The Badgers' head football coach has a mentality. What that mentality is, I'm not quite sure. But he did his best to express it after Saturday's win.
""We felt good about the call [on fourth down], we weren't able to execute, and that's one thing that will be a huge point of emphasis because we are going to need that in Big Ten play,"" Bret Bielema said. ""That's my mentality, that we need to score a touchdown right there.""
You might not remember the play very well due to the mind-numbingly boring pace of the game, but the Badgers were tied 0-0 with less-than-renowned San Diego State about halfway through the second quarter. It was fourth down and three in the Aztec red zone and instead of bringing in steady kicker Taylor Mehlhaff to get the points, Bielema decided to go for the first down. P.J. Hill, who had another terrific day, was stopped short and the Aztecs set up one of their many unsuccessful drives of the day.
Now, I don't claim to be Mike Martz or Steve Spurrier, but when your offense looks like the Green Bay Packers in week 1, you take the points.
Maybe I'm reaching here. To be honest, the only exciting thing in the game, except for Hill's bulldozing touchdown scamper, was the guy who started the wave on Saturday threatening to ""punch me in the nuts."" He was upset because I voiced my opinion on not wanting him to start a second wave—after his wave faltered—because I'd rather watch the close football game our home team was playing. He did have a point, though, when he said something to the effect of, ""When you start a wave, then you can talk.""
But I'm truly not here to nitpick. I want to give Bielema a chance, because he is new. But by Saturday's display, it looked like fourth down simply wasn't his thing.
Another example: with just over four minutes remaining in the third quarter and UW up seven, fourth-and-one on the Aztec 38-yard line, there are two options. You use either the annual Ray Guy-award contender Ken DeBauche in an attempt to pin it inside the 10, or you go for it. Again, I'm not a whiz kid or anything, but what you don't do is kick a field goal—wind or no wind—unless your kicker is the ""idiot kicker"" Mike Vanderjagt or Sebastian Janikowski.
But Bielema used Mehlhaff to attempt the 55 yarder, which landed somewhere between the student section and the right goal post. To be fair, Mehlhaff was in the zone that day, even hitting the crossbar on one of his kickoffs, but you cannot attempt a field goal that some NFL kickers don't make in a tight ball game like that on a fourth-and-one.
In the middle of the 2004 NFL season, Jets' head coach Herman Edwards assigned his tight ends' coach Dick Curl to be his senior offensive assistant. Curl was essentially the ""clock management coach."" So if a coach has a weakness, he has to address it.
Bielema still is growing on the sideline, but he has to get this problem under control before Big Ten play starts next week. I'm not saying he needs to get Barry out of his luxury box, or even wide receiver coach Henry Mason (the one who suggested the quarterback draw to Alvarez in last year's win over Michigan) to be the ""fourth downs coach,"" but he needs something.
Everyone basically knew what Barry was doing every play: He was probably running on first down, running on second down, throwing on third down and kicking a field goal/or punting it on fourth. I'm not saying Bielema has to be predictable, but he needs to pick a concrete ""mentality"" and go with it.
No. 6 Michigan won't be so lackluster that coaching miscues like these can be escaped. A win in the Big House would endear Bielema right away to all Badger fans. But he's not getting a victory without a consistent fourth down approach.
But actually, I shouldn't really talk, because I didn't start the wave.
Sam is majoring in political science and can be reached at sepepper@wisc.edu
