Wisconsin rising, looks like a title contender
It turns out there’s a rivalry trophy for the series between Wisconsin and Nebraska. Who knew? The sight of several Wisconsin players posing for pictures with the trophy supplied the only surprise of Saturday night. The score and final result went as expected.
Like a cat with a mouse, Wisconsin toyed with Nebraska until things got serious, and then the Cornhuskers never stood a chance. Three drives tell the story: Tied at 17-17 in the third quarter, the Badgers embarked on back-to-back-to-back touchdown drives that spanned a combined 213 yards and took 30 plays, just two of them pass attempts. On a night when Nebraska celebrated its 1997 championship team, it was the Badgers who turned in a vintage performance.
“Whatever it was, it was working,” Wisconsin coach Paul Chryst said.
Welcome to Wisconsin football in
2017, which looks strangely and eerily familiar to Wisconsin football of
2016, 2015, 2007, 1997 and so on down the line. Consistency has yielded success for this program for a generation.
This year is no different.
Now 5-0 and up to No. 6 in the Amway Coaches Poll, the Badgers are succeeding in familiar fashion and barely making a blip on the national radar. That’s also unsurprising — this isn’t the first time the Badgers have been discounted and overlooked. If others in the Big Ten Conference have flash, Wisconsin is a
metronome: ticktock, ticktock. Run left, run right, run left, run right.
“I don’t think we’re a spotlight school. I don’t think we’re spotlight guys. I think we just like to keep our head down and work,” junior offensive lineman Michael Deiter said. “I think that’s maybe why we don’t get all the recognition. You know, people don’t think of us right away, but we still go out and win. And that’s how we want it. That’s kind of our thing here, to be quiet and just go out and win football games.”
As conference races take shape as college football reaches the midway point of its regular season, it’s impossible to discuss the Big Ten — perhaps the best league in the country — without focusing on Wisconsin and on the Badgers’ increasing likelihood of being the only team in the league to exit November unbeaten.
Nebraska is not a contender in this league, let alone one of Wisconsin’s rivals for national recognition. Yet the embattled Cornhuskers still represent one of the toughest hur-
dles on the Badgers schedule, particularly given the circumstances: on the road and under the lights in a hostile environment. The Badgers didn’t ace the test. But the test was passed nonetheless.
“You learned that despite what circumstances might come up they’re going to keep playing,” Chryst said. “We’ve got to build off of that. I thought they did a great job of kind of keeping their poise regardless of what happened and playing with each other. That’s what the takeaway is for me right now.”
Next come Purdue and Maryland, both at home. Both should be wins. Then it’s off to Illinois and Indiana. Add another two wins. By the time Iowa comes to Camp Randall Stadium on Nov. 11 the Badgers should be 9-0 and potentially ranked among the top five. Matchups with the Hawkeyes and Michigan — which comes one week later, also at home — will decide Wisconsin’s postseason destination.
“To go the end of the tunnel we
do need to take steps each week,” said senior tight end Troy Fumagalli, a former walk-on-turned-All-America contender. “You’ve got to be playing your best football at the end of the year.”
Five years ago, Wisconsin’s unimposing schedule would make its hopes of playing for the national title a non-starter; there simply wouldn’t be enough meat on the bones — not normally a Wisconsin problem — to justify placing the Badgers into a one-game championship. Under the College Football Playoff, however, the Badgers know the score: win and you’re in, as long as you’re in a Power Five conference.
“I still think we have things to work on,” said running back Jonathon Taylor, who leads all freshmen nationally in rushing. “But as you can see, we’re a very good team. We still have a way to go, but once we become that complete team we’re going to do some special things.”
But this shouldn’t be overly surprising.
Quarterback Alex Hornibrook is a sophomore. Taylor as noted is a freshman, even if his 249 yards on 25 carries against Nebraska suggested otherwise. There are no seniors
on the two-deep for the offensive line. Upperclassmen do dot the depth chart on defense, and lo and behold: Wisconsin’s defense is again one of the nation’s best.
This paints the picture of a team quietly rising in the polls yet defined in no small part by potential. There aren’t many others in the Playoff conversation who can say the same — there be none other than the Badgers, in fact. Few are paying attention now. That might change as the wins add up.
But it probably won’t. The odds are the dialogue in the Big Ten centers on Ohio State until the Buckeyes’ second loss, and then on Penn State until the Nittany Lions fall from the unbeaten, and then Michigan, if only because of Jim Harbaugh. The Badgers will still be in the background, chugging along toward an undefeated regular season. They’ll be there in December — and maybe into January.
“’I think we need to make it that people do think of us,” Deiter said. “We have to win bigger games. I think if we start winning games like that, people will start thinking of us more. But it doesn’t matter if they don’t right now.”