In his weekly press conference on Monday, head coach Bret Bielema acknowledged the team's win over Minnesota this past weekend, while also looking forward to Ohio State this coming week.
Although John Clay won Big Ten co-Offensive Player of the Week for his performance on Saturday, Bielema chose a different player for his own team honors.
That title went to a group who normally do not receive any attention at all, unless they play poorly, the big bruisers up front, which are offensive line and senior jumbo tight end Bill Nagy.
""I give credit to those five guys [on the offensive line] and Billy [Nagy] for a lot of what James and John are going through now, the success they're having, and really even us throwing the ball all starts with those guys up front,"" Bielema said.
The Badgers' defensive MVP went to sophomore linebacker Mike Taylor. Taylor racked up seven total tackles, three of which were tackles for loss.
""Mike had a great game. [He] really became a lot more sudden over the last couple weeks and it paid off and [he] made some nice plays behind the line of scrimmage,"" Bielema said.
Bielema was impressed by the team as a whole.
""Our kids, they did a good job of regrouping last week and put themselves in a position to have success on Saturday,"" Bielema said. ""I really like how they handled the week, and now we move forward to go against Ohio State, those same principles we gotta carry forward, and hopefully have the same type of results. I know our guys are excited.""
At one point, Bielema was asked about his failure thus far to beat Ohio State as head coach at Wisconsin.
""Each game has been a little bit different, but the common denominator in all of them was we weren't able to hold together [ and do] what we needed for 60 minutes,"" Bielema responded. ""The game is a 60-minute game. It's 60 minutes of reactions to what happens and we have to handle it better than we have in the past.""
In Bielema's three career games against Ohio State, his teams have lost by an average of 14 points, including last year's 13-31 stomping at Columbus.
Ohio State comes into this game 6-0, 2-0 in the Big Ten, averaging a margain of victory of over 30 points.
The star of the Buckeyes is junior quarterback Terrelle Pryor, who comes into this year as one of the clear favorites for the Heisman Trophy. In Pryor's last game against Indiana, he completed 24 of 30 passes for 334 yards and three touchdowns. The Badgers will have to find a way to shut down Pryor's dynamic ability of both passing and running if they plan to take down the top-ranked Buckeyes.
The Badgers will be hosting the No. 1 team in the nation for the first time since 1997, and are 3-5 all time against No. 1 teams at Camp Randall Stadium. This game will also be played at night, which is good news for Badger fans, because Wisconsin has won 25 of its last 28 games at night, including a 17-10 victory over Ohio State at Camp Randall in 2003.
