The non-conference football schedule is usually regarded as a warm-up to the conference season; a time to get a feel for your depth chart and fix mistakes that will haunt the team should they occur in games with tougher opponents.
However, the Badgers' non-conference schedule this year proved full of unusual circumstances.
In week one, everyone got their first look at the Big Ten's new replay system. They promptly also got their second view of it and their first review of a review.
In week two, the Badgers defense found a way to get two safeties while senior kicker Mike Allen found a way to miss a 23-yard field goal.
He must have practiced over the week because he found a way to make that 23-yarder last weekend, although in the process forgot how to make extra points. Oh yeah, and there was that 88-minute delay due to rain and lightning in the middle of a desert.
All of this craziness during the non-conference schedule has prompted me to think about just what could happen now that the Big Ten season is upon us and the real challenge begins. So here's a look at the first few weeks of the conference schedule.
Sept. 25-ESPN's College GameDay is in town again as the Badgers take on Penn State. For the second straight year Lee Corso puts on the Badgers' head and picks UW to win the game. Luckily for us, the head doesn't come off and we didn't have to listen to him for the rest of the day.
Oct. 2-It is 1 p.m. and both Wisconsin and Illinois take the field, but there is something missing. Where are the men in black and white? Upon further review, the Big Ten inadvertently sent two crews of referees to the Iowa game. The game is postponed until Sunday, but only the ticket holders notice because the game is not on TV.
Oct. 9-Ohio State is forced to rely heavily on their passing game as running back Lydell Ross misses the game due to injury. It has been reported that Ross was injured earlier in the week, a result of a freak accident during Football 101. Guest lecturer Robert Reynolds reviewed game tape of last year's loss at Camp Randall when he inexplicably became irate and decided to put a choke-hold on Ross. Reynolds apologized, but the damage had already been done.
Oct. 16-Purdue quarterback Kyle Orton's Heisman campaign comes to an end early in the third quarter. He drops back and prepares to unload his 40th slant-pattern pass of the day. It appears that throwing 50 slant passes every Saturday for two straight years finally caught up to Orton, as his arm falls off.
It's going to be a wild ride. Who knows, maybe it will be so wild that we'll be seeing the Badgers play on New Year's Day.
Eric Schmoldt is a junior planning to major in journalism. He can be reached at ejschmoldt@wisc.edu
