One thing was certain at the end of the Wisconsin Badger football team's 38-17 victory against the Akron Zips: Wisconsin decided to run the ball, and nothing was going to stop them.
As the University of Wisconsin celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the 1998 Big Ten and Rose Bowl Champion Badger football team in front of the 80,910 in attendance at Camp Randall Stadium, it seemed fitting for Wisconsin to throw its passing plays out the window and pay the '98 team homage by returning to the smash-mouth style of football that helped build the football program in the first place.
I'm sure the AD [Barry Alvarez] liked it,"" UW head coach Bret Bielema said during his post-game press conference.
Alvarez brought Wisconsin's program back from the brink of extinction and surely enjoyed watching the Badgers rack up 404 rushing yards on 63 carries, as junior tailback P.J. Hill led the charge with 210 yards and two touchdowns. Hill, along with sophomore Zach Brown - who rushed for 87 yards and a touchdown - and redshirt freshman John Clay - 71 yards and a touchdown - have cemented themselves as the top three running backs on the team, and perhaps one of the best trios in the country.
Brown, however, has his own nickname for the talented group of runners.
""We always talk about this three-headed monster going in, but this was our first time seeing it,"" he said. ""So for us to just go out there and actually experience it was great.""
While Hill, Brown and Clay earn the acclaim, it is the men up front who bring about much of their success. Bielema awarded the entire offensive line the game ball, naming sophomore left tackle Gabe Carimi, senior guards Andy Kemp and Kraig Urbik, sophomore center John Moffitt and senior right tackle Eric Vandenhuevel the game MVPs.
""I just can't thank them enough for the job they did today,"" Brown said. ""They did an amazing job making holes and we just kept taking advantage of them.""
""It's nice to rack up the yards for P.J. and the running backs and it's kind of cool to hear how many yards they got at the end of the game,"" Vandenhuevel said. ""It's a fun game because you don't have to worry about pass protection. It's also real tiring, but you know [the opposition] are getting more tired than you are.""
With 63 plays devoted to the run, that did not leave much left for senior quarterback Allan Evridge in his first start in the cardinal and white. But the Badger's signal-caller knows that his time in the spotlight will come, and that winning comes before personal gain.
""We obviously got the win, that is the most important thing,"" Evridge said. ""Any time you can sit back and watch the O-linemen just dominate the way that they did, and we didn't get to show a lot offensively as well, which is a good thing as well.""
The days of the Wisconsin football glory days may have returned, and if Bielema has his way, they will continue for the rest of the season.
""I would say that we will run the football until someone says we can't,"" Bielema said at his weekly press conference Monday.
For Badger fans who grew up during the Rose Bowl seasons of the late '90s, that can never be a bad thing.
