2008 Badger Football -- a very early look at the offense

The preseason college rags are hitting the shelves at the local stores, and with the Stanley Cup Finals over, another middling effort by the Brewers, and the unwatchable NBA doing what it does worst, a guy's mind focuses solely college football season, due to start less than three months from now.

If you thought last year was a big question mark for the Badgers, (1) you were right and (2) hold on to your hats this year. Much like last season, the Badgers are going to rely on an unproven senior at quarterback with Allan Evridge becoming the starter. Thus far, some have deigned to term him "horrific" based on his completion percentage over twelve tries -- that's what the best analysts do, right?

But more likely, the former Kansas State starter will be the latest in a line of Badger quarterbacks that competently hand off to PJ Hill and make the safe throw to Travis Beckum while occasionally lobbing a bomb (and even more occasionally completing said bombs). I don't expect Evridge to cost the Badgers any games but I don't expect him to steal any extra victories either.

So it goes with this program until we get back to having multi-year starters. Caretakers at QB is the story of the recent very-good-but-not-great Badgers. Maybe this Jon Budmayr kid is the answer to that problem.

Wisconsin Badgers 2007 Football Preview: the Defense and Special Teams

The season looms ... time runs short ... not much time for a preview. Sorry.

Your starting defensive tackles: Jason Chapman, Mike Newkirk, and Nick Hayden. On the depth chart, Chapman and Hayden are listed as the starters, but these three will rotate in throughout the course of the game. They will batter running backs who dare test them and will rush the passer with furious aplomb. A fearsome unit last year, the DTs will improve, hopefully when it comes to penetrating the opposing line. Backing up the starting rotation are two guys who've never seen the field as Badgers, redshirt freshman Brandon Hoey and redshirt sophomore Jeff Stehle. Hopefully Chapman, Newkirk, and Hayden stay healthy. (This will become a theme on defense, as you'll see.)

Your starting defensive ends: Kurt Ware and Matt Shaughnessy. Shaughnessy is a rising star, picking up second-team All Big Ten honors last season, his sophomore year. Shaughnessy started seven games as a freshman and has been impressing ever since. Ware, on the other hand, is a fifth-year senior whose story was supposed to be about overcoming injuries and valiantly winning his position in the face of adversity. Then Jamal Cooper got kicked off the team and the keys were simply handed over to Ware. The fact that he has recently recovered from knee surgery is disturbing. After the starters, the cupboard is pretty bare; note this article, which has Mike Newkirk stepping in as backup end. Ouch.

Your starting linebackers: Jonathan Casillas, Elijah Hodge, and DeAndre Levy. Another damn fine unit, these guys will be fun to watch this season. Casillas plays on the weakside and was an all-conference pick last year, making 83 tackles (12.5 for a loss) and being fast fast fast. Levy, a junior, led the team in sacks last season with six last season. Hodge is the spottiest of the starters but only because the position he takes over (middle linebacker) was capably filled by Mark Zalewski last season -- he wasn't plugged in with great frequency.

Again, the backup situation is not promising, with true freshman Blake Sorenson the primary backup on the strongside, unused Culmer St. Jean backing up Hodge, and unproven junior Jaevery McFadden filling in behind Casillas. Maybe one or more of these guys will prove themselves as the season goes along, but an early injury to one of the starters might prove disastrous.

Your starting cornerbacks: Allen Langford and Jack Ikegwuonu. Again, you know these guys. Ikegwuonu was All-Everything last year, exactly the sort of corner you don't want to go up against, and one of the primary reasons Wisconsin had the #1 defense against the pass in the nation (imagine Brandt from the "Big Lebowski" saying that last part). Allen Langford broke out last year after having been merely average, doing well enough to pick up honorable mention when the all-conference awards came out. Coverage is expected to be good this season. And, mirabile dictu, we have experienced backups at the position; fifth-year senior Ben Strickland and true sophomore Josh Nettles will spell Jack and Allen, and the depth chart actually lists true freshman Aaron Henry as Langford's primary backup, so he must be pretty solid.

Your starting safeties: Shane Carter and Aubrey Pleasant. And now we come to the sketchy part of the defense. Both of these guys were hurt last year and will be thrown into the fire early. This will be the first significant action Carter and Pleasant will have seen in their careers. Evidently they both outplayed the (slightly) more experienced Kim Royston, which might be an indication that the backups aren't quite ready for prime time either. I fear for this unit.

Your specialists: kicker Taylor Mehlhaff and punter Ken DeBauche. What can I say, both are great at what they do. Mehlhaff was 15-for-20 on field goal attempts and made all 47 PATs he tried. DeBauche averaged over 41 yards per punt. There is no need to worry about this unit. The return game is not yet set, but look for lots of contributions from the receiving corps -- Jefferson, Swan, Gilreath -- and look for them to improve upon last year's efforts.

Wisconsin Badgers Football 2007 Preview: the Offense

Your starting quarterback: Tyler Donovan. A redshirt senior from Hartland, Donovan has one year to be the guy for the Badgers. A backup to John Stocco, Donovan was called into service at the end of the 2006 season, starting the Badgers' wins against Iowa and Buffalo. He performed admirably, finishing the season with a passer rating of 161.34 while completing 63% of his passes, but again: we're talking Iowa and Buffalo. He gives the Badgers decidedly more mobility than Stocco had but at the cost of arm strength. The real question is whether he's mentally prepared for a starting role.

Backing him up: Allan Evridge. Evridge was a nice surprise for the Badgers, transferring from Kansas State after the dismissal of Bill Snyder in 2005. After sitting out the 2006 season, Evridge was expected to compete for the starting role with Donovan, but Coach Bielema indicated very early on in fall camp that Donovan was destined to start. I speculated that Evridge might be a more attractive choice at starter due to his additional remaining year of eligibility, but Bret Bielema knows that the future doesn't matter if you're not winning today. It's Donovan's job to lose, but if he's shaky, Evridge might be able to seize the starting role with a strong performance if Donovan gets the hook. He did, after all, make numerous starts as a Kansas State Wildcat.

Backing up the backup: Redshirt junior Dustin Sherer is absolutely the third-string quarterback. Redshirt freshman Scott Tolzien was a Rivals two-star recruit and will almost definitely not play. Incoming freshmen Cody Rose and James Stallons will redshirt.

Your starting tailback: P. J. Hill. Hill, the Wisconsin Winnebago, led the Big Ten in rushing as a redshirt freshman last season. He averaged 5 yards per carry, pounded out 1569 yards, and plowed into the end zone 15 times. He also displayed competence as a receiver, catching 18 passes for 197 yards and a score. Bielema intends to make use of Hill's pass-catching ability this year (detailed in this article, once you get past the embarrassing parts about stripping naked and wearing plastic bags) and touts his breakaway speed. When Hill gets free, he's tough to stop; p=mv, y'all. His numbers last season can't be denied, even though at one point Coach Bielema requested that his star back pop a few "toughen-up pills" and he did end the season on a disturbing note, gaining just 36 yards on 19 carries in the Capital One Bowl against Arkansas.

Backing him up: Lance Smith, Zach Brown, and John Clay. Second-stringer Smith is back with the team after an incident that began with an argument over $10 and ended with a call to police and some shoe-stealing. He's got experience at the collegiate level, having seen action in twelve games last year, but he didn't do all that much; when Hill was injured against Illinois, Smith ran for 46 yards on (ugh) 21 carries. Through camp, Bielema made it known that Smith's shortcomings are with mentality and maturity; physically, he's doing fine.

Zach Brown is a freshman who established himself as the third-string back at camp. This may or may not have changed when star recruit John Clay became academically eligible. The word appears to be that Clay is still not in football shape (he did miss a lot of practice) so it appears the order will be Hill-Smith-Brown-Clay, but that is subject change. Regardless, expect a big year from the running backs again; with a new quarterback, the ground game is going to have to be top notch.

Your starting fullback: Chris Pressley. Pressley jumped over the very capable Bill Rentmeester in the depth chart this fall. He sat out last year with a leg injury, shed about twenty pounds, and is back to do to unto others as he does unto weights: he shall squat them, 770 pounds at a time. Pressley took a trip to China over the summer -- he's one of those bright kids who isn't just here to play football, wishing instead to embrace the academic experience as a whole. No word yet on whether he managed to hone his Shaolin shadowboxing whilst overseas.


Shaolin shadowboxing and the Wu-Tang sword style. If what you say is true, the Wu-Tang could be dangerous!

Backing him up: Bill Rentmeester. It was about 53 weeks ago to the day that Bill Rentmeester found out he would be taking over as the Badgers' starting fullback. A redshirt junior majoring in biology (what is it with our fullbacks being polymaths?), Rentmeester played in every game last year. Oddly, he was never asked to carry the ball, but he did become the first Badger fullback in six years to catch a touchdown pass (this against Bowling Green). It's tough to compete with a freak like Pressley, but Rentmeester is one of those guys that you can't help but like. He's likely to continue to contribute on special teams this season.

Your starting wide receivers: Luke Swan and Paul Hubbard. Both guys are fifth-year seniors who didn't see much action until last season, but they became game-tested in a real hurry. Their numbers are incredibly similar; Swan caught 35 balls for 595 yards and 5 scores, while Hubbard pulled in 38 for 627 and 5. Swan's got the hands, and Hubbard -- a champion long-jumper -- has the agility. These guys aren't virtuosos or anything, and they probably won't be able to clean up most of the mistakes that Donovan might make. But they're solid, experienced players, and they'll be consistent deep threats.

Backing them up: Xavier Harris and Kyle Jefferson. Harris, a sophomore from Fort Lauderdale, was a frequently-deployed third wideout who rarely saw a ball come his way. That figures to change this year. Jefferson appears to be the guy voted Most Likely To Possibly Approach Chambers/Evans; he's big and fast, and hopefully his mind and his hands will be ready for the college game. A stable of lesser receivers, including Lance Kendricks, David Gilreath, Isaac Anderson, and possibly Marcus Randle El, will back up the other four receivers. Daven Jones, who wasn't able to make it to campus last year, is now on the squad but has a lot of people to jump before he sees the field.

Your starting tight end: Travis Beckum. Volumes and volumes have already been written on Beckum. You don't need me to tell you very much about #9. Recruited as the #6 linebacker in the nation out of high school, Beckum spent his freshman year stagnating as a defensive backup. He was plugged in at TE right from the get-go in 2006 and finished the year as the Badgers' leading receiver. He's been named to several preseason first-team All-America lists and, if his run-blocking improves this season, could be making big money in the NFL at this time next year. He's going to be double-covered all year long.

Backing him up: Andy Crooks. Few teams have the luxury of having a second-string tight end who has played in 38 games and made 19 starts. The University of Wisconsin does. Crooks is a converted linebacker and, like Beckum, has lined up at fullback as well. Opponents will live in fear of the Badgers' jumbo package this year.

Your starting offensive line will feature four returnees: Eric VandenHeuvel at right tackle, Kraig Urbik at right guard, Marcus Coleman at center, and Andy Kemp at left guard. Of course, the missing guy is Joe Thomas, who is currently driving an all-gold Rolls Royce somewhere in the vicinity of Lake Erie. Redshirt freshman and local product Gabe Carimi (Monona Grove) steps in as the Last Best Hope on Donovan's blind side. (Side note: Allan Evridge is left-handed, so if Donovan gets bounced, he'll have a more experienced lineman protecting his blind side.) Mgoblog has pointed out a discrepancy between the line's ability to create holes for Hill (good) and the fact that John Stocco seemed to taste a lot of Fieldturf last year (bad). My prediction: experience will allow this line to gel quickly, and their increased capability combined with Donovan's non-statuesque style of quarterbackery will lead to sexy results.

All in all, the offense looks promising, but will ultimately come down to Donovan's readiness. Hill won't regress, but if Donovan can't keep defenses off-balance by moving the ball through the air, that won't matter in the least. Fortunately, an experienced receiving corps and an offensive line packed with upperclassmen are there to help the QB out when the punishing convoy of Hill and Pressley turn their CB radios off for a play.

***

And now, a word from our sponsor: That's all the information you need to make your football picks, and that concludes my college football preview for the Badger offense.

Big Ten Network is coming to UW-Madison

In the dorms, that is ...

Students in University of Wisconsin-Madison residence halls will be able to watch the Big Ten Network, under an agreement between the university and the network.

In addition, the Big Ten Network will be available at the Memorial Union and Union South, as well as the J.F. Friedrick Center, the Fluno Center and Lowell Hall.

The Big Ten Network will be offered on channel 116 of the university's ResNet cable system beginning on about Sept. 1.

Presumably, if the game is low-profile enough to merit airing on the BTN, you can watch on campus ... although in many cases I'd guess you could find a ticket on the street for $10 or less and just watch from the stands in Camp Randall Stadium. Still, those road games at Illinois and Minnesota? Might have to head to the Union to see them ...

Monday night linkfest

• Oh boy oh boy oh boy!!! The Journal-Sentinel, in all its wisdom, has gone ahead and decided to combine Dave Heller's old blog with one co-authored by Mark Stewart and Jeff Potrykus! What does that give us? The Badger Blog at JSonline! After one day in existence, it is already the preeminent Badger blog on the web. Read it!


• On the other end of the blogging spectrum, Andy Baggot becomes the latest in a long line of victims who fell for a joke paper's conception of a new code of conduct for Alabama football games. The Piedmont Gazette has also published articles about Auburn players shooting steroids and beating up fellow students, only to have Tommy Tuberville endorse this behavior as "defending their house." Don't worry, Andy, a LOT of people fell for this one, which is precisely what makes it so great. But I do have a lot of other hot leads if you want to follow up on any of them ...


• Georgia Tech blogger Ramblin' Racket has published a gameday guide for young alumni (warning, R-rated language and insinuations), which answers the salient question: "Is it creepy if I try for college girls?"
  

  I am here to tell you, young lad, the answer is emphatically NO.

  
  What he fails to mention is that he's probably talking about Georgia Tech girls here, in which case ... why bother?
  
  Seriously, though, Ramblin' Racket is a good read, and you ought to check it out frequently. (Note that I endorse this blog despite the nonsense that Jeff wrote about the Big Ten's "bogus" traditional ties with the Rose Bowl. Because 60 years is clearly too short to be considered tradition, especially in a sport that's been around for 125 years ...)


• There'll be another installment of the Blogpoll out on Wednesday, the second of the preseason. Early props go to T. Kyle King for moving the Badgers up to #7 from #10 on his ballot.


• Badger previews! Good ones are up: a shorter, very worthwhile one at Black Shoe Diaries (awkward Bataan Death March reference included!) and a behemoth, well-researched, humorous one over at Mgoblog. With any luck I'll have an offense preview up tomorrow and one for the defense on Wednesday, but -- sadly -- no promises.

Jamal Cooper is gone

Suspended indefinitely. Sounds like he won't be back:

Cooper will have access to full academic support services, but will no longer be a part of the football program in any other way.

Ouch. And that's from the official release on the matter. No word on the matter yet but Cooper has had issues in the past.

Presumably senior Kurt Ware will move up the depth chart and assume the starting role.

Eight days to go ...

The anticipation is building! Just eight more days till kickoff.

It's tough to sit still long enough to write anything substantive. Jeff Potrykus has a better look at the depth chart than most and lays out the storylines at many positions particularly well. He also gives a prediction in the form of a bottom line:

UW can't match the offensive firepower of Michigan, the favorite to win the league title, mainly because the Badgers are breaking in a new full-time starter at quarterback.

However, the Badgers could have the best defense in the league and the special teams should be better than 2006.

Not matching Michigan's offense is OK. Having the best defense in the league is paramount. That's what gets a team a title. Thankfully there are only eight days to wait before we get to see whether these predictions -- and all of our college football predictions -- come true.

The CapTimes has a fluff article on Tyler Donovan, which doesn't reveal anything interesting or embarrassing. But it's about football, dammit! So read!

Finally, the first preseason Blogpoll is out. The bloggers of the nation appear to have less esteem for the Badgers than do the sportswriters and the coaches, ranking the Badgers #9. I wouldn't expect sixty-odd bloggers to do much to alter the college football spreads, but it's great that a group of people who put so much thought into analyzing the game gave the Badgers top-ten props.

We've also made a new friend -- the Enlightened Spartan gave the Badgers his #1 vote. I wish I had that kind of confidence!

Badgers release updated two-deep roster

Coach Bielema has made up his mind -- here is how the 9th-ranked Badgers will look going into the Washington State game:

Offense

QUARTERBACK
12 Tyler Donovan, Sr., 6-1, 185
4 Allan Evridge, Jr., 6-2, 226

TAILBACK
39 P.J. Hill, So., 5-11, 227
5 Lance Smith, So., 5-10, 203

FULLBACK
44 Chris Pressley, Jr., 6-1, 259
34 Bill Rentmeester, Jr., 6-1, 246

TIGHT END (H-BACK)
9 Travis Beckum, Jr., 6-4, 224
89 Garrett Graham, So., 6-4, 227

TIGHT END
43 Andy Crooks, Sr., 6-3, 269
36 Mickey Turner, So., 6-4, 237

WIDE RECEIVER
1 Luke Swan, Sr., 6-1, 190
2 Xavier Harris, So., 5-11, 175

WIDE RECEIVER
19 Paul Hubbard, Sr., 6-4, 213
14 Kyle Jefferson, Fr., 6-5, 195

LEFT TACKLE
68 Gabe Carimi, Fr., 6-8, 292
64 Danny Kaye, Sr., 6-8, 323

LEFT GUARD
75 Andy Kemp, Jr., 6-6, 324
74 John Moffitt, Fr., 6-4, 307

CENTER
65 Marcus Coleman, Sr., 6-6, 295
64 Danny Kaye, Sr., 6-8, 323 OR
58 Brad Thorson, Fr., 6-4, 287

RIGHT GUARD
63 Kraig Urbik, Jr., 6-6, 332
76 Bill Nagy, Fr., 6-4, 292

RIGHT TACKLE
71 Eric Vanden Heuvel, Jr., 6-7, 325
78 Jake Bscherer, So., 6-7, 297

Defense

LEFT END
5 Jamal Cooper, Sr., 6-4, 214
34 Kurt Ware, Sr., 6-4, 268

LEFT TACKLE
91 Jason Chapman, Jr., 6-4, 285 OR
54 Mike Newkirk, Jr., 6-3, 268
79 Jeff Stehle, So., 6-6, 297

RIGHT TACKLE
96 Nick Hayden, Sr., 6-5, 301 OR
54 Mike Newkirk, Jr., 6-3, 268
59 Brandon Hoey, Fr., 6-5, 292

RIGHT END
92 Matt Shaughnessy, Jr., 6-6, 247
99 Kirk DeCremer, Fr., 6-5, 238

SAM LINEBACKER
11 DeAndre Levy, Jr., 6-3, 230
27 Blake Sorensen, Fr., 6-1, 204

MIKE LINEBACKER
52 Elijah Hodge, So., 6-1, 235
15 Culmer St. Jean, Fr., 6-1, 226

WILL LINEBACKER
2 Jonathan Casillas, Jr., 6-2, 220
47 Jaevery McFadden, So., 6-2, 225

LEFT CORNERBACK
17 Allen Langford, Jr., 5-11, 197
7 Aaron Henry, Fr., 6-0, 169 OR
28 Josh Nettles, So., 5-10, 179

STRONG SAFETY
8 Aubrey Pleasant, So., 6-1, 194
26 Jay Valai, Fr., 5-9, 191

FREE SAFETY
25 Shane Carter, So., 6-2, 206
21 Kim Royston, So., 5-11, 185

RIGHT CORNERBACK
6 Jack Ikegwuonu, Jr., 6-1, 193
3 Ben Strickland, Sr., 5-9, 172

Special Teams

PUNTER
94 Ken DeBauche, Sr., 6-2, 214
97 Paul Standring, Sr., 6-1, 212

KICKER
10 Taylor Mehlhaff, Sr., 5-11, 184
96 Matt Fischer, So., 5-11, 181

PUNT RETURNER
1 Luke Swan, Sr., 6-1, 190
85 David Gilreath, Fr., 5-11, 160

KICK RETURNERS
28 Josh Nettles, So., 5-10, 179
85 David Gilreath, Fr., 5-11, 160

14 Kyle Jefferson, Fr., 6-5, 195
13 Marcus Randle El, Jr., 5-10, 193

First and foremost, we have Donovan over Evridge. Not much of a surprise. Congrats to Tyler, and best of luck.

The WSJ ran an article yesterday where they suggested that David Gilreath might be the primary returner in all situations, and from the article, it appears that sure-handedness was a trait to which Bielema was giving top priority:

"I think the guys that jumped out to me (as returners) are the new guys," UW coach Bret Bielema said after Tuesday's practice. "Marcus put a couple on the ground.

The article didn't mention Swan, who is listed as the top punt returner. Whatever happens, hopefully we won't have a repeat of last year's Adventures of Zach Hampton everytime the opposing punter jogs out.

Also of note is Chris Pressley leapfrogging Bill Rentmeester for the starting fullback position. One would have to think that this is due to Chris Pressley's ability to do this:

Badger football starts the season at #7 in the AP poll

Just like in the Coaches Poll. It's exciting that expectations for this team are so high. After watching the Packers demolish the Seahawks 48-13, it's finally time to acknowledge that we need to fast-forward through the remainder of August and get football season going.

I do enjoy the AP's new policy of full transparency; you can see the ballots of each voter every week. (Quick request of the geeks out there: is there any way one of you could write a script that will take the data from each ballot and put it into a convenient, sortable, single-page format? Let me know.) It doesn't appear that everything is updated at the AP's site quite yet, but of the polls in which preseason rankings are visible, the Badgers are ranked as highly as fourth (by three voters) and fall outside of the top ten on four ballots. The cast of College Gameday doesn't appear to think the Badgers will live up to the hype, as both Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit place UW at #11. (Herbstreit's ballot is interesting, as he also ranks Michigan #10. His top Big Ten team? Penn State, at #7.) One voter ranked UW #14; let it be known that David Birkett of the Oakland Press is officially On Notice, especially considering that he's got the Wolverines at #2.

UPDATE 8/20/07: Ach! A 23rd place vote!! This dude's in South Bend; fortunately he didn't have the audacity to rank the Irish ...

Badger links for moving day

It's moving day here in Madison, which means chaos in the streets. It's also pretty funny, since (a) it's raining and (b) I don't have to move, so ... HA HA!

Also, it looks like UW-Madison is going to get a little more annoying, as they're making the place more accessible to parents:

Amy Smith is anxious. She's known for years this time would come, but now the day when she and her husband, Stan, will deliver Alynna, their oldest child, to UW-Madison for the first time is almost upon them.

"We're sending our child into unknown territory," said Smith, of Darlington. "She's been under my wing. I know all of her friends, I know what she's doing during the day, I know what she's doing at night. We're very close."

Uncharted territory indeed -- except to the 356 THOUSAND LIVING ALUMNI OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN. Get a grip.

Anyway, onto the sports. That's why you're here, right?

* Tom Dienhart of the Sporting News can't wait to see Bret Bielema match coaching wits with Penn State's Joe Paterno. He doesn't specify whether the Joe Paterno he speaks of is the one who actually coached the team a decade and a half ago or the one who appears on the sidelines today.

* The WSJ reports that Allan Evridge still isn't fully comfortable with his role on the team yet. Evidently, though he was comfortable enough to smoke the defense in practice on Monday, turning the tables on that unit from this weekend's action.

* It's probably nothing, but Travis Beckum, Jack Ikegwuonu, and DeAndre Levy sat out of practice on Monday and Tuesday due to minor injuries.

Devastating defense ...

... or a devastated offense?

That's one of the great things about scrimmages: it's freakin' impossible to tell. We have this much to go on:

Reserve cornerback Ben Strickland intercepted one pass and broke up another.

Freshman linebacker Blake Sorensen showed effort and athletic ability to break up a pass near the goal line.

Cornerback Jack Ikegwuonu saved a touchdown with a break-up.

Even reserve defensive tackle Jeff Stehle got in on the action with an interception.

Those were most of the memorable plays from an extended red-zone session during the University of Wisconsin football team's fourth pre-season practice Thursday.

Lots of defense, which is excellent and to be expected, until you realize that:

The offense did not score a touchdown until its 14th play, on a 3-yard completion from Allan Evridge to Travis Beckum.

Tyler Donovan missed his first six passes and was sacked in the No. 1 offense's first seven plays. It included a drop by Hill in the end zone.

Fourteen tries? Holy cow. It's still early, thank goodness, but fourteen tries? Seriously.

Allan Evridge and Dustin Sherer enjoyed the most success of the quarterbacks.

Evridge had the first score, a 3-yard strike to tight end Travis Beckum. He fired arguably the best pass of the day, a 15-yard bullet to Xavier Harris for a touchdown.

Sherer fired a 12-yard touchdown strike to Beckum.

Tyler Donovan should have had a touchdown throw in the first segment, but tailback P.J. Hill was unable to hang on to the ball in the end zone.

P.J.'s hands were one of his assets last year. I'm sure he'll be back in rhythm in short order.

And finally ... well, let's just say that this would be fun as a change of pace:

Donovan and Evridge, both gifted runners, began running the option. "It's just playing to players' strengths," Bielema said, adding that UW's defense would face some option this season.

If they got good, I mean really good at this, wouldn't it be ridiculous to see them come out during a stalemate or even when the Badgers were behind and run the option? Get a big play out of that, move into a no-huddle, go for a quick strike, try a direct snap to Hill or a reverse to Hubbard or a flea flicker ... the mind boggles. Bielema's got a lot of potential to work with here; some creativity on offensive coordinator Paul Chryst's part, and the offense could be just as dangerous as the D.

LOCK IT: Wisconsin to beat Michigan

So says Colin Cowherd (link via Mgoblog). As The Diag puts it:

Wisconsin over Michigan. Wow, thanks for going out on a limb there Colin. The #7 team in the country over the #5 team in the country, at home, at night, in November? How could anyone ever predict an upset of such Biblical proportions?

Indeed. The funny thing is that both teams have major stumbling blocks on their schedules prior to this date; UW visits OSU and Penn State, and Michigan hosts Oregon and Notre Dame. Should the Badgers clear their hurdles and the Wolverines pick up a couple losses, it will be amusing to watch as #3 Wisconsin upsets #20 Michigan.

Daven Jones in, John Clay still out

Daven Jones, who had a bit of trouble qualifying academically last year, has apparently sorted out his issues in the classroom and practiced with the team yesterday. (Also, memo to the July 2006 version of Badger Tracker: Swan and Hubbard turned out to be fairly decent receivers, and that PJ Hill guy did OK too.) There's no such thing as too much depth, and if Jones still possesses the attributes that roused the interest of several D-IA programs a couple falls ago, he'll be an exciting addition to a group that already boasts a track star. Tip of the cap to Mr. Jones for climbing that mountain.

John Clay, though, is another story. He's waiting for summer school grades to come in, and even if those the news is good he may have to sit out the first game; NCAA rules forbid him from joining the team till the first day of classes, September 4, unless a player on the Badgers' 105-man roster voluntarily abdicates his spot or gets injured. We'll see about John.

Also of note, we have a tweak of the depth chart: Jamal Cooper is taking over at right tackle for Kurt Ware as the latter recovers from knee surgery. Also, Shane Carter looked sharp according to both the Journal-Sentinel and the State Journal, so that's a big positive

Lance Smith reinstated

It would be fair to say I'm not surprised. As you may remember, Smith pushed his girlfriend down and took $20 and her shoes after a dispute about cab fare. Maybe the powers that be were pleased that the courts only saw fit to charge Smith with misdemeanor battery.

Hopefully this will be reflected in the newest Fulmer Cup standings.

USA Today Preseason Poll: Badgers are #7

The entire poll is here. This marks the second-highest preseason ranking in the Coaches' Poll for UW, according to UWBadgers.com. Here is the list of the Badgers' preseason rankings by the coaches:

Year	Rank
1994	11
1995	22
1997	24
1998	20
1999	10
2000	5
2001	23
2002	23
2003	20
2004	22
2007	7

That's the sixth preseason Top 20 appearance for Wisconsin. This seems to be an all-or-nothing proposition for the Badgers; #11 in 1994 gave us a 7-4-1 season with a win over Duke in the Hall of Fame Bowl, #20 in 1998 was the 11-1 season that led to a Rose Bowl victory over UCLA, #10 in 1999 was of course the 10-2 season with the win over Stanford in the Rose Bowl, #5 in 2000 was another four-loss season capped by a one-point victory over UCLA in the Sun Bowl, and 2003 was a 7-6 fiasco with a two-score loss to Auburn in the Music City Bowl. So, when we're picked in the Top 20, we always go to a bowl game. Forty percent of the time, the season ends with 10+ wins and a Rose Bowl victory; the other 60% of the time we endure a campaign with four or more losses. I'll take those odds.

The Top 10 looks like this:

Rank	Team	First Place Votes	Points
1	USC	45	1481
2	LSU	4	1372
3	Florida	9	1278
4	Texas	--	1231
5	Michigan	2	1218
6	West Virginia	--	1205
7	Wisconsin	--	1114
8	Oklahoma	--	1026
9	Virginia Tech	--	1005
10	Ohio State	--	919

Three Big Ten teams in the Top Ten, and Penn State checking in at #18, means that there's plenty of opportunity for our beloved conference to be declared "overrated." My first impression is that a lot of people had a tough time filling out their ballots, and that Oklahoma and Virginia Tech don't seem like Top Ten teams to me, but there do, after all, have to be ten teams in a top ten, so who else are you going to pick? Hard to say.

Obviously, the choruses of "Wisconsin might be overrated" has already begun, which is predictable and, 60% of the time, not unwarranted.

Picking against the top-twenty preseason Badgers: 60% of the time, it works every time.

Media picks Wolverines #1, Badgers #2

Reported by Jeff Potrykus.

Absolutely no surprise there. Ohio State is picked to finish third.

It looks as if Dave Heller will be updating live from Chicago all day, so it might be worth checking in a few times before you head home from work.

Thursday Badger Bullets

Four quick ones:

* I was contacted by the Big Ten Network to interview its president, Mark Silverman, but I declined. I honestly couldn't formulate any intelligent questions at all (I know what the programming's going to be, I'm very much in favor of being able to watch the station, and they don't have a deal with Charter yet, which pretty much makes up the entire spectrum of my concerns.) However, Brian of the oft-linked Mgoblog did, and flaunts his acumen here. Very much worth a read, including a list of stations that charge a whole lot more per subscriber than the Big Ten Network does (BTN is looking for $1.10 per customer, which was deemed ludicrous by some, including myself ... but then, I didn't know that Comcast Sports Chicago pulls an amazing $3.75 per!) And of course, your headquarters for this type of knowledge has always been the Hoosier Report, which, given the state of Indiana athletics, has managed to avoid the seemingly-inevitable hydrocodone addiction such fanship would bring by instead focusing on media matters.

* Bret Bielema does some good, promoting the Restoring Hope Transplant House in a new PSA. His personal experience with the importance of organ donation adds an incredible amount to this message. We're proud of you, Coach.

* Wisconsin has picked up a wide receiver transfer, but it's not something to get overly excited about yet: Chris Maragos is transferring from Western Michigan, where he walked on. He is leaving because he did not receive a scholarship from the Broncos. Who knows, maybe he'll be the next Jim Leonhard-esque story of triumph for the Badgers. Here's hoping.

* The predictions continue to pour in; this one, from the Prognostication Station, sees the Badgers finishing third in the Big Ten -- tied with Michigan. They believe Penn State and Ohio State will be co-champs, citing Michigan's weak run defense and an overwhelming road schedule for the Badgers. For what it's worth, they predict an undefeated home slate for UW, which means a win over the Wolverines, but I don't know how much weight I'd give a prediction that predicts a conference title for Penn State based on its favorable home schedule and one for Ohio State by virtue of the fact that "Tressel owns Carr."

Trev Alberts fails to impress me

I'll lead off today's post with a link to a Q&A with Trev Alberts (the real Trev, not the awesome one). He's asked whether it's Michigan vs. Wisconsin for the Big Ten title, and mirabile dictu, he doesn't think so:

I say it's Michigan with an outside shot of Ohio State winning ... I still think they're going to have a terrific defense. They'll be just as good of a team, and have a worse record, with Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State on the schedule.

The above is a reasonable prediction, but where that ellipsis appears Trev offers the tired boilerplate we've been hearing over and again since last December: they only beat Michigan, Stocco was a caretaker, Bielema had beginner's luck. But then he goes on -- and maybe I'm reading this incorrectly, I don't know -- to say that the Badgers are clearly the fourth-best team in the conference (emphasis mine):

The two other teams after Michigan are Ohio State and Penn State. The Nittany Lions could be a little more surprising than some people think with Anthony Morelli. I know the Buckeyes lost some guys, but they have a lot of talent. They seem to be able to find some players. Remember how last year we were talking about Ohio State losing nine starters on defense?

I do, in fact, remember that. But they still had Troy Smith. Remember, the guy who got that funny little statue in New York before the bowl games? I know, and everyone knows by now, that it's patently unintelligent to count out Michigan or Ohio State under any circumstances (cue the "rebuilding vs. reloading" guy), and being a fan of a program that has seen the likes of Brooks Bollinger and John Stocco not only suffice but excel, I guess the fact that Morelli hasn't impressed me yet doesn't mean he never will. So who knows.

The bottom line here? Predicting things is stupid. Also, finding this article allowed me to get inside the Brain of Trev, which helped confirm everything I'd intuited by watching him for way too many Saturdays ... remember the days before ESPN wised up and canned his smarmy ass?

I've read that the Cover 2 is the ideal defense to use against college quarterbacks. Do you agree with that and if not, what is the best defense to use in the college game? - Jaime Lears, California

I think I know what article you're referencing, but I would caution against placing too much credence on a writer rather than having a former coach or current coach write that article.

Full disclosure: I'm not a former or current coach. Sorry for wasting teh internets with my know-nothing drivel. But let's continue:

Let me tell you, as someone who's been out there, that Cover 2 is not always the best coverage, period. If that was the case, that's the only coverage you would ever see.

The fact is there's no one coverage that's going to be the end-all. Football is too sophisticated. Cover 2 is an important, but small part of coverage.

So much of what you do depends on your personnel.

If you don't have safeties who can show you range of motion or stand in the box when needed, you have no coverage. And if you have great lock-down corners, Cover 2 nullifies their talents. If you're going to play Cover 2 for four quarters, you're going to get beat in the college game.

I'll give the poor owl a rest here.

Cover 2 has weaknesses. That's why good defensive coordinators run a whole lot of different coverages.

It's a good thing Trev's been there and done that. I certainly couldn't have gone all that in-depth.

Honestly now ... this guy's just looking for a default defense when he's playing NCAA 2008. Do you think he hasn't noticed that there are several available schemes? He's just asking, "What's best?" Which is a better question on any day of the week than "Who's Now?"

Other people's previews, part 2

The Badgers find their way into the countdown: Rivals.com says Wisconsin is the #8 team in the nation, and while they very astutely single out the receiving corps for praise, declaring Paul Hubbard "underrated," they also take P. J. Hill down a peg, saying he's the most overrated player on the team. Maybe that's not a bad thing -- after all, someone has to be the "most overrated" -- but I think what gets me is that they knock him for being injured toward the end of last season. Is that really a basis for deciding a player is overrated? I'd probably have singled out Elijah Hodge for that dubious award myself -- seems to me he's riding the name recognition of his widely-praised brother a wee bit. One of the things I most appreciate about the Rivals preview is that they leave the door open for a Badger BCS berth without a conference title; most people give me the impression that they believe that UW will need the automatic berth to get invited to one of the big-money bowls, probably fueled by lingering memories of last year's "snub." Overall, this is an excellent preview.

Penn State blog There Is No Name On My Jersey, whose name celebrates the Nittany Lions' tradition of being either too lazy or too cheap to hire a seamstress, insists on making fatal mistakes of judgment and re-tasting the sour grapes of the season gone bye:

Bielema and Wisconsin are on my shitlist for the abuse of the clock in last years game. It was a close game and the wasting of the clock was not in the spirit of the game. Yes it was cheating. Yes, it still pisses me off.

Incorrect! It was not cheating, and it was just as much "in the spirit of the game" as taking a knee is. Perhaps there's a little bitterness because Wisconsin has a young coach who continues to innovate within the rules where PSU has a living legend who, despite his considerable accomplishments, should've been gently "retired" a decade ago? Possibly.

How do I know it's not cheating? Because the NCAA rulebook (PDF) includes this provision, in Rule 3, Section 4, under the heading "Unfair Clock Management:"

ARTICLE 3. The referee shall order the game clock started or stopped whenever either team conserves or consumes playing time by tactics obviously unfair. This includes starting the clock on the snap if the foul is by the team ahead in the score. The clock will start on the ready-for-play signal after an illegal forward or backward pass that conserves time for Team A.

The officiating crew had the power to stop this if they thought it was an illegal tactic. But they didn't. So it wasn't. And EDSBS thought it was a ballsy enough move to declare Bret Bielema Person of the Year, and you know how Orson and Stranko aren't generally prone to hyperbole. (Some have also claimed that Bielema's tactic may have hastened the death of the hated clock rules, giving us more football to watch. Penn State fans, you're welcome.)

That said, their Badger preview fails to find P. J. Hill overrated; indeed, he is compared to a grotesque, overly-muscular dog, which is something. Go and read.

The Diag has a preview of the quarterbacks in the Big Ten. Obviously, Chad Henne finds himself in the #1 spot (does anyone have a preview where Chad Henne isn't declared the best QB in the Big Ten? Because that preview is insane), and coming in second place is, of course, Kellen Lewis of the Indiana Hoosiers.

Now, I admit that I didn't watch enough Indiana or Illinois football last year, but I did watch the Badgers play both teams, and let me tell you: Juice Williams impresses me a whole hell of a lot more than Lewis. For one, Lewis-to-Hardy is something opposing defenses picked up on about 18 months ago, and it's unlikely that anyone is going to disregard it this year. Meanwhile, Zook has been picking up considerable talent, and the role players around Williams will likely make the Illini offense more formidable than their Hoosier counterparts. (Of course, Zook has never really been the type of guy who actually develops the talent he snares, so the whole point is likely moot, but you see what I'm saying here.)

The Wisconsin QBs check in at #5 on the list, just ahead of Juice and right behind turnover machine Curtis Painter of Purdue and the oft-contused Anthony Morelli of Penn State. I expect the UW quarterback to eventually find himself at #2 or #3 in the conference, just as long as we don't have to bust out the unfortunate nickname I just made up ("Allan Average") midway through the season. Whoever lines up under center for Wisconsin will have Hubbard and Swan as go-to guys and Travis Beckum as probably the best safety valve in the entire nation. With Hill keeping the pressure off, the guy who winds up chucking the ball has a good chance at success.

Finally, the mgoblog preview of Penn State is up, and toward the end this snippet of commentary is offered:

Even though I am deeply skeptical about Morelli and the Nit offensive line, the comparison that is foremost in my mind is Wisconsin. The teams were virtually identical in 2006, stiff defenses coupled with mediocre or worse offenses heavily reliant on running the ball.

The Badgers are a trendy pick for Big Ten champs based on their 12-1 2006, but replace Bowling Green with Notre Dame and rejigger the Big Ten schedule to include Ohio State and you're probably looking at 10-3 and more reasonable expectations for a team that didn't prove all that much last year. Unit by unit on offense:

* QB: PSU. Even if Morelli was meh, he has a year of experience over Donovan/Everidge.
* RB: Wisconsin, but they have similar depth issues and Scott has one-year wonder upside.
* WR/TE: Penn State. Beckum is all the Badgers have; Penn State has Quarless, two guys who would be fine #2/#3 players, and at least the hope Williams lives up to his potential, plus Bell.
* OL: Maybe a push based on the similarities -- uninspiring starters returning from last year's team; top ten LT off to NFL -- but Bob Palcic fought in 'Nam and Wisconsin doesn't have a failed LG playing LT this year.

I figure the defenses will be near mirror images. The secondaries are a wash if not a slight PSU advantage -- more faith in AJ Wallace than Allen Langford -- and the presumed Wisconsin advantage on the D-line is offset by what should be one of the nation's premier linebacking units. If you consider the skill positions even, you're picking between the Wisconsin OL's advantage over PSU's line and Morelli's advantage over whoever Wisconsin throws out there.

My point is this: if you're looking for a darkhorse challenger to consensus favorite Michigan in the Big Ten, this is probably your team. I kind of hate saying that what with JayPa and all, but there it is. The differences between UW and PSU last year laid mostly in the quality of their opponents. The defenses will both be stout, intimidating things; if you made me pick between the offenses I would wince and take the Nittany Lions.

That wincing would be justified; I agree for the most part with the above assessment but find Brian's lack of faith in the Wisconsin receiving corps disturbing. I don't blame him for underrating them, as UW and Michigan locked horns in the conference opener last year, and he probably didn't see much of the progress made by Hubbard and Swan as the season went forward. The fact that Hill and Beckum had more than half of the Badgers' receiving yardage in that game also makes the actual receivers seem all the more suspect. I realize that Brian is a lot more circumspect than this, but our perception of other teams' strengths and weaknesses are tinted by the games our own teams played against them.

Bottom line: I expect the Badger offense to be better than Penn State's, the defenses will be a wash, and a very strong coaching edge has to go to Bielema and his not-yet-past-the-expiration-date nepotism-free bevy of assistants. The Badgers will be the better team next year, have no doubt; it's the venue and the timing that frightens me about the Penn State game, and I think there's a better than 50% chance that the Badgers lose that game. However, I think the smart money is on Wisconsin if you're picking between them and the Lions for a Big Ten championship.

OPP - Other People's Previews

Big news from MSNBC.com -- some guy from Tampa, who's listed in the page's title as "Expert," doesn't think the Badgers will be playing for the national title this year. You have to admire the guy's temerity -- it takes a true daredevil to pick against a team that hasn't played for a national title in nearly half a century -- but before we address the content of his preview, let's review the rubric for creating the vast majority of Big Ten previews out there:

1. Check out last year's record. Pretty self-evident. Wisconsin went 12-1 last year, beating an SEC team in a bowl game. Noting this, we move on ...
2. Look to see who's sticking around and who bolted. John Stocco's gone. Joe Thomas is gone. PJ Hill is still here. The defense is mainly intact, and it was really good. So ...
3. Assess the losses, and assume everyone who stayed will be improved. Quarterback is a big hole to fill, so fret about that a little bit, but qualify the fretting with the fact that there's a QB battle in Madison, and both candidates have won conference games as starters. Pay lip service to the loss of Joe Thomas, because a lot of people said he was really good and he was taken really early in the NFL draft, even though most of us don't appreciate what the offensive line does except push the defensive line.
4. Check out the schedule. The non-conference games are a non-issue. Penn State and Ohio State on the road could be perilous, but PSU wasn't all that great last year (see step #1 ... it's all you need!) and OSU is depleted (see step #2. Isn't this easy!?) Michigan's at home, and they're supposed to be pretty good (again, step #2). Everyone else is irrelevant.
5. Try not to pick Ohio State or Michigan. Let's face it, they're usually the champs. But nobody wants to say, "put it all on OSU and let it ride" ... that's not sexy! It's too easy to be right with Ohio State! So, ignore the gaping hole at QB and declare Wisconsin "as good as anyone else in the conference."

Step #5 is what Joey Joe Joe seems to dislike, so that leads to the next step in the rubric, the one that goes into effect after most people's previews are already out there:

6. Compile evidence that shows why everyone else shouldn't pick the sexy team. At this point, because of step #5, everybody's got his non-Buckeye, non-Wolverine pick out there. This makes your column really easy to write: just pick up on the evidence that the other writers had to willfully ignore in order to pick their second-tier Big Ten team to win the title.

And true to form, here's what we get. An immediate bet-hedge -- "Badgers not bad, but don't believe the preseason hype" -- and then all the usual warmed-over, lazy half-truths:

* The Badgers weren't THAT good last year. (What 12-win team was?) They lost to their only legitimate opponent, Michigan, and dodged Ohio State. (Extreme ultra bonus points for actually using "dodged," as though the Badgers had any say in who rotated off their conference schedule, and even if they did, they probably couldn't have guessed five years ago that OSU was going to play for the national title in 2006.)

* Michigan and Ohio State play in the Big Ten. OK, that's not a half-truth, but come on. We know. Those two teams win a LOT of titles. But this is what Step #6 requires: pick Michigan or Ohio State. Also, throw in the other dark horse team and give it superior status to the team you're addressing. This year, that's Penn State. In the recent past, we've seen the Badgers, Iowa, and Purdue play that role. Same old, same old.

* We don't know who the quarterback is! Well, we know it's going to be one of two guys, each of whom has won games in a starting role before. Presumably the schedule, which is front-loaded with cupcakes, will facilitate the development of either Donovan or Evridge -- or both.

Overall, this is a nice, simple column to write -- perfect for summer vacation.