The Badgers played about as well as they possibly could have Saturday, assuming that scheduling a game against a Division II opponent or scout team isn't possible.
Wisconsin was better than the score of its 52-17 win reflects, and incidentally the Hoosiers were worse. The Badgers executed everything they wanted to on offense and scored with the frequency and ease that they can only conceive of in practice.
Games like this are the reason that coaches pretend to demand perfection. This way, no matter how well a team plays, or how proud they made their coach, the entire staff can still act disappointed about a few missed opportunities and have something to yell about to keep the players from becoming complacent.
This week in practice, the coaches will have to put on quite a show if they want the players to believe they were anything short of perfect against Indiana. A common clichAc the team can hang their hats upon is ""putting together four good quarters,"" meaning that a string of four consecutive, well-played quarters is the only thing that can make a team satisfied with its performance.
Against the Hoosiers, playing four strong quarters was certainly possible, but the problem was that it began to seem unsportsmanlike. For the first three quarters and ultimately the first 50 minutes of the game, the Badgers outscored Indiana 52-0. With no need to please Steve Spurrier or bored Wisconsin fans in attendance, any further scoring would have been excessive.
Freshman P.J. Hill scored three of his now-signature one-yard touchdowns and compiled 129 rushing yards on 23 carries, adding to his impressive first-year stats. But John Stocco's performance tells the story of Saturday's game.
Stocco completed 15 of 17 passes for 304 yards and threw for three touchdowns in all. It was clear that the coaches—who knew he was criticized after the loss to Michigan—were going to draw up a gameplan that would momentarily quiet his detractors and keep some pressure off the senior quarterback in weeks to come.
For the first time this year, the Badgers made themselves a deep threat. Stocco consistently delivered against an overmatched secondary at the mercy of a team trying to rebound from a disappointing loss and show the country how good its quarterback can be.
The clearest example of the Badgers imposing their will came early in the second quarter when a five-yard touchdown pass to junior wideout Paul Hubbard was called back for holding. On the next play, from 15 yards out, Wisconsin went right back to Hubbard, who the coaches thought deserved another shot at a score and a reward for a stellar game. Had the penalty occurred against a more formidable opponent, the Badgers may not have been so brash, but with a week off against a struggling Indiana team, there was no better time to build the team's confidence.
