Content provided in partnership with

Badgers succeed with old formula

Sporting News, The, Nov 8, 2004 by Matt Hayes

Like Barry Alvarez has time for this. Somehow a ticket lottery for basketball games at Wisconsin got screwed up, and hundreds of students who applied for the precious ducats were eliminated once the lucky numbers hit. So here is Alvarez, king of all Bucky, rock 'n' roll piping through his posh office overlooking Camp Randall Stadium, trying to straighten out the mess.

"You wouldn't believe the stuff that crosses my desk," says Alvarez the athletic director.

In the next breath, Alvarez the coach--absolutely this state's Biggest Cheese--smiles and says, "It's a mess, but, man, I love it."

Most Popular Articles in Sports: The first family: Archie, Peyton and Eli are incredibly famous, immensely ...; The growing gap: driving distances are skyrocketing on the PGA Tour. So why ...; Which pistol caliber for self defense? Four different people come to four ...; Drag racing - National Hot Rod Association; The world's most popular .22: the Marlin Model 60 just keeps on ticking; More »

He could say the same thing about the next month of the college football season. The Badgers, unbeaten and unloved by the BCS, are a lock to piece together their first unbeaten regular season since 1912. Yet, there's a very good chance this once-in-a-century season will finish in the Rose Bowl--not the Orange Bowl national title game. It's not a bad consolation prize, but it's also not the ideal in this BCS-driven world.

As good as it has been this season, as far as Wisconsin has evolved from the past few years when Alvarez says the Badgers got away from their physical, smash-mouth style, it still comes down to those maddening polls and computer rankings that dictate the game. Everyone loves the flash and dash of Southern California and Oklahoma and the speed and athleticism of Auburn. And then there's Wisconsin, the plodding, plowing overachievers who would win the show prize in a two-pig pageant at the Dane County fair.

These guys can't be that good, right? Arizona--Arizona--missed a field goal in the last seconds that would've ended this run in September. And the Badgers needed a gift from Purdue in October to escape West Lafayette. And they can't score enough points in a game that matters. And their quarterback hasn't proven he can win a game with his arm. And, and ... they look a lot like Ohio State, circa 2002.

That's the same bunch of Buckeyes who physically punished that Miami team with all of those NFL draft picks in the Fiesta Bowl national title game because, well, the Buckeyes were tougher and wanted it more. Now tell me Wisconsin, with its nasty defense and relentless 18-wheeler of a running game, couldn't match up with USC or Oklahoma.

Instead of constantly criticizing, let's stop looking for something that's not there. Wisconsin is what it is: a perfect reflection of its driven and devoted coach, who would just as soon win a game 3-0' as 31-0. Maybe that's why the eyes of cornerback Scott Starks lit up last week when he was reminded of Iowa's strange 6-4 victory against Penn State in October.

"A beautiful thing" Starks says.

Alvarez recruits players for his style and his system; he doesn't lure them with lobster dinners, fancy frat parties or any other shallow promise. If you're not tough, and you don't want to work, go somewhere else. It's no surprise, then, that when he looked for a new defensive coordinator after longtime assistant Kevin Cosgrove left for Nebraska, he found his man in Bret Bielema.

A former walk-on and tough-guy defensive lineman at Iowa, Bielema fit the mold perfectly--and the defense has changed dramatically. Alvarez was concerned the Badgers had lost some trademark toughness the past three years, when one of the Big Ten's most consistent programs won only 20 of 39 games. There was too much thinking and scheming and not enough action and attitude.

So Alvarez lined up everyone in one-on-one goal-line drills and picked up tempo during spring practice, when most teams work on perfecting schemes and developing younger players. He hit hard in fall camp, too, running the first teams against each other to get everyone used to the speed of the game--and, yeah, to see who had the fortitude to push through it all.

Meanwhile, Bielema simplified things and based the defense on multiple looks, canning the read-and-react philosophy of past years. The object was simple: No matter how much pre-snap movement there is, all 11 guys know where they are going when the ball is snapped--but the opposing quarterback doesn't.

That's not to say the defense is a bunch of overachieving stiffs Alvarez plucked from Midwestern farms. The entire defensive line--ends Erasmus James and Jonathan Welsh and tackles Anttaj Hawthorne and Jason Jefferson--are NFL-caliber players. The only difference is, they're performing every week instead of taking games off, as they did during previous seasons. The defense has given the Badgers attitude again, and the offense--with first-year starter John Stocco at quarterback--feeds off of it. How else can you explain Wisconsin losing four tailbacks in the Penn State game and getting a 123-yard effort from 280-pound fullback Matt Bernstein, who, really, has no business playing tailback in a Division I football game.

These are the signs of a magical season, of a team three games from perfection and three years removed from losing sight of what works. When all else fails, follow the lead of the coach who doesn't take crap from anyone.

Badgers succeed with old formula

Sporting News, The, Nov 8, 2004 by Matt Hayes

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: Technology

Most Popular Articles in Sports

Most Popular Publications in Sports