Coming off of an emotional win last week against Michigan, the UW football team looks to continue that feeling this Saturday as it heads to Minneapolis to take on the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
The outcome of the game will decide who possesses Paul Bunyan’s Axe along with bragging rights for the next year. The Badgers retained the Axe last season with a 48-12 trouncing of the Gophers in Madison. Tailback P.J. Hill compiled 164 yards rushing and two touchdowns, while quarterback John Stocco tossed four scores for the Badgers.
Last Saturday, the Badgers (4-3 Big Ten, 8-3 overall) scored the first 17 points of the contest en route to a 37-21 victory over then-No. 12 Michigan on Senior Day. Quarterback Tyler Donovan and wide receiver Paul Hubbard, both seniors, contributed greatly to the cause.
Donovan’s gutsy performance—in which he badly bruised his throwing hand in the fourth quarter—produced 245 yards and a touchdown through the air to go along with 49 yards on the ground. Hubbard had a career day, fielding seven receptions for 134 yards, including several critical third-down catches, drive-saving grabs.
According to UW head coach Bret Bielema, preparation in the week leading up to the game was one of the key reasons for the win.
“I really tried to preach to our guys on Sunday that they went out and did what they did because of the things they did during the course of the week that carried forward to Saturday,” Bielema said.
Bielema hopes to emulate that type of preparation for this Saturday’s game against the Gophers (0-7, 1-10). Despite its struggles this season, Minnesota will be hungry for its first conference win on its own Senior Day, and will be desperate to take back the Axe, which the Badgers have held for the previous three seasons.
“You’re going to have a group of seniors that are going into their last home game like our seniors just did this past Saturday,” Bielema said.
“Those seniors have gone to four straight bowls, they’ve been to bowl games every year they’ve been there. They’re accustomed to winning. They’ve won every year, maybe not as much as they may have wanted, but they’ve been proven winners.”
In addition, the Gophers have proven to be competitive in a majority of their contests, suffering five losses by less than seven points, including two in overtime. Their lone win of the season, a 41-35 triumph over Miami (Ohio) on Sept. 8, came in three overtimes.
Minnesota is led by its passing offense, which is ranked No. 4 in the conference. Quarterback Adam Weber, a redshirt freshman, ranks third in the Big Ten in total offense and is second on the team with 530 rushing yards.
The Badger offense should have opportunities to exploit a porous Gopher defense, which is last in the conference in almost every defensive category. The unit allows 36.3 points per contest and is ranked 107th in the country.
In its last trip to the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in 2005, UW rallied from ten points down with under three minutes remaining in the game to shock the Gophers 38-34. In a game Minnesota controlled for the first 57 minutes, then-freshman linebacker Jonathan Casillas blocked a Gopher punt, which rolled into the Badgers’ end zone and was recovered by then-sophomore defensive back Ben Strickland with 30 seconds left for the win.
Bielema acknowledged the fact that games in the dome tend to get “crazy,” historically producing wild plays and finishes like the one in 2005. He noted, however, that if the Badgers perform completely on Saturday, the end result will be tame.
“It becomes crazy when you aren’t able to execute and do certain things, and obviously, if they do things that are going to hurt us, that puts that crazy label on it,” Bielema said.
