BigAppleBucky

It certainly makes for a more interesting game if both star running backs are in peak form. Hope everyone is well.

 

 

I know they had a former recruit that is now in jail for sexual assault but I don't recall anything about current players.

Yes. 1999. Kid was his HS class valedictorian and everything, but he never even participated in even a single practice. Came to campus in the summer and assaulted a woman. The next day (maybe the second day after) he was off the team. Jael Spaights. Convicted and sentenced to 37 years.

 

I believe he's referring to the kid from Mukwonago that was sentenced this summer, BAB.

 

Forgot that. That kid never even signed a LOI.

Since Tom Osborne is such a horror to this Wisconsin fan he must be sick over the fact that the Badger players who were accused of sexual assault last winter are still on the team.

Do you have a story to link? Seriously, that is not something I've read about before. Could have missed it though.

I know they had a former recruit that is now in jail for sexual assault but I don't recall anything about current players.

Yes. 1999. Kid was his HS class valedictorian and everything, but he never even participated in even a single practice. Came to campus in the summer and assaulted a woman. The next day (maybe the second day after) he was off the team. Jael Spaights. Convicted and sentenced to 37 years.

 

Buckyville is Wisconsin's scout message board.

 

That is not correct. Buckyville is independent. Badgernation (FKA Badgermaniac) is the Scout board.

The Rivals board is Badger Blitz.

The denizens of Buckyville (as a whole, not individually) have a skewed sense of humor. Be aware that The Onion satirical newspaper, started in Madison. Buckyville lives up down to that tradition.

Minnesota - chair leg in eye socket (an all time classic)

Iowa - Olive Garden

On Nebraska 2012

Hmmmm . . .

Fire up you weenies

And, the Monsignor, Himself

Young coaches are "projects". You win with some.

Bart Miller, the graduate assistant who became Wisconsin's offensive line coach when Bielema fired the SEC experienced guy, Mike Markuson who is 50. Clearly, that was a huge win.

Sometimes a little change to shake things up works well.

But over the 2010/11 seasons, Bielema lost his entire staff - to promotions. That has clearly hurt the team's performance, especially this season. That's too much change.

Block looked legal to me, but I'm not a football official.

In ice hockey it would have been a penalty.

I wish it had not happened because the next five or ten playing minutes of the game became chippy. I give credit to the coaches and the refs for settling the teams down before things got out of control.

we tend to look at losing emotionally, but when does the university start totalling the costs- current and opportunity costs....lost bowl games, recruiting, retail sales, bowl and TV revenue...

 

I know the B1G pays well, but its all relative...the cumulative effects have to be much greater than a high end coaches salary.....

 

had we won B12 and B1G championships and been competitive/won the bowls from those seasons...i am thinking the revenues would be substantially higher than what we have????....

Essentially nothing.

IIRC, the participating team gets an extra share, but that just covers the added expenses. UW actually lost money on one of its 1990's Rose Bowl trips because so many wives and staff members were given free trips out west.

The way it was before 2011:

13 equal shares

Big Ten gets one

Each school gets one

Participating school gets two.

I saw holding down field....

 

Well, then that's a payback non-call for the holding on their 60 yard TD run.

There were a whole lot of no calls on holds the entire game.

I think there was only one holding call the entire game - on Mathais of Wisconsin who blatantly grabbed a jersey. Mathais was in due to the Costigan concussion.

Interesting, Wisconsin taking the ball. Surprised they didn't defer.

Bielema got that from Ferentz. But when the UW offense was horrible, he did defer for a couple of weeks.

. . . If their QB gets to 200 yards passing the way we play defense, we will not win. . . .

If Phillips gets to 200 yards passing it will be because Nebraska successfully sold out to stop the run. Phillips is anything but a great passer. Phillips needs to convert a couple of third and longs and pass for 125 or 150 along with an effective running game for the Badgers to win.

I'd be cautious believing Bielema and any injury report he makes. Before the Penn State game he said Borland just had cramps. It looked to me like Abbrederis took a pretty solid helmet to helmet hit in the fourth quarter against Penn State. Those are tricky.

As the article said, Shelton Johnson (SS) and Brendan Kelly (DE) will both play. IIRC, we were missing DE, Pat Muldoon, for that game.

Game should be close. Obviously if the Rose Bowl officials had their way Nebraska would win, but those folks have no say.

I hated the Fox broadcast of the game last year. Had the feel of a pro football broadcast. They don't do many college games and the quality level was well below the better ESPN-ABC broadcast teams.

I did enjoy Johnson's Gusgasm when Duckworth of Wisconsin caught the pass that led to the game winning TD, but that was close to the only high point of the broadcast.

Unfortunately, the BTN and Fox are intertwined so that as long as Fox wants it, they'll have the game and keep it away from ABC-ESPN.

It seemed like Whisky went away from a lot of things in the second half. I think part of it was our front seven was getting more pressure. Possibly some immaturity from their Qb. I would take those two players you mentioned in a heartbeat. Every team needs a couple of balls to the wall players.

More likely the offensive coordinator. Matt Canada, got overly cautious. Nevertheless a good tough comeback by Nebby.

Nebby could have had a much easier game of it if the three picks are made. Stave kept trying to give the ball away, but your guys refused to catch it.

There is a new rule in college football this year. It is now illegal to jump over the three protectors on a punt in an attempt to block the kick. Borland did that in a game. Call it the Borland rule.

Halftime score --- Nebraska 28 Wisky 6

 

Final Score ---- Nebraska 38 Wisky 20

 

Nebraska gets off to a fast start with Martinez's arm (To Wisky's surprise), and on Martinez's second TD pass of the first quarter he stares down Gilbert on his way to the sideline while flexing his throwing arm....

 

We cool off/lose interest in the second half, and they get a couple cheap scores in the 4th....

I see the game as closer at the start and then the Wisconsin defense wears down. Nebraska 38 Wisconsin 10.

The UW defense is actually respectable this season. We will be missing a couple of DEs, but should still be fairly decent. But the offense is just a pale shadow of its 2010/11 self and will leave the defense in bad field position and a negative TOP.

OSU barely beat UW. OSU killed UCLA, we lost to UCLA. This will be a closer game than people will expect

2011

We beat Ohio State

Ohio State beat Wisconsin

We beat Wiscons... oh, n/m

 

We beat Michigan State

Michigan State beat Northwestern

We beat Northwes.... oh, n/m

 

 

I could do this all day long.

Right. The transitive property of college football scores is a very weak one, especially when road-home varies as it does in this game. Wisconsin's rush game woes are a combination of a new offensive coordinator, and offensive line coach (since fired) who tried to make a major change in technique, and the losses of some very good players to graduation.

Back in August I said on this board that James White might not be our second best running back. I think I mentioned Gordon. We'll see Saturday who plays the most.

I think 2Beez is playing his usual "an injured player might play" game with Montee Ball. I'll be very surprised if Ball plays. It's simply not worth the risk to his brain. He was concussed in August and then took two helmet to helmet hits early in the game against UTEP.

As a touchdown or more underdog with Bielema as coach, Wisconsin has not covered a single spread. I doubt if we will Saturday night, but anything is possible.

Wisconsin's defense has played fairly well, but has not generated a single turnover yet this season. The one fumble recovery the Badgers have had was on a punt return. If Wisconsin can somehow generate positive turnovers, we have a shot, but that doesn't seem likely. Negative turnovers for Wisconsin will lead to a total rout.

1- Nebraska

2- Ohio St.

3 - Michigan

4- Purdue

5- Michigan St.

6 - Northwestern

7 - Minnesota

8 - Wisconsin

9 - Illinois

10- Penn St.

11- Iowa

12- Indiana

Wisconsin has gone from first to last in offense. Terrible team right now. Illinois might actually be a better team, but after last night, that's a tough argument to make.

Before the season I predicted Purdue would play for the East in the Big Ten championship game. It still looks that way to me. Minnesota finally seems to have found a defense and a decent coach. I'd have Ohio State in first except that they haven't played a game on the road yet.

Seven B1G running backs were named to the Doak Walker list

• Montee Ball, Wisconsin, senior
  
• Le'Veon Bell, Michigan State, junior
  
• Rex Burkhead, Nebraska, senior
  
• Jordan Hall, Ohio State, senior
  
• Silas Redd, Penn State, junior
  
• Fitzgerald Toussaint, Michigan, junior
  
• James White, Wisconsin, junior
  

I'm not 100% certain James White is the second best running back on the Wisconsin team. It might be Melvin Gordon. Wisconsin has two other guys who have potential, Jeffrey Lewis and Vonte Jackson. The coaches experiemented with two running back sets in spring practices.

But . . . I'm also not certain the offensive line will be nearly as effective as the last three years. Lost a couple of graduates and have a new line coach. There are some definite questions.

***

Wisconsin has had a 1,000 yard rusher every season since 1993 except for 2003/2004 when Anthony Davis, the top RB was injured. He had 1,400 and 1,500 his first two years but only 700 and 800 in his junior and senior years when he was hurt.

1,000 yard rushers since 2004:

2005 - Brian Calhoun 1,728

2006 - PJ Hill 1,569

2007 - PJ Hill 1,236

2008 - PJ Hill 1,161 (Clay 884)

2009 - John Clay 1,517

2010 - James White 1.052 John Clay 1,012 (Ball 996)

2011 - Montee Ball 1,923 (White 713)

The Director's cup doesn't factor in the # of sports that the school has, so you are completely right in that a school like OSU (and Stanford, who tends to win the cup) has a large advantage.

 

The link has the raw data so it's definitely possible to create a separate ranking to filter based on just the sports that UNL has...but I couldnt figure out an easy way to dump the pdf table to excel so I gave up. Feel free to give it a try though

The best 10 scores for each sex are used. If a school has 20 men's and 25 women's sports it has a better chance of scoring higher than a school with, say, 11 sports for each gender. But a school with just 22 sports can, in theory, win the Directors' Cup.

.... Looks like we will all be cheerleaders and be forced into supporting the purple kitties on the last game of their season.. LOL because we all know that Indiana has no chance in hell of beating Sparty.

GO PURPLE HAZE!

(There was a serious proposal in the 80s to change Wildcats to Purple Haze)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnFSaqFzSO8&feature=related

Sparty has had some strange results over the years. They could lose to Indiana. Not very likely though. Who thought Purdue would beat Ohio State? That's just life in the Big Ten.

I had no trouble with Nit fans in a game I went to in 2001. They were cordial in line waiting to get in and the ones I was seated near were friendly and easy to talk with. There was one bit of mild bantering as we walked past the tailgating area, but that was very mild.

Some Big Ten history and tradition - Wisconsin vs Minnesota

http://buckyville.yuku.com/topic/34512/The-Storied-Rivalry

It is, of course, the most-played rivalry in Division I-A football. 120 meetings and counting, missing only 1906 since that first game in 1890. It was once for the Slab Of Bacon, and since WW 2, has been played for Paul Bunyan's Axe. Minnie leads the series, 59-53-8.

For a lot of old-timers like me, it is THE game of the season. I frankly want to win this game more than any other. A victory over the Gophers can salvage a 1-10 season; it can be the caviar on a Big Ten championship.

===

I know this isn't Nebraska (nor PSU scandal) related, but I thought some readers might appreciate some of the flavor of the UW-UM rivalry.

Las Vegas has made Wisconsin more than a 20 point favorite on Saturday. Probably won't cover. In this game even a very bad team puts in extra effort and makes for a close contest. In 2007 Wisconsin was pretty good and Minnesota were 1-10. The Gophers came very close to winning.

If you get a chance to watch the end of the game, watch the celebration with the Axe.

Not sure which conference is tougher but this year having Wisconsin, OSU, and Penn State as our other division foes sure didn't help...this year's schedule seems more difficult week in and week out compared to last year.

They socked it to Nebraska, no doubt. Though, for a couple of weeks it seemed Illinois would be tougher than Ohio State or Penn State. In 2013 the schedule will shift. Then we'll see.

Yep. Welcome to the Big Ten. You haven't really belonged until you lose a head scratcher to the Nerds.

I cringe every time Wisconsin is scheduled to play in Evanston the week after NW has their bye. No matter how much better our record is, it's a toss-up at best, and very often a loss. You can beat the Nerds by 70 one year and lose to them the next. They win at least one game every season they have no business winning. Last year it was Iowa.

Give credit to Fitz and that offensive system of theirs.

The announcers were talking today, and I got to thinking about us being a big 10 team and no longer playing any Big 12 teams, and I think I realized why Big 10 teams typically blow chunks in bowl games.

 

We knew there'd be a transition period while getting used to the Big 10. The announcers explained this, mentioning how our D had to agree to the downhill style of most Big 10 offenses, as opposed to the lateral movement of a lot of Big 12 offenses.

 

I fully realized we would no longer play Big 12 teams that use such spread variations and were therefore more likely to see more power, north and south stuff in the Big 10 (with obvious exceptions abounding... Michigan, Northwestern, etc.).

 

So, do Big 10 teams suck against SEC and other speedy teams because they're not used to the lateral attacks of spread teams who have speedier players, or is there some other reason? It seems like Big 10 teams religious come out and get rolled generally come bowl season, with the top teams perhaps faring OK (OSU in the Sugar Bowl last year).

For starters each and every Big Ten bowl game is played in the home territory of the opponent, sometimes in the opponent's home stadium. (e.g. UCLA in the Rose)

Secondly, it is true the SEC is the best college conference and the Big Ten meets the SEC in at least two, often three, bowl games. IMO, it isn't really speed at the skilled positions that puts the SEC over the Big Ten. It's power and speed on the defensive line that does. It seems each of the top SEC teams has a defensive lineman, maybe even two or three, who are on the level of Crick.

Third, over the longish haul the Big Ten isn't massively under .500 in bowl games. Penn State, Iowa and Wisconsin all have winning bowl records over the last 20 years.