2008 in review: Glutton for punishment?

I was all set to write a long, fancy review of the 2008 season highlighted primarily by the frustrating turns, but then it hit me: I've already written them! All I had to do was go back and re-read the 12 game recaps from the regular season and pull the bullet points that best summed up this team.

God, was that depressing.

Even in victories, we showed fatal flaws. In losses, we showed only brief glimmers of promise.

Are you a glutton for punishment? Read on.

August 30 vs. Akron
My only thought ... is that I'm disappointed we left so many points on the board in the first half. It should have been 35-7 at halftime, not 17-10. Some guys have to tighten up their games.

We got away with this against Akron, but not against good teams.

September 6 vs. Marshall
What an atrocious start, absolutely embarrassing. ... Four penalties in the first six minutes. Failure by the defense to get off the field on third down. Little aggression or precision on offense.

Not the last time we heard those phrases ...

Didn't think we'd see John Clay again after his early fumble, but boy did he run well late. He's on his way to becoming the beast we've thought he could be.

Still think that ...

P.J. Hill's fumbles are starting to concern me, the first one more than the second. He's good enough to keep plays going with his feet and his drive, and that leads to him falling in awkward positions and leaving himself exposed to the types of hits like the one that caused the fumble.

Happened again against Florida State ...

September 13 vs. Fresno State
A disturbing trend in the second half was not running or throwing to receivers at first down yardage on third down.

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

Bringing in Clay when we did was a nice move, but why not keep feeding him the rock?

Like my friend said in November, Paul Chryst had a bad year ...

September 27 vs. Michigan
Run the ball every play in the second half. I'm serious. Without Beckum and Graham in there, Kyle Jefferson is the only primary receiver with dependable hands. Lance Kendricks, Nick Toon, and David Gilreath have all dropped decent passes thus far, with varying degrees of costliness. Allan Evridge has been serviceable, but few of the passing plays have looked smooth.

Few would all year long.

On one third-and-1 call we ran a terrible-looking play action pass. Run the ball behind our enormous line! Like the play call that Johnny Clay took down the the 5 -- that's a great call, well executed.

How many third-and-ones did we fail to convert? The one that really sticks in my craw is the option left where Evridge made a terrible pitch to P.J. Hill and we lost five yards on the play. Can you remember any time when we've run the option successfully on third-and-one? Or at any down and distance, for that matter? Me neither. So STOP RUNNING THE OPTION ON THIRD-AND-ONE, PAUL!

See above.

Then, after playing reasonably well but getting burned by his receivers, Evridge went scattershot. Inaccurate throws. Holding onto the ball too long. Not securing the ball under pressure. I was not ready to call quarterback play an Achilles' Heel for this team, but it is, big time.

Quarterback play killed us, and everything unraveled from there.

October 4 vs. Ohio State
The second half seemed to go by really fast, didn't it? It wasn't as decisive as in the loss at Michigan, but we were clearly outplayed in the second half again. That's three straight weeks, a disturbing trend.

This year's Badgers got thoroughly outplayed in the second half in all of their losses, all but one of them against good teams. Against bad teams we owned the second half, but that's not good enough. That has to change.

It was distressing that Pryor beat us on the final drive with his passing. ... OSU's receivers were wide open, even though we appeared to be dropping six or seven guys into coverage.

Happened again versus Florida State against another average passing quarterback.

Replays showed clearly how disorganized our defense was on Pryor's winning touchdown run. There's that leadership thing again -- get the guys lined up properly, or someone call a timeout and make sure everything is in order. (Burning two timeouts in the first 7:23 of the second half didn't help, either.)

Coaching, coaching, coaching.

October 11 vs. Penn State
Penn State is indeed a good team, but there's no reason we shouldn't be right there with them. But the Badgers continue to get burned by the little things.

And would continue to be burned by little things.

We've called out Allan Evridge and P.J. Hill, but how about Travis Beckum? ... He's still putting up good numbers when completely healthy, but he's not playing an all-around game.

A disappointing senior season for Travis, hopefully he goes on to a terrific professional career.

... on second-and-goal from the 1, we get called for 12 men in the huddle. Yeesh.

... it's third-and-20 for Penn State and we have them pinned deep in their own end, and Daryll Clark throws for 21 yards on the run, great pass and route. Another instance of not closing the deal.

Sort of like Carr's third-and-19 catch for 20 yards against FSU.

October 18 vs. Iowa
Watching the postgame on the Big Ten Network, I saw Bret Bielema's press conference. At one point he ended a sentence with "The team that's beating Wisconsin the most is Wisconsin."

Good call, dude.

Forget getting into the backfield and recording tackles for loss. These (defensive linemen) were getting dominated at the point of attack, putting all the pressure on our defensive backs to make saving tackles.

On Greene's second touchdown run, he broke about 73 tackles. ...

Actually, defensive line play and tackling were not chronic problems for this team, in my opinion.

October 25 vs. Illinois
Credit Mr. Man for pointing out that our defense is actually better built for stopping (the Spread) than we've been in the past ...

Too bad non-Spread teams gashed us.

Allen Langford ... had an Al Harris-type day in coverage. By that I mean he was consistently straddling the line between tight coverage and interference, and thank god those judgments went our way today.

Love Langford, gonna miss him.

Jay Valai ... set a physical tone with hits belying his 5-9 frame.

Love Valai, glad he's coming back.

Nice to see Garrett Graham get so heavily involved in the offense in the second half. If Beckum's out, Graham isn't a bad guy to have as a go-to receiver, even if it is for just 6-7 yards a pop.

Sherer's success next year starts with Graham.

Is it time yet to call for Bielema to give up coaching the special teams? Two weeks ago we give up a punt return touchdown. Last week a punt is blocked. Today Benn has a long kickoff return that leads to a field goal, and a penalty for lining up wrong on a punt. Time to let someone else worry about that.

Expect to hear this drum beat loudly in the offseason.

November 1 vs. Michigan State
I don't even know what to say. Seriously. This week after week of getting kicked in the balls by one thing after another is really starting to have a residual effect on my psyche.

Leinenkugel's dulls the pain of getting kicked in the balls repeatedly.

Mental errors have once again led to points by the opponent. The play call misunderstanding leads to Sherer's fumble which leads to a field goal. Levy's face mask leads to another field goal. This team just doesn't have the margin for error to be making those mistakes.

As heard on the Champs Sports Bowl postgame.

P.J. and Clay have had some nice runs, created by some nice blocking, but we still can't seem to get into a rhythm running the ball. What's it going to take? We need the run more than ever, especially considering our quarterback with, as Bentley accurately put it, a "bizarre throwing motion."

A running game rhythm is Job One for 2009. More on that later.

We ice the game with a rare third-and-1 conversion ... and a hold on Moffitt.

Why in the hell did Bielema call timeout when State was setting up for that last-second field goal? ... Maybe if he hadn't wasted our third timeout with that foolish challenge earlier in the half he could have called a third straight timeout.

November 8 vs. Indiana
So our offensive line, which was healthy last week finally, got two whole plays in today before Eric Vanden Heuvel was hurt. Turned out it didn't matter, but wouldn't it be nice if we were just at full strength for once?

They played pretty well together when all give guys were healthy.

November 15 vs. Minnesota
(At halftime, written in a Camp Randall bathroom) Nightmare: Only word to describe this latest fiasco. The lowlight is the Minnesota fan two rows behind us, in section R, row 40, seat 2, celebrating wildly Kyle Jefferson's injury. Here comes the ambulance ... Metaphor for the season.

I hope that guy is rotting in hell somewhere. It seemed like Kyle played against Florida State.

Can you ever remember a receiver having a career game that included three drops, including one for a sure-fire touchdown? Good for Isaac Anderson for shaking off the dropsies ...

When Niles Brinkley intercepted that pass on Minnesota's last possession and started running around, did anyone not think that, given the way this season has gone, he was going to fumble and the Gophers were going to drive down the field and either tie it or win it?

How about a rundown of some of the head-scratching mistakes we made? Clay's fumble. Shane Carter's offside penalty on the Gophers' two-point conversion (come on man, think!). Dustin Sherer taking that sack when he was out of the pocket with a clear lane to throw the ball into the stands! The blown coverages that led to Minnesota's second and third touchdowns. Allowing that fourth-and-18 conversion. Blowing more third-and-shorts. The botched field goal attempt that would have put us up 10-0.

November 22 vs. Cal Poly
What were you thinking when O'Brien Schofield jumped offside on that field goal attempt, which allowed Poly to convert on fourth-and-1 and eventually score a touchdown? Or when Nick Toon couldn't haul in that nice pass from Sherer later in the fourth quarter?

UW-Florida State thoughts

Just read lonebadger's comment on the halftime post, and wanted to throw this statement out there to start the recap.

I am not embarrassed by this loss.

Agree or disagree.

Florida State was the better team and deserved to win this game. But they sure as hell weren't 29 points better, and with the exception of a couple plays proved the Badgers belonged on the same field as the team almost everyone picked to beat them.

Because, at the risk of being That Guy Who Bitches About The Officiating, if two calls go our way, this thing doesn't snowball out of control into a rout. If two calls go our way, we stay with our effective game plan and who knows what happens.

One of the calls was questionable, the other outright horrible.

-The first came when Jay Valai appeared to have created a turnover, either an interception or a fumble, off a Ponder pass. The ultimate call may very well have been the correct one -- the replays did not seem to indicate either way -- but my question is if the call on the field is Wisconsin ball, how did those replays show enough visual evidence to overturn the call?

As we know, FSU then went on a painfully long touchdown drive in which our secondary seemed to forget Carr was out there. That third-and-19 conversion where Carr was open for 20 was just inexcusable, we didn't have a guy within five yards of him. He absolutely ate us alive.

Florida State's offensive line also played much better in the second half.

-So that touchdown made it 21-6, even after P.J. fumbled, we held them, and a methodical drive running the ball could have made it a one-score game. Instead, Graham Gano slips after punting and Louis Nzegwu gets flagged -- not just for running into the kicker, but for roughing the kicker, a 15-yarder. When he didn't even touch the kicker!!!

Worst call I've seen in quite some time. The ref was right there. What was even more galling was Gano laughing his ass off on the sideline afterward, and the announcing crew laughing along with him. FSU scored quickly thereafter and the game was over.

If those two plays go our way, or even one of those two, the complexion of the game is totally different. We're not forced to pass and allow Florida State's defensive line to tee off on Sherer, leading to another FSU defensive touchdown. We can keep running the ball, and we've got a chance.

Add that to the two frustrating things from my halftime post, and winning was a impossibility. As Lucas and Lepay just said on the postgame, this team isn't good enough to overcome its mistakes against good teams.

So I disagree with lonebadger, I don't think this team quit. I think the accumulation of unfortunate events of this game, maybe from this entire season, overwhelmed them against a team that had the talent to take advantage. Whether or not that's quitting is up for debate, but those last few touchdowns the Seminoles scored would have been allowed by a lot of teams.

-Seems that Gano was named player of the game, what a joke. His punts in the first half were tremendous, but Florida State never scored as a result of the field position he gave them. I suppose his non-collision with Nzegwu was a turning point in the game, but there were probably five Seminoles more deserving of the honor.

-P.J.'s key fumble looked familiar -- he's fighting for extra yards, gets bent in an awkward position and gets hammered. Not sure why he ends up exposing himself like that so often, but it would be nice if he'd stop.

But he had a nice game with 9.3 yards per carry, 139 total yards. I really hope he comes back, he and Clay will be a terrific 1-2 punch next year.

-I liked that we ran the ball on our first 17 first downs. That's what we have to get back to: Line up and pound the rock. Here it comes, if you can stop it, more power to you.

-How many unsportsmanlike conduct or personal foul penalties did Florida State end up with? Classy.

-One of the gomers in the booth screamed "They have not seen this kind of speed!" during Florida State's second fumble return. Bull. Penn State was every bit as fast as Florida State (similar results against Wisconsin), and Ohio State was on defense. Overall, FSU was probably the fourth-best team we played this year, throwing Iowa ahead of them as well.

On this speed thing: Florida State was indeed quicker, but that didn't decide the game. It was Carr, who is no burner, galloping to wide-open spots in our defense. It was our offense being forced into predictable situations by a large deficit. Or it was our offense getting too cute.

When we ran the ball straight ahead, we did very well. That was how we could negate their speed advantage. Unfortunately external forces got us out of that strategy.

The constant harping on the speed disparity between the teams, both before and during the game, was lazy reporting and analysis.

-As predicted by our Florida State friends our tight end was able to do some things, as Graham had 62 yards receiving.

-Nice to see us get a touchdown at the end, Sherer made a nice pass to Elijah Theus.

-Was glad to see Bielema let the seniors finish the game on defense, they deserved to see it through. This was a disappointing season, and a disappointing end to it, but those guys gave a lot to this program.

I've got plenty more thoughts on this season on the whole, and the state of the program, that I'll write about in the days to come. For now, I'll just spend Saturday night disappointed for the sixth time in the last three months.

UW-Florida State halftime thoughts

I am absolutely seething right now. At worst, this game has been a draw. At best, we've outplayed Florida State, especially given the field position we had for much of the first half.

And yet they lead 14-3. Unreal ... story of the season. The Badgers came in talking about playing a clean game, and for the most part have, but two big gaffes account for the deficit.

-The play call on the Nicholson fumble return baffles me. We're jamming the ball down their throats, passing to Graham effectively. So what do you do? Split P.J. wide in what Matt LePay just called a "gimmick formation" and try to run a play you haven't run all season. Nice call. Granted, FSU's guy made a nice play to knock it down, but that play should never have been called. It seemed like a backwards lateral at the time, but I would have liked to see more than one replay, and would liked to have seen Bielema challenge the call. Their offense isn't doing anything, so why not?

-FSU's second touchdown, a tremendous catch by Carr, doesn't happen if we show some common sense with clock management at the end of the half. After a first down run, the call is for passes and second and third down? You really think you're going to go 70 yards on that defense in a minute? The play calling saved Florida State a timeout, gave them a few yards of field position, and allowed that score. Very frustrating.

Elsewhere ...

-I see our guys were engaged in pregame jawing with Seminole players at midfield, don't think I've ever seen our guys do that before. Comes with the territory when you play teams from Florida, apparently.

-Surprised there are so many empty seats in the upper deck. Florida State has a lot of fans there, but they seem about as excited about this bowl as our fans do.

-Tell you what: It's awesome to hear that Tomahawk Chop song and hear the chanting during one of our games. That's college football.

-One of the first half highlights was when the microphones for ESPN's announcers went out and we could watch the game with just crowd noise.

-That said, Paul Maguire made a rare excellent point near the end of the first half when he said something like "If I were Bret Bielema I would take all of my passing plays and throw them out the window. You're running the ball for five and a half yards a carry, keep doing it." No kidding! We can run on these guys -- it's not going to be a dominant running performance, but it can be effective. We are obviously not going to pass the ball with any regularity.

-Florida State's offensive line is really small, they look like our fullbacks and tight ends. Our defensive line has really gotten the better of them so far. Matt Shaughnessy is playing especially well in his final game as a Badger. We're doing a nice job of hitting Christian Ponder, got to keep it up.

-It seems that Florida State's wide receivers are yelling at Ponder a lot when his throws are off target, which is often. It seems that our defensive backs have been covering fairly well too, Carr's touchdown catch notwithstanding.

-Graham Gano's punting is ridiculous, those have to been the three best consecutive punts any punter has ever kicked.

-Brad Nortman acquitted himself pretty well too, nice to see his hang time improving. The kick coverage has been pretty good so far, and it seems like the regular lineup of backups is out there.

-Dustin Sherer handled himself with poise in those three possessions that started in the shadow of his own goalpost.

We can win this game. Obviously 7-3, or 3-0, would be better halftime scores, but given that FSU hasn't shown hints that they can drive the ball down the field, we just need two good drives and a clean second half.

I would be perfectly happy if we didn't throw the ball the rest of this game.

ESPN's take on the Champs

If you can get beyond the multiple mispronunciations, this Champs Sports Bowl preview by ESPN's Todd McShay is a nice two-minute summary of what to expect today.

Champs Sports Bowl, forecast time

It's funny: December 27 is only five days before January 1, our bowl date of choice the last four years, but it seems like five weeks. Just yesterday I was trading emails with Florida State bloggers about this matchup that seemed so far off, then all of a sudden it's the day before the game. I'd prefer we go back to January 1.

Whatever, game time is almost here. Here's what I'm thinking:

Bobby Bowden has noted that his team is a handful plays away from being 10-2. The same could be said about the Badgers. But the truth is, 7-5 just about sums up this team, and I'm guessing 8-4 is just about right for the 'Noles. Both teams have plenty of strengths, but critical weaknesses relegated them to playing on a Saturday in December.

Florida State is probably the better team. If we had better quarterback play, and a healthy Travis Beckum, I might feel differently, but these are the cards we've been dealt. From what I've read FSU is vulnerable against tight ends, and while Garrett Graham ought to be able to exploit that, he won't dominate like he and Beckum could have combined. Lance Kendricks' unexpected return is a pleasant surprise and could be very good for us.

I see the Badgers putting together two legitimate scoring drives, each showing the offense at its best: power running setting up conservative intermediate passes. I see plenty of other promising drives stalling from the same bugaboos that have plagued the team all year: turnovers, dropped passes, lack of commitment to the run, penalties. In particular, I see several false starts called on our offensive line trying to hurry back into protection against FSU's speedy D-Line.

I see the Seminoles putting together two legitimate scoring drives as well. As in the Ohio State game, the Badgers defense will play pretty well but prove vulnerable to big plays in the passing game. UW's defense will miss Jonathan Casillas, but Culmer St. Jean will not embarrass himself and will give us hope for the linebacking corps next year. I see Christian Ponder bail the Badgers out with turnovers on at least two drives.

I see the game being decided by special teams, specifically Florida State's excellent return game. Philip Welch has had a fantastic freshman season, but his kickoffs have been on the short side. As such, I see Michael Ray Garvin breaking off a long kickoff return for either a score or setting up a short touchdown drive for FSU. I also see Welch missing a makable field goal attempt, and FSU's Lou Groza Award-winning kicker Graham Gano making a long field goal attempt, both swinging momentum.

(It is heartening, however, to read that Bret Bielema is planning on playing many defensive starters on the kick coverage units during the bowl: Jay Valai, Jae McFadden, DeAndre Levy, O'Brien Schofield, Aubrey Pleasant. That can only be positive, even if these guys might be a little rusty at staying in their lanes.)

I see this bowl game being tight, and when it's all over the Badgers and their fans will look back on it and think about the missed opportunities to do something great against one of the legendary programs in college football. A microcosm of 2008 on the whole.

Florida State 20, Wisconsin 10

Prove me wrong, boys!

Merry Christmas!

And happy holidays to everyone out there who checks blogs on days like today! For tuning in, here's something that'll help you forget about Tuesday's loss.

What, you thought I was serious when I said I'd had enough of the Flowers-slays-Texas shot?

UW-Texas thoughts ... sigh

That was disappointing. We played a great team even for 39 minutes and let it slip away. But that one wasn't lost because Gary Johnson banked in a 20-footer (and then pounded his chest for 10 seconds afterward rather than laughing at his good fortune). The game was lost:

-In the opening minutes of the game, when our offense looked like a JV team scrimmaging the varsity. So many bad turnovers, they were embarrassing. At least we righted the ship for the most part after that, but we gave up some easy points early, and those count just as much as the ones scored in the last minute.

-When we missed critical opportunities to extend our lead by missing free throws. Hughes, Gullikson, and Jarmusz all had trips to the line where they missed both, and Texas responded with scores immediately each time.

-Texas out-hustled us. Some of that is better athleticism, but some of it is desire, and that stings. We got out-rebounded 38-22. Thirty-eight to twenty-two! Inexcusable.

Also ...

-Would have been nice if Marcus Landry would have showed up tonight. He struggled to get shots early, but also struggled on defense and with boxing out, putting himself in position to pick up cheap fouls. We need more from him in big games.

-Hughes played well overall. Offensively, he was assertive and kept us in it early. Defensively, even though Abrams got 21 points and made some unbelievable shots, he needed 21 shots to do it.

-Sign of the times from Dick Vitale: "We've gotta get the economy going, get 'em jobs baby!"

-J-Bo played an appropriate game, staying within himself, not making too many bad passes, hitting four 3-pointers.

-Krabby, Leuer, and Nankivil had OK games. Overall, our guys showed some nice moves in the post, especially the dribble down, fake to the lane, then shoot a short bank shot. I thought Nankivil should have played more -- again. His logical matchups were with Atchley and Pittman, who had foul trouble, but play him anyway, make them adapt to him. He was the only one I had confidence in to pull down a tough rebound.

-Good to see Mike Flowers and Brian Butch in the house. Sounds like they'll be playing this winter in Germany. Maybe I'll catch them in a game if they're playing in Berlin while I'm there in February.

-Speaking of Flowers, I suppose tonight's game puts an end to the seemingly endless replays of our win in Austin last year. I'm a Badger fan, and even I'm sick of seeing it, can only imagine how Texas fans feel.

-Another banner game for Ed Hightower, eh? He flat-out blew two baseline calls on Leuer and Damion James, both made nice saves right in front of Eddie and he ruled them out of bounds. Why again is this guy not reffing West Bend City League games and instead of the Big Ten?

-What was Pop thinking on that last real possession? Down three with 20 seconds left, he drives into no man's land and takes a terrible two-pointer that gets swatted. That was wrong in so many ways.

-Dogus Balbay had five rebounds for Texas, more than anyone on the Badgers. That's right, Dogus Balbay, a 6-foot guard from Turkey whose previous season high for rebounds was two. He also apparently had a big steal to give Texas the lead for good, but ESPN was busy showing highlights of Abrams missing jumpers.

-Even in a loss, these types of games are always interesting because they provide a peak at what certain Badgers might play like if they weren't in Bo's system, and had the chance to play at a faster pace all the time.

Take Hughes, for example. He looked right at home taking a 3-pointer early in the shot clock, playing a step quicker than usual. Nankivil looked comfortable playing faster. I thought Rob Wilson would have fared well in tonight's matchup, but he didn't get many minutes. Leuer looked comfortable taking the ball to the rack when overplayed.

Conversely, the game seemed to moving a step fast for Landry, Krabby at times, Jordan Taylor.

When the schedule came out, I looked at the non-conference part of the schedule and figured 9-3 at worst, 10-2 at best. So overall this isn't too disappointing.

But the Big Ten is looking better and better all the time -- we're one of the only teams left without a signature win, unless you count Virginia Tech -- so my lofty predictions of 25 or 26 wins is looking less and less likely.

Happy holidays!

Restocking the D-Line

Bret Bielema got a nice little holiday present the other day when Cincinnati defensive end prospect Pat Muldoon gave the Badgers a commitment. Muldoon is the #24 DE in the nation per Rivals, #33 per Scout, and had offers from Ohio State, Boston College, and a few Big East schools. Seems like a really good get from my favorite state to pull recruits from.

This is shaping up to be a really nice defensive line class for us, and not a moment too soon. With Shaughnessy, Chapman, and Newkirk graduating, and Kirk DeCremer done with injury, we need bodies. If they can play, even better.

Beyond Muldoon, we've also got:

-Floridian David Gilbert, Rivals' #10 defensive end.

-Homestead's Shelby Harris, Rivals' #14 defensive end.

-Waupun's Jordan Kohout, Rivals' #16 defensive tackle.

-Hartford's Tyler Dippel, who chose up over Stanford.

-Casey Dehn may be an offensive lineman, but I've seen him listed as a defensive lineman.

Scout's rankings for most of these guys are lower than Rivals', but it's still a good haul. I can't remember the last time we had this many highly-rated guys at one position in one class. Hopefully they are the foundation for a return to dominance for our defense.

Big Ten bowling

Had a chance to watch the Big Ten Network's preview of the conference's bowl matchups, and it doesn't look pretty. In my mind the whole problem stems from Ohio State undeservedly playing in another BCS bowl. With the Buckeyes playing one opponent tougher than they probably should, everyone else in the conference except Iowa is playing a team that is at least a little bit better than them.

Rose Bowl
USC should beat Penn State, but it's not as clear-cut as a lot of people are making it seem. Penn State is still a pretty damn good team. It's just that the Trojans might be the best team in college football this year, they just had an inexplicable letdown early against Oregon State.

Fiesta Bowl
The only way Ohio State wins this one is if Texas just doesn't care after getting screwed by the Big 12's technicalities. Ohio State has zero impressive wins this season, and Texas looked pretty awesome every time I saw them.

Outback One Bowl
I like Iowa to beat South Carolina pretty comfortably in this one. Interestingly, South Carolina's inclusion in this bowl is an indicator that the SEC probably wasn't as good as everyone thought this year. Nice capper for an unexpectedly good season for the Hawkeyes.

Capital Bowl
Georgia vs. Michigan State ... I smell a beatdown coming. Javon Ringer and Knowshon Moreno were neck-and-neck for various running back awards this year, but this game ought to show the difference between a truly electric back and one who racks up yards because he gets 65 carries per game.

Alamo Bowl
Missouri might score 50 points on Northwestern, which is apparently complaining that they're not playing in the Outback Bowl instead of Iowa. Maybe if your average home attendance was more than a Texas high school's you'd be more attractive to bowls, Wildcats.

Champs Sports Bowl
Florida State ought to win this one. I've been worried that all the factors noted before will lead to a substandard travel showing by Badger fans, but in most seats should be filled by Seminole fans, so it won't be much of an issue. So the upside is that the stadium shouldn't look half-full, but the downside is this will essentially be a road game.

Insight Bowl
Minnesota couldn't stop Dustin Sherer, what chance do they have against Todd Reesing? If the Gophers lose five straight games to end the season, it completely wipes out the artificial good feelings generated by their 7-1 start. Are they really any further along than they were under Glen Mason?

So that's a 1-6 bowl showing we're staring at, with no real toss-ups. Get ready for another pounding from the pundits!

UW-Coppin State thoughts

Ho hum, another home win over an overmatched non-conference opponent. A game that was never in doubt from the opening tip, but one in that inspired little excitement of confidence. There's two ways to look at the team thus far:

They will be the type of team that plays up or down to the level of their competition. Or ...

They will finish anywhere from fourth to sixth in the Big Ten.

History suggests the former, not the latter, but the jury's still out.

-I'm glad Coppin zoned us. We haven't looked good against zones thus far, and need the practice. We got post touches, good interior passes, and got good 3-point looks. Of course, we hit only 23.8% of those 3-point attempts, but you have to have faith those will start falling with regularity at some point.

-Jon Leuer continues to impress. It's like the coaches watched tape of him last year, saw him camped out at the 3-point line, and told him to get his butt inside or else.

-My favorite possession of the game was that one that lasted about 50 seconds, featured two offensive rebounds, and ended with Landry making a sweet baseline dish for a Kevin Gullikson layup.

-Gully has really shaped up his body, hasn't he? I'm still trying to figure out Bo's post rotation -- why isn't Nankivil playing more? what did he do wrong? -- but Gully might be a guy who can give productive minutes.

-That had to be the fastest game I've ever seen. I suppose that would be because there were four free throws in the game, total. Give credit to Coppin for not fouling on our layup attempts -- that was a well-officiated game -- and put some blame on us for not doing more to draw fouls. We went more than 36 minutes before shooting a free throw; won't win many Big Ten games straying from the formula that has worked so well under Bo.

-Is it possible for a team to hold its opponent to 46 points and still feel like it did not play a good defensive game? Coppin seemed to get many good looks, as Idaho State did, they just weren't making a lot of them.

-Still, hard to argue that the effort wasn't there, when we held a 33-18 rebounding edge, including 11 offensive boards. Fifteen assists is more than usual.

-Did you notice that at the end of the game, when Coppin was pressing, Bo had Jordan Taylor in there but not Pop? He handled it fairly well. Wonder if that was Bo exposing Jordan to situations he might have to handle by himself later this year, or if he was made at Pop, or if Pop is hurt ... or maybe I ask too many questions.

Watched some of the Texas-Michigan State game today. It's going to take a lot more than we've seen from the Badgers so far this season to beat either of those teams. Still, very excited about the Longhorns coming in on Tuesday, let's do this!