Badger Football Through Week 2
The Badgers have certainly looked impressive so far, beating UNLV 51-17 and then shutting out Oregon State 35-0 last week. The only significant injury to this point has been junior cornerback Devin Smith, who was lost for the year early in the Oregon State game. Depth in the secondary could quickly become an issue. The next backups at corner are all freshmen or redshirt freshmen. Something to watch.
Next up is Northern Illinois at Soldier Field in Chicago. Surprisingly, ticket sales have been pretty slow and officials are expecting just 40,000 at the game. Tickets are apparently very expensive — $90, $75, and $60.
Northern Illinois presents a significant challenge — a legitimate quarterback. Chandler Harnish is really good, and his stats make him sound like a Russell Wilson who just runs more. In week one’s 49-26 dismantling of Army, Harnish ran 11 times for 80 yards and a touchdown and through the air was 12-19 for 195 yards and 5 TDs. Last week was kind of a shocker, though. Northern Illinois were 6.5 point favorites on the road at Kansas and lost, 45-42. Harnish was 27-33 for 315 and 2TDs, and ran for 89 yards and 3 TDs. Kansas got the game winning touchdown pass on fourth down with 9 seconds left. So it looks like the Huskies will be able to score on virtually anyone but will struggle defensively. The Badgers will need another huge game from the two-headed rushing attack of Montee Ball and James White and continued efficient, mistake-free quarterback play from Russell Wilson. The Badgers are 16.5 point favorites, so I’ll go with 52-35 for my score.
It should be an entertaining game — it’s too bad it’s not on TV. Anywhere. Since it’s a Northern Illinois home game, and the MAC has an agreement with ESPN, the Big Ten Network is unable to carry it and the “ESPN family of networks” has other games they’re showing. It will apparently be shown on ESPN3. It’s a 3:30 Eastern start.
In other NCAA news, The Atlantic has a huge story about the NCAA titled “The Shame of College Sports.” It’s written by Taylor Branch, a Pulitzer Prize-winning civil rights historian, so when he says the NCAA gives off “whiff of the plantation,” he knows what he’s talking about. He attacks the notions of “amateurism” and “student-athletes” as basically sham concepts with no legal definition used by universities to exploit the skills of their athletes. The argument the NCAA has used is that their “student-athletes” have no right to due process because they essentially have no rights at all. Yikes. The piece doesn’t really present new information or arguments, but I’ve never seen the issue examined in such depth and by such an esteemed reporter. It really helps that he’s not a sports guy.
Tags: Badgers, College Football, Wisconsin Badgers
This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 14th, 2011 at 2:08 pm and is filed under College Football, Wisconsin Badgers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.