy and Mario Manningham. Like Beckum, it will be interesting to see if he returns to school for his senior season.

-Really happy to see Coleman get the first team media nod, what an unsung member of a really solid unit. It's so hard to gauge what constitutes an all-conference center, he's usually not getting out and blocking a corner, pulling, or pancaking defenders. With a freshman left tackle, shuffling chairs around him, and a first-year starting quarterback and parade of different running backs behind him, Coleman held it all together for what turned out to be a pretty damn good offense.

-Really glad for Mehlhaff, who's been so solid for several seasons now. Replacing him next year is a major concern. Think he got a vote from the Brewster household?

-Urbik - see Coleman. Could he be the center next season?

-I expected Shaughnessy to be first team this year, but his second team status is more a reflection of the strength of the position in the conference. Really hope he comes back next year, a consistently solid performer.

-Happy for Hayden, rebounding from a poor junior season to have a strong senior season reminiscent of his 2005.

-Thought DeBauche would have a better season, but he was pretty good. He spoiled us with his first three seasons, and went out on a solid note.

-Hope Casillas is ready to make the step to first or second team as a senior, he's got the talent to do it.

-Hubbard? Really? Both of UW's starting wideouts were hurt for periods this year, and Luke Swan ended up with twice as many catches. Still, Hubbard did some nice things this year.

-Speaking of Swan, he won a Sportsmanship Award, nice touch for a classy kid.

-Donovan turned out to be much better than I thought he'd be, a playmaker every bit as much as a game manager. He'll be missed next year.

-Missing those last 3-1/2 games probably cost PJ 700 yards rushing. He would have pushed Beanie Wells for first team all-conference in that case.

Wisconsin-Minnesota postgame thoughts

Yesterday was fairly draining, but all ended well. There's going to be two posts about the game, one focusing on the game, and one focusing on what a joke of a program Tim Brewster is cultivating here at Minnesota.

-What a tremendous game by Zach Brown. Let's do some clarification here. Last week I compared him to Eddie Faulkner, a career backup. Several of my friends challenged that Zach is much better than Eddie. I will agree, but still see him as a backup, mainly because of the guys who should be ahead of him. This just speaks to the depth of the program and how the overall talent level has been upgraded in the last decade.

-Even against a horrible defense like Minnesota's, give props the line for opening the holes for Zach. And it was another next-man-in scenario, when Bill Nagy replaced the injured John Moffitt. Once again, surprising that Danny Kaye and Jake Bscherer didn't get a call, but it worked out.

-David Gilreath has been an emotional roller coaster all year, and Saturday he went out on a high note in front of the program he originally committed to. Like the running game, credit the blocking, he had gaping holes to work with, but credit him for taking advantage.

-Been up and down all year about Tyler Donovan too, and he didn't have his best game yesterday, but he won, and won with two bruised hands. The kid's tougher than nails and a winner ... can we compare him to Mike Samuel, only a better passer ... and runner?

-Once again Travis Beckum was the best player on the field. Someone in our group said "I think Travis has gone to his last class," and I can't disagree. Looks like an injured shoulder, hopefully he's ready for the bowl game.

-Love that Ben Strickland once again made a huge play to seal a win here. Our program succeeds with classy kids like Ben, not jackasses like Eric Decker and Clint Brewster.

-Elijah Hodge was hurt, Culmer St. Jean played okay in his place. Jae McFadden seemed to be back as well, didn't notice him that much.

-Another mediocre game for Jack Ikegwuonu, although getting punched in the groin by Decker didn't help.

-Thought we may have figured out how to defend the spread after beating an Indiana team with superior playmakers to the Gophers, but they really moved the ball well at times, without any semblance of a Division I running back on the field. Not having Hodge, Jason Chapman and Allen Langford might have had something to do with it.

-All Shane Carter does is catch interceptions. In a way he's comparable to Jim Leonhard, although Jimmy may have been better in run support.

-Another excellent game by the unsung hero, Ken DeBauche.

-One of my other favorite unsung players this season has been Daven Jones, and he made some intangible plays yesterday. He's done some terrific work on special teams, and I hope he ends up contributing at wide receiver to the level he was projected at coming out of high school.

-Adam Weber has a bright future for Minnesota, even if they stay with the spread. He's not nearly as athletic as I thought he was, and his passing needs polish, but he racked up over 400 yards of total offense on us.

-I'm going to miss Minnesota punter Justin Kucek, he's given Badger fans so many good memories.

Overall, we're 9-3 and have a shot to go a January bowl game. Ohio State's in a BCS game for sure; crazy things might happen to allow Illinois to get in there as well. If we play in the Outback Bowl, I hope it's against a new opponent like Tennessee. The Alamo Bowl wouldn't be bad, either, and the Big 12 opponent might be more beatable than one from the SEC.

So the regular season is over and we're not staring at a BCS game or national title game berth, but you know what? Good season. Nine wins for the fourth straight year, another winning record in Big Ten play, beat Michigan, beat Minnesota, 1,000-yard rusher, All-American tight end, undefeated at home sold out Camp Randall. All this even with a ton of injuries and other adversity. Nice job by the coaching staff keeping it all together this year.

I'm a glass-half-full guy this morning.

Wisconsin-Michigan postgame thoughts - hell yeah! (update following OSU loss)

As the tide seemed to be shifting in favor of the Wolverines in the fourth quarter, I started thinking about about what emotion would best fit my mood if we lost. Angry? Disappointed? Indifferent?

Then the defense and running game stepped in and finished things of, and I had to reverse my thinking. What emotion fits this win best? Elation? Relief? Bittersweet?

I'll go for the first. Beating Michigan never feels anything but awesome. Dominating Michigan like we did today? Even better. Forget all those what-might-have-been thoughts I was writing yesterday, it's all about the positive right now:

-Undefeated home record for the second straight year
-Still in the running for a winning conference record and the Capital One Bowl or the Outback Bowl
-Still in the running for a 10-win season
-Could be ranked again
-Some big-time players are playing big-time football
-Michigan has a chance to lose five games this year

And make no mistake, Wisconsin dominated Michigan today. I don't care if Henne and Hart had the sniffles or whatever, we were missing five starters because of injury and didn't have a roster full of Parade All-Americans to step in for them. Consider the stats:

-First downs: UW 24, UM 17
-Rushing yards: UW 232, UM 47
-Total yards: UW 477, UM 320
-Interceptions: UW 3, UM 0
-My favorite - Time of possession: UW 38:15, UM 21:45

The thoughts:

-It was Senior Day, and the relatively small senior class carried the day. Paul Hubbard (right) was huge with seven catches for 134 yards. Tyler Donovan threw for 245 yards and a touchdown, ran for 49 yard and a touchdown, and showed some nice dance moves avoiding sacks.

Taylor Mehlhaff made all three of his field goal attempts. Ken DeBauche average 45 yards per punt with a long of 65, and put four inside the Michigan 20. Marcus Coleman and the interior line handled a damn good defensive tackle in Terrance Taylor, who had a lot of tackles but did not stop the run. Nick Hayden (left) had 1.5 tackles for loss and a pass breakup.

-Good to see PJ get back in and try to make a go of it. I expect him to play next week, need to take a lot of get-tough pills this week. Hope Donovan is ready to play, would rather not throw Allan Evridge in there at this stage of the season. Looked like a pretty bad bruise on TD's hand.

-What is it about our punt return team at home against Michigan? They're like magnets for the ball. Nice job by the defense to get a three-and-out after that potential disaster.

-I can't get over the ESPN cameras' preoccupation with the couple hundred Michigan fans in attendance, they just kept showing those idiots.

-Shane Carter showed his strengths and weaknesses on back-to-back drives: watching Mario Manningham go right by him on the long TD pass, then making nice play on the ball for his second interception.

-When I saw the shot of what were presumably Chad Henne's parents in the stands, I thought about how pissed I would be if I was them, to come all the way from Pennsylvania to watch tough Chad wear a coat and call signals.

-The personal foul call on Deandre Levy was terrible, he stumbled and grazed Ryan Mallett's helmet. Later Obi Ezeh went helmet-to-helmet with Donovan, knocking TD out of the game, and no penalty.

-Funny to watch Manningham bitching at Mallett on the sideline, who is he, Terrell Freaking Owens? That's the kind of program they have in Ann Arbor, big-time athletes with big-time egos, just a factory churning out NFL players preloaded with NFL attitudes.

-I jotted down "Not Ike's best game," since he gave up some big plays, then look at the stat sheet and see he had an interception and four pass breakups. He also made a nice play downing a punt on the Michigan 3.

-Mallett was resourceful in escaping or almost escaping sacks. That backward shovel to the tight end was almost one of those back breaking plays.

-Mallett will be good in time, but today he was spraying the ball around like Wild Thing Vaughn. The guy was 11-for-36 - Tarvaris Jackson numbers.

-Best shot: The Badger fan wearing the I Heart Appalachian State T-shirt.

-Really nice effort by Zach Brown running for 108 yards and two touchdowns. Still think he's a career backup, a la Eddie Faulkner, but a damn good one. Nice to know we have depth at running back, a necessity in this program.

-Love how the line kept pounding Michigan - they wore down at the end and paved the way for Brown's scoring runs. That's Wisconsin football. For all the things that haven't gone as planned this year, our time of possession has still been stellar, a testament to the offensive line. The depleted defensive line played very well too, with three sacks and five TFLs.

Great win, really looking forward to Minnesota next week. The Gophers have to be the worst Big Ten team in recent memory and we should score 50 on them, but we've been upset there before and they run that damn spread offense, so anything's possible.

**ADD, 5:41 p.m. - Wow, Ohio State loses at home to Illinois. Didn't think it was impossible, but unlikely. Huge win for that program - the sleeping giant is waking up. What does it mean? Need to think about it a bit, but on first blush:

-Ohio State probably beats Michigan next week and "settles" for the Rose Bowl, not the BCS title game ... although who knows?
-Michigan goes Cap One Bowl, which is fitting, they didn't deserve the Rose Bowl with the lackluster year they've had.
-Ironically, beating Ohio State may push the Illini down to the Outback Bowl. Is my thinking right on this?
-Now it's between us and Penn State for the Alamo and Champs Sports bowls. New Year's Day seems unlikely. Wouldn't mind mixing things up and playing an ACC or Big 12 team in a bowl.

All this could change if Ohio State only falls a few spots in the BCS standings, since conference championship games, especially the Big 12 and SEC, could knock a couple high-ranking one-loss teams down a peg. We might have to wait until the first weekend in December to know our bowl fate, thanks to the domino effect of all these other teams.

More thoughts on this Monday when the updated BCS standings come out. #1 Kansas anybody?

Wisconsin-Michigan halftime thoughts

Before getting into today's game, a reference to two good stories from madison.com

-Andy Baggot on Ron Dayne's contributions to the UW athletic department. Never thought of them in such sweeping terms, but it's compelling.
-Adam Mertz tells us why Ohio State fans are miserable human beings. Good call Mertzy.

At halftime:

-I feel strangely confident, not my usual cautious optimism, but outright confidence. Probably because Michigan doesn't look like it cares about this game - if it did Henne and Hart would be playing, no matter what their boo-boos. I'd feel more confident if that awful 50-50 rule didn't give Mathews the catch that led to Manningham's TD. Seriously, what a terrible rule.

-ESPN's production gives the impression that the crowd is 75% Michigan fans, when it looks like it's closer to 1%.

-Why were we passing every down in the early going? Michigan's run defense is suspect.

-What a terrific catch by Shane Carter. He has run support limitations, but we haven't seen ball skills in a DB like his since Jamar Fletcher.

-What an awful pas by Donovan before Crable bailed him out with the personal foul.

-Instead of berating the officials - he should have been penalized - Lloyd Carr should have benched Crable for two dirty plays. Ol' Lloyd will probably feel silly when he watches the tape and sees both were easy calls.

-Donovan's TD pass to Beckum was one of those "No, no, no ... yes!" calls, kind of like me shooting a 3-pointer.

-Ryan Mallett is going to be a star for Michigan, he's got all the tools and will no doubt have weapons at receiver.

-Nick Hayden is playing really well. It would have been crushing had he gone to Michigan. Matt Shaughnessy is also playing very well against All-Universe Jake Long. ;)

-Great to say Luke Swan walk out without crutches. Paul Hubbard said it would be inspirational if he did, and it was.

-Awesome TD run/dive by Donovan. Just as big was his evasive scrambling and pass to Beckum on the last field goal drive, really stemmed momentum that was going Michigan's way.

-Hope Lance Smith isn't hurt too bad, Zach Brown doesn't look ready for this - although he did have a nice run called back by an obvious hold on the last drive.

Listening to a recap of Dayne's career right now, giving me goosebumps. Those were some great years ...

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.

UW-Ohio State halftime thoughts

Like the way we're playing with them. This is shaping up like our previous three wins at the Horseshoe.

-Most of you didn't see this, but BTN had Matt Fischer, backup kicker and #96, starting at defensive tackle. Risky move. ;)

-Before the game I said to Andy that we should try some trick plays today - why not? Before the fake punt, Andy said they should try it just then; I disagreed, and he was right. Terrific pass by DeBauche (wasn't he a high school QB?) and terrific catch by Standridge - I've never understood why he's on kick coverage teams as a backup punter, but he made a beautiful grab.

-Like the way we're blitzing, bu they're not really effective - the route is too long or we're running right into blockers.

-OSU's offensive line started out playing really well, although our front seven did some nice things against them late. My sense is that their skill position guys are pretty much like anybody else's in the Big Ten, but the o-line opens up bigger holes and pass protects long enough for fairly average receivers to get open.

-OSU has five sacks, but don't blame our offensive line, those are coverage sacks.

-Donovan looks a little jittery in the pocket.

-Did anyone else notice DeBauche put his arm around Small and point to the flag thrown on the latter's big punt return? Hilarious!

-Shaughnessy and Fischer, er, Hayden are playing well, especially #92.

-Gilreath's fumble was overturned, but before the kick I muttered "Just hang onto the ball David." His mistakes are outweighing his big plays right now.

-Why can't we sack Boeckman? He's not that slippery? We brought down Kellen Lewis five times last week but can't get to this statue?

-Here's an idea: Kirk DeCremer should be starting with Newkirk swinging around to spell all four line spots. DeCremer is always around the ball making plays, and Newkirk would get just as many reps.

-Brown is running about as well as can be expected, he's not playing tentatively. Still wish we had PJ.

Should be a good second half, especially if we can somehow draw even.

UW-Indiana postgame thoughts

Watched the second half under the din of my father-in-law snoring on the couch behind me, an apt metaphor for the game on the whole. I'll take it, though - when Indiana plays that poorly, we should beat them by 30. I'll pick nits later, but let's lead with this thought:

Great game by the defense. This is the game we've been waiting all year to see from that unit. True, IU lost a few offensive linemen, but the effort transcended that advantage.

The defensive line played very well - good pressure on Lewis, but more importantly they shut down his running lanes. The linebackers were outstanding - Casillas and Levy in particular. And what can you say about Ike? Joe Hart's reference to Fletcher-Burress '99 proved to be dead-on - four catches for 17 yards for Hardy - as well as a fumble and a huge penalty. Langford got a right-place, right-time pick, Carter broke up some passes, and Pleasant and Royston were around the ball. And best yet: best tackling of the season, can't think of one blatant missed tackle.

Other thoughts:

-Too many stupid mental errors for the ninth game of the season. An offsides penalty made a third-and-1 into a third-and-6, an illegal shift nullified a terrific Donovan first down scramble, and a blatant offside on a kickoff.

-Great pressure by Hayden and Shaughnessy on Langford's pick.

-Took waaaaaaay too long to put these guys away, thanks to those mental errors and Donovan's fumble.

-Conversely, can't remember seeing worse ball protection than what Indiana showed today, they handled the ball like it was covered with butter.

-Loved to see Thigpen taunting our crowd after his long run, which everyone else knew was coming back because of a penalty on Hardy - which was a good call, Ike would have made that tackle.

-Did Gilreath give back his return record on that atrocious punt return in the third quarter? Oh well, he made up for it with a brilliant return in the fourth.

-Did anyone else notice how often Ike was around the ball on special teams? Is that a new role for him, or has he been on those units all along? Whatever the case, I like the assignment.

-Great to have Hubbard back. He only caught one pass for 30 yards, but he drew an interference penalty to set up a TD late in the third.

-Lance got off to a slow start, but came on late when the IU defense was tiring. Still, we really need PJ healthy next week to have a chance to win in Columbus. On Smith's TD runs he got a lot of nice blocking - Urbik, Rentmeester, and Turner's stood out.

-Speaking of Rentmeester, how great were his two runs, and Pressley's later? That's 45 yards on four carries for the fullbacks, hopefully that's not a gimmick and becomes part of the regular offense.

-Time of possession edge: 35:23-24:37, Wisconsin. Just what we needed.

-Aaron Henry is a playmaker. He caused one of Lewis's fumbles, and twice he was there to scoop up IU fumbles that were later (correctly) ruled down. He would have had big returns on both.

-Charles Davis, the color analyst, is very good. I thought so when he called bowls for Fox last year, and continue to think that for his work with the BTN. He deserves a shot at ESPN or ABC, but we'll see if his lack of a big name will hold him back.

-Well-officiated game.

-Lastly, did you see the video of the law school students trying to catch their canes? Homecoming legend has it that if you catch the cane after throwing it over the goalpost, you'll win your first case. Let me tell you, a lot of those canes hit the ground; too bad for their clients. Nerds!

What did y'all think?

UW-Indiana halftime thoughts

Overall pretty pleased with the effort thus far, but annoyed that it should be 20-0 or 24-0 right now, not 17-3. A touchdown on that drive puts the game away; now Indiana has life and gets the ball to open the second half. If Donovan is the more reliable, less mistake-prone QB between him and Evridge, I shudder to think about next year.

-Gilreath is about to break the school record for return yardage in a season. That's nice, but the cynic in me says that's because the defense has yielded so many opportunities for opponents' kickoffs.

-Even before PJ got hurt (major concern), thought it was a good move to get Brown in early and get him involved. Very nice TD run, very well blocked, especially Graham helping Vanden Heuvel.

-Love the play calling on the first two drives - pound the rock, wear down their smallish front. PJ was showing great patience letting the holes open. Zach and Lance need to slow down a bit. IU has done a nice job adjusting to slow down our running game, but the mid-range passing game is now open, and Donovan should be able to take advantage.

-But Donovan is still missing wide-open guys, like Beckum on the first drive.

-The third drive ended with a snuffed-out TE screen attempt. Why call that play when IU had stopped a similar play the previous drive?

-Love how Levy and Casillas are playing right now, this is what we were expecting all year.

-Kick/punt coverage units have been terrific.

-An option call on third and eight? No, no, no ... yes!

-I'd say something about Ike and Hardy, but don't want to jinx it.

Wisconsin-born UW quarterbacks

Not to immediately change the subject, but in the event people don't want to talk about the game ...

This morning's Cap Times had an interesting story by Jim about the dearth of Wisconsin-born QBs starting for the state university. Remember the last one before Donovan? Bud Keyes, in 1987, Milinovich's freshman year.

Link to Cap Times story

Jim does a nice job of breaking down the reasons for this, and the names/hometowns of the QBs we've brought in over the past 20 years. It's a nice trip down memory lane. I have some thoughts on the matter, feel free to discuss.

Appleton Post-Crescent story from a few weeks ago

Appleton Post-Crescent photo of Donovan

Wisconsin-Penn State postgame thoughts

Well, we won't have to worry about rankings or conference races or anything like that for awhile. Maybe I should just move back to Ohio; the two years I lived there, the only two years I've lived outside of Wisconsin since 1983, were Rose Bowl years.

This team reminds me of the 2000 team. High expectations and top five ranking at the start of the year, some turmoil, getting by with some close wins early in the season, then it all snaps. That team had the Shoe Box and a bunch of NFL players; this team had/has a couple of bad seeds and some players who might become NFL players. That team had a four-game losing streak in the middle of the season, and I don't see that, but 4-4 in Big Ten play and a lower-tier bowl is reasonable.

This thought has been popping into my head lately: this team looks poorly coached. But that probably isn't the case, because the same staff did a great job last year (minus the always underrated Henry Mason, and DelVaughn Alexander, his replacement, has done a credible job considering his two starters have gone down). Last year's team got better every week during conference play; this year's team seems to be getting worse. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and blame the injuries, but if we cut down on all the mental errors, we have a shot in this one.

Shaughnessy played well today. He's not dominating, but he's been strong.

Was Royston in for Pleasant? Was it injury related, or performance related? Does it matter?

Injuries to and defections on the front seven have been fatal. As much as we can point at the LBs and DBs missing tackles, today their backs were getting to the second line with a full head of steam, untouched through the line. I don't think those players are worse than they were last year, they're dinged up and the depth behind them is non-existent.

Offensive line play has been okay, not horrible, not terrific.

Xavier Harris made a catch, slightly encouraging.

Really upset that we gave up on the run in the second half. The game was decided four minutes in - why not work on getting a rhythm in the run game rather than racking up desperation passing yards against a semi-prevent and setting Donovan up to get battered?

Penn State has a chance to run the table in the Big Ten, but they won't win it. Good team, but we made them look better than they really are.

Aaron Henry had a nice sack on a blitz, first time I remember seeing him since The Citadel game.

Good catch out of the backfield by Brown. He's not as big an asset as Smith at RB, but he's not a liability either. Smith's absence didn't cost us either of these last two games.

Guessing the shore sheet will show a lot more explosive plays - 20+ yards - yielded by the defense, but there were probably even more plays from 15-19 yards that were just as painful. No one has had to grind out scoring drives this season, the scores come quickly.

PSU's second string QB made a run where Casillas made the tackle about 5-7 yards after he could have. The defense is playing either tentatively or, as stated in the last post, overly aggressive. It's a mental thing as much as anything now. We can talk about the new starters, but guys who played really well last year are struggling, too.

The second half's boring nature allowed me to watch Kentucky-LSU and Boston College-Notre Dame a lot and see Woodson and Ryan. They're good, not wow! good today, but doing what they have to do.

Offensive prediction recap, actual numbers second:
PJ: 23 carries, 29 yards, 1 TD - 19 carries, 75 yards, 1 TD
Donovan: 19-29, 211 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT - 16-29, 220 yards, 0 TD, 2 INT
Beckum: 8 catches, 94 yards - 5 catches, 70 yards
Jefferson: 3 catches, 49 yards - 6 catches, 124 yards - great game
Graham: 1 catch, 7 yards, 1 TD - 3 catches, 18 yards, 0 TD

Think I picked up that Musberger will be calling the NASCAR race on ABC tonight - sounds like a premise for an SNL sketch, with Kevin Nealon as Musberger. "Hang on a second - HE'S TAKING TWO NEW TIRES, FOLKS!" I'll skip that.

Wisconsin-Penn State halftime thoughts

Great start.

Second straight ABC game where they showed Donovan's picture when introducing the opposing starting QB. Good thing for Morelli, he is pretty ugly.

PJ introduced Donovan as "Triceps," which reminded me of one of Burch's 16 nicknames, "The Quad." Nothing like making nicknames out of underrated body parts.

Looking at Ike, I notice he has one long sleeve, one short. Saw this on Wake Forest's DBs the other night and I think a couple others today - fluke or trend? Would have been a good look on Schwalbach in '93.

Really nice touchdown drive - Donovan, PJ, Jefferson, Graham, Beckum all chipped in. Beckum was split wide left on his big catch, have to do that today against Connor and Lee.

Have a thought on the defense giving up big plays: the guys are so eager to make big plays themselves that they are running themselves out of position. Kinlaw's first run of the game was a perfect example, as Casillas ran right into a block rather than waiting for the garbage to clear out.

Donovan's first pick - totally Gilreath's fault. Two weeks ago he had another INT when Jefferson dropped on near the goal line against MSU.

PSU's second pick - totally Langford's fault, bit on an inside move when he had safety help inside, then was slow to recover. I thought he was supposed to be our technically sound cornerback.

Bad holding call wipes out nice draw by Brown - this team can't afford penalties like that, and the false start on Urbik earlier.

I think Williams' fumble on the punt return was a legit fumble and no penalty was warranted. Our gunner (is that Daven Jones? Nice play) seemed to get there right after the ball did, clearly contrary to Maguire's knee-jerk analysis. No replays after the commercial, though, would have been nice to see it again.

Royster TD run - Ike runs himself out of the play as if he was covering a guy man-to-man on a pass, when Morelli never looked for a split second as if he were going to pass. Well executed play by PSU, but shouldn't have gone for six.

Why not try a field goal at the end of the half? That's in Mehlhaff's range?

Don't give up on the run in the second half. PJ's horrible fumble aside, we're running pretty well. Get Brown some reps. Unfortunately the game situation will probably dictate less running, more passing.

Jimmy's TCT in-game blog.

Titan shout-out from Ike!

Quote in Potrykus's story today (which also nicely breaks down that Donovan incompletion I referenced Saturday):

"We were playing undisciplined football," UW cornerback Jack Ikegwuonu said of the defense. "And you play that way against Illinois or . . . I don't know, UW-Oshkosh, it doesn't matter. If you play undisciplined football, you're going to get beat."

Now, Oshkosh has made great strides since Phil Meyer took over when Schwib, Frank and I arrived in town seven years ago, and Pat Cerroni has done a good job keeping the program moving forward since Phil left to coach with Brewster at the U. But Ike might be getting a bit dramatic here, and I hope his comments aren't seen as disparaging. He should have said "... I don't know, Minnesota."

Oh, and we're discussing Swan's season-ending injury, as reported by Millie and Jim Polzin of The Capital Times, in this comment thread.