UW players have one goal this week: Keep the Axe in Madison

MADISON – Grabbing Paul Bunyan’s Axe and pretending to chop down the goalpost, or hoisting it into the air and moving close enough to the stands so fans can touch the blade is an honor reserved for seniors.

Some of the Wisconsin players who have celebrated a victory over rival Minnesota by parading around the stadium, either in Madison or Minneapolis, with Paul Bunyan’s Axe include:

Dan Buenning, Owen Daniels, Joe Thomas, Nick Hayden, Mike Newkirk, Jaevery McFadden, Lance Kendricks, Bradie Ewing, Rick Wagner, James White, Rob Havenstein, Joel Stave, Sojourn Shelton and Alec James.

Fourteen players. Fourteen consecutive victories for UW.

Will UW (7-4, 5-3 Big Ten) extend the streak to 15 when it hosts Minnesota (5-6, 2-6) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday?

Or will UW fans sit in horror as Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck and his players take the Axe back home?

Senior linebacker T.J. Edwards was asked if he could envision Fleck sprinting around Camp Randall Stadium with the Axe in his hands.

“No, I cannot,” Edwards said after pondering the question. “Nor do I want to.

“Not at all. Not going to let that happen.”

Fellow linebacker Ryan Connelly, a native of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, reacted as if someone told him he would have to suit up in maroon and gold Saturday when the question was posed to him.

“I don’t think about that at all,” he said firmly. “They didn’t offer me and Wisconsin did. That’s pretty much how it goes.”

Senior safety D’Cota Dixon, who always has a smile to share and rarely has a negative word to say about anyone, wants no part of that ending.

“Honestly, I don’t even picture that,” he said. “I don’t have any type of vision of Minnesota beating us. No.”

The Gophers, of course, believe this is their year to sprint across the field after the game and take back the Axe.

Minnesota senior linebacker Blake Cashman, also a native of Eden Prairie, was 7 years old the last time the Gophers beat UW.

That came in 2003, when England native Rhys Lloyd drilled a 35yard field goal on the final play of the game to give the Gophers a 37-34 victory in the Metrodome.

“It’s everything,” Cashman told the Minneapolis Star Tribune this week. “It’s what everybody talks about all year.

“I can’t even remember the Gophers ever having it, I’m so young.”

During the 14-game winning streak, UW has outscored Minnesota, 499-272, an average score of 35.6 to 19.4.

No UW player wants to be part of the team that sees the winning streak end.

“Any game you win is good, but when you can hold that Axe at the end of the game…it is hard to explain,” said Edwards, who has deferred to the seniors during his time at UW. “Just the pride that you have that have kept the Axe is very big.

“I want to get my turn at (holding) it, too.”

Each season in the days leading to the Minnesota game, UW players are exposed to a video montage of victories over the Gophers.

Veteran players pass along their stories to their younger teammates.

“We’ll hit on it every day,” UW coach Paul Chryst said. “There is no question that all of our players by the end of the week will know how important this game is.”

Whether your home is in Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois, Florida, California or Texas, you learn quickly the importance of the game and the importance of extending the streak.

Michael Deiter, a fifthyear senior offensive lineman from Ohio, recalls listening to Havenstein sharing his personal message as a senior in 2014.

“Rob Havenstein gave a pregame speech that just seemed different to me,” Deiter said. “The intensity it had. You could feel the edge was different. I knew right then.”

What precisely did Havenstein say?

“I can’t really repeat it,” Deiter said with a smile.

A reporter quipped: Defeat them, right?

“Yeah, that was the message,” Deiter said. “Just win the game.”

But how can a Maryland native like Havenstein give a pregame speech for a rivalry involving UW and Minnesota?

“It was his fifth year,” Deiter said. “He knew.”

Havenstein is in his fourth season with the Los Angeles Rams, who are off this week. He is scheduled to be at Camp Randall Stadium on Saturday for the 128th meeting between the teams.

You can bet he doesn’t want to see Fleck and his players hoist the Axe, either.