State of the Badgers
So, was it a successful football season?
Anytime your team loses its bowl game, the answer has to lean towards no. Wisconsin football has certainly come a long way, though. Not long ago, just making any bowl game was a successful season. But the expectations are much higher now. In the last two seasons, Wisconsin has taken the mantle from Ohio State as the best team in the Big Ten. But it’s tainted by back-to-back losses in the Rose Bowl.
Just think how harsh the last four losses have been for fans of this team. The game-tying two point conversion batted down in last year’s Rose Bowl. The Hail Mary at Michigan State. The inexplicable defensive breakdown at Ohio State. And then everything that went wrong in this year’s Rose Bowl. Each loss heartbreaking, stunning, a sucker punch to the stomach.
And where are the countervailing wins, the ones we didn’t deserve but pulled out? There haven’t been any, at least not in the last year. The Nebraska game had loads of pregame hype, but it was a rout. The Penn State game was for the division championship, and it was another rout. The Big Ten Championship was a wild, fantastic game, but it just seemed like it was the Badgers’ turn. Aren’t these things supposed to even out?
At this time last year, expectations for Wisconsin football were fairly low. There was a lot of talent coming back, but they didn’t have anyone to play quarterback. Russell Wilson transformed everything and showed Wisconsin fans how much better their program could be with a legitimately elite quarterback. The Badgers finished #10 in the AP poll and were quite literally two plays away from playing for the national championship.
This year’s situation is remarkably similar, but more serious. Wisconsin loses some great talent on the offensive line again, but it seems there is always more to come. Montee Ball decided to come back for his senior year, even though there is virtually no chance he will be able to approach the numbers he compiled this season. Once again, the quarterback position is the big question on the field. But now Bret Bielema also has to replace almost all of his offensive assistants. Paul Chryst took the head job at Pittsburgh and took several coaches with him, including the recruiting coordinator, Joe Rudolph. So this offseason will really be like none other for Bielema.
No matter who he gets to run the offense, given the turmoil at Penn State and the fact that Ohio State is ineligible for postseason play next year, it looks like it will be between Wisconsin and Purdue for next year’s division title, so another trip to the conference championship is likely. So even if they take a huge step backward, they may still be one game away from a third straight trip to Pasadena.
The day after the Rose Bowl, Wisconsin basketball lost at home to Michigan State on one of the most bizarre plays I’ve ever seen, where the clocks at the Kohl Center were out of sync so a Ryan Evans tying three pointer in overtime was disallowed. That was the second straight home loss, and the Badgers went on to lose at Michigan to make it three in a row. I guess they’re not as good as we thought they were. At this point, losses like these just feel like par for the course, like I almost feel numb to them. I don’t know, maybe it’s from growing up a Red Sox fan.
Tags: Badgers, College Football, Wisconsin Badgers
This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 11th, 2012 at 1:53 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.