Woah, calm down.
Chaos has erupted across campus and throughout Badger nation. The 2010 football squad, who three weeks ago was supposed to be God's gift to all Rose Bowl/Ron Dayne/Mike Leckrone-loving humanity has apparently imploded to an awful 3-0 record and No. 10 ranking.
To be fair, John Clay is only averaging 127.7 yards per game with five touchdowns this season, while second-year quarterback Scott Tolzien has struggled to eclipse a 200 yard per game passing average this year. Meanwhile, the Badgers average margin of victory stands at an appalling 11 points per contest.
Somehow that giant zero in the loss column might as well be a 12.
Let's get real though, this Wisconsin team still has a lot of life, a lot of potential and a lot more football yet to play.
John Clay, the reigning Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year, has taken relatively few touches this season. So far, the junior is averaging just over 20 carries per game. Clay has shown in past seasons that he is more than capable of carrying the ball 30+ times in a single game.
And what Clay has actually shown us this season has been expectedly dynamite. Although sophomore Montee Ball and freshman James White have been adequate back-ups for the team thus far, taking more than their fair share of carries in order to preserve the man at the top of the depth chart, Clay has shown exceptional performance.
However, Clay's statistics look less than stellar, but only because the big man has not carried the ball as much as he could. Once the Badgers need him, Clay will be ready to pound the ball, taking this offense to a whole new level. And from what he's shown so far in his limited work, John Clay is ready to rack up the yards and touchdowns yet again this year.
While Wisconsin cruised, eventually, to a relatively easy victory over UNLV in the team's opening match, and the Badgers finished off San Jose State in a sloppy but adequate game two, a one point victory over ASU this past Saturday is what really has the Badger faithful shaking their heads.
The quality of play that the Sun Devils brought to Camp Randall though cannot be overlooked. Coming into their matchup against Wisconsin, ASU had received 11 votes in the USA Today poll—six more than Notre Dame and eight more than Virginia Tech.
Additionally, the Badgers are not the only highly ranked team to suffer a few scares in these early weeks. No. 7 Oklahoma edged out Air Force by only a field goal last week, No. 13 Arkansas barely survived a fourth quarter comeback by a sub-.500 Georgia team, and No. 15 Auburn needed overtime and a bit of luck to overcome an unranked Clemson squad at home.
When it comes to college football, while dominating scores look nice on the highlight reels and may help garner a few more votes in the polls, a win by any means is usually good enough to keep your team where you're at. (Michigan aside, who dropped in the AP poll this week following an embarrassingly close win over an FCS U-Mass team.)
And as long as you can stay where you're at in the non-conference season, conference play is a whole different situation. For the Badgers, their role is simple—win and return to the Rose Bowl for the first time in a decade. So far, winning is what they've done.
With an offense yet to unleash the full potential of John Clay and without top wide receivers David Gilreath and Nick Toon, there is plenty of power yet to be displayed by these Badgers.
The defense has had similar issues with Chris Borland, J.J. Watt and Culmer St. Jean all suffering injuries in last week's game alone. While Borland's season status is still yet to be determined, a completely healthy defense will be a daunting foe.
So don't start packing away that ""jump around"" t-shirt or start selling off the rest of your season tickets. This team not only has a lot of room to improve, but there is every indication that they will.
There is plenty of exciting football yet to be played this season, and fans can expect plenty more wins from this team.
And remember, the Badgers are still 3-0.
