On March 16, 2015, Wisconsin Athletic Director Barry Alvarez received a phone call from an Ohio number that he didn’t recognize.
I have a confession to make. Coming into Saturday’s tilt with BYU, I still wasn’t sold on Alex Hornibrook.
There’s no place like home for the Wisconsin Badgers men’s soccer team (1-1 Big 10, 3-1-2 overall). Riding a 12-game home winning streak came into Saturday night looking to notch another home victory.
If any fans left the Field House worried after watching Wisconsin drop its first set of the season a few days ago against Marquette, those concerns were promptly put to rest Saturday night. In its best performance of the season, No. 5 UW (9-0) thrashed Southern Mississippi by a score of 25-8, 25-10, 25-11, making quick work of the Golden Eagles to secure the Badger Classic tournament title.
After a red hot start to its season, the UW women’s soccer team (7-1-0) looked to continue its stellar play into its first Big Ten matchup of the season.
Last week against FAU, Alex Hornibrook watched Jonathan Taylor enter the Wisconsin record books with 223 yards as a true freshman running back. Evidently, the redshirt sophomore quarterback wanted his own name etched in stone by the No. 10 Wisconsin Badgers (3-0 Overall) as Saturday afternoon, BYU (1-3) ended up on the wrong side of an historic performance in a 40-6 contest. Hornibrook could seemingly do no wrong as he set a Wisconsin school record for completion percentage in a game at 94.7 percent in what was clearly the best game of his young career. He was actually accurate on 100 percent of his 19 pass attempts, completing 18 of them for 256 yards and four touchdowns, as his lone incompletion came when a pass was dropped by true freshman wide receiver Danny Davis in the first quarter to keep him short of statistical perfection. And while it was a nearly flawless performance from the young quarterback, he also had quite a bit of help to get him through it.
It wasn’t smooth sailing for the No. 5 Wisconsin Badgers (8-0) as they faced unranked Marquette (5-5) Thursday night at the UW Fieldhouse. Until last night the Badgers hadn’t lost a single set, but with strong leadership from its seniors, UW pulled out a win of three sets to one victory over the Eagles, 19-25, 25-13, 25-21, 26-24. Senior Kelli Bates lead the team with 17 kills and 10 digs to earn herself a double-double and sophomore M.E.
This past weekend, T.J. Watt recorded two sacks, seven tackles and an interception. In the same game, Joe Schobert recorded nine combined tackles before Jonathan Casillas had two solo tackles of his own later that night. Watt, Schobert and Casillas will always be Badgers, but make no mistake, these outside linebackers now play their football on Sundays, providing an example to No. 100 Wisconsin’s (2-0) current unit of what they can achieve in the future. “That was my roommate three years ago,” said fifth-year senior outside linebacker Leon Jacobs on his former teammate Watt.
In the Week 3 edition of the Cardinal Zone Football Podcast, sports editor Ben Pickman is joined by football beat writers Lorin Cox and Jake Nisse to preview No. 10 Wisconsin's upcoming matchup against BYU.
Following a 5-0 blowout loss to No. 2 Stanford on August 20, the No. 9 University of Wisconsin-Madison’s women’s soccer team (6-1 overall) has won five straight, including a 1-0 upset over then-No. 3 Virginia.
Head coach Kalani Sitake and the BYU Cougars’ football program isn’t having the start to the season that it was hoping for.
Take one look at the BYU (1-2) roster, and you’ll notice something slightly different than most other schools.
After the early 34-14 Wisconsin win against FAU last weekend, my plan was to rest up to prepare myself for the incredible slate of night games.
Along with free tickets and pizza thanks to the Wisconsin Men’s Soccer’s “Colony Night” event, students were given quite the show by the Badgers (1-1 Big Ten, 2-1-2 overall), as they put three early goals past the Northwestern Wildcats (0-2, 1-5) en route to a 3-1 victory. The Badgers struck first in the fourth minute.
Building a strong defense is a task that generally takes time and practice. Progression on the defensive side of the court typically occurs at a gradual pace, as players slowly develop a rapport with one another and learn how to play together as one cohesive unit.
Paul Chryst doesn’t run an offense with exotic spread packages or flashy play calls to try and keep the opposing defense guessing. The Badgers’ offense doesn’t try to hide what they do.
Growing up as a kid in the D.C. area, Wisconsin football was a program in my periphery. Unlike a majority of current UW cohorts, Badger football wasn’t part of a weekly routine for me, nor was I constantly aware of their year-to-year roster and coaching changes.
Another magnificent performance in the middle helped propel the Badgers to victory in the final round of the HotelRed Invitational, as No. 6 Wisconsin (7-0) took down Texas A&M (3-3) by a score of 25-19, 25-23, 25-10, clinching the HotelRed Invitational Saturday night at the Field House. The combination of middle blockers Tionna Williams and Dana Rettke were dialed in at all times and devastated the Aggies up front.
Wisconsin (0-0 Big Ten, 2-0 overall) defeated Florida Atlantic (0-0, 0-2) in a comfortable 17-point victory on Saturday, but a couple of crucial mistakes allowed the Owls to stay in the game for longer than expected. Florida Atlantic head coach Lane Kiffin’s team trailed just 21-14 with 4:29 remaining in the first half, but the Badgers cleaned up their play after that point, closing the game on a 10-0 run. The first of Wisconsin’s major mistakes was a blown coverage in the first quarter which left Florida Atlantic junior wide receiver DeAndre McNeal wide open for a 63-yard score. According to senior cornerback Derrick Tindal, there was miscommunication between him and the other defensive backs—Tindal expected safety help over the top, and, accordingly, moved infield instead of following the Owls’ receiver, leaving him wide open on the sideline with nothing but the end zone in front of him. “I should’ve done a better job of relaying it to the corner [Nelson], and I didn’t, and it turned into a big play,” Tindal said.
The Badgers (0-0 Big Ten, 2-0 Overall) found the next great Wisconsin running back in their 31-14 win over Flordia Atlantic (0-0, 0-2). True freshman Jonathan Taylor put his mark on Camp Randall history with an astonishing performance of 223 yards and three touchdowns.
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