This is the fourth edition of the Heisman Watch, a weekly feature tracking the candidates for college football’s most prestigious award. To read last week’s piece, click here.
As the college football season nears the halfway mark, the contenders are beginning to separate themselves from the pretenders. The top teams are done with the easy portion of their schedules and the big-time matchups will come week-in and week-out. Heisman candidates will go head to head, and inevitably, some Top 10 teams will face defeat. Here are this week’s biggest games across the nation.
1. No. 8 Michigan State (nine first-place votes), 139 points
After beginning its season 2-0, Illinois has lost three of its last four games and will visit Madison Oct. 11 amidst an absolute free fall.
1) Rushing attack against vulnerable defense
After losing wide receiver Jared Abbrederis and linebacker Chris Borland to the NFL last spring, Wisconsin not only lost two star players but also its biggest leaders on both sides of the ball.
Following a convincing sweep on the road against Minnesota-Duluth this past weekend, No. 2 Wisconsin (2-0-0 WCHA, 4-0-0 overall) will return to Madison for its home opener against Ohio State (0-0-0, 2-0-0).
Looking to rebound from its Sunday loss to No. 6 Penn State, No. 12 Wisconsin (5-2-1 Big Ten, 11-2-1 overall) played to a scoreless tie in double overtime against Iowa Wednesday.
The No. 6 Badgers (3-1 Big Ten, 12-2 overall) will look to extend their three-game winning streak this weekend as they take on Big Ten newcomers Rutgers, Friday, and Maryland, Sunday.
The Badgers found new life Tuesday as they captured their first win since August 31. The game was one of resiliency and determination, as Wisconsin held its lead for nearly 70 minutes.
Wisconsin’s return to Camp Randall Stadium to take on Illinois Saturday represents an opportunity for the team to pull itself back together after being upset at Northwestern last weekend.
The transitive property: If a > b and b > c, then a > c. It’s one of the most basic tenants of mathematics and an idea that every person on Earth has used at one time or another, whether they’re aware of it or not. For our purposes, let’s talk about its use in the college football rankings, or at least in how the rankings are perceived.
The roller coaster and college football are my two favorite childhood memories, and it’s days like Saturday that help me realize just how related they actually are.
It’s hard to fathom that the Badgers (0-1 Big Ten, 3-2 overall) could be this weak at football’s most important position, yet here they are, sitting with a disappointing record largely because of inept quarterback play from redshirt juniors Tanner McEvoy and Joel Stave.
Following a stretch of tightly contested overtime games and close losses, the Badgers (0-3-0 Big Ten, 2-7-1 overall) were able to get back into the win column with a 1-0 victory over Green Bay (0-1-1 Horizon, 3-4-4).
Following their third overtime match in their last five contests, the Badgers (1-7-1 overall) will look to get back on track against in-state rival UW-Green Bay (3-4-3).
Madison, we have a problem. For the first time in distant memory, that problem is the Wisconsin Badgers’ offense. It looked anemic in a 20-14 loss at Northwestern, breaking a streak of 17 straight games of 20 or more points.
Husband. Father. Brother. Friend. Journalist. Badger. The UW-Madison community lost one of its own Friday as Wisconsin State Journal writer Tom Mulhern passed away from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease at the age of 56.
The No. 6 Badgers (3-1 Big Ten, 12-2 overall) beat No. 16 Illinois (3-1, 11-4) in their fourth match of conference play. Saturday night’s match at Huff Hall was filled with intensity throughout all four sets with scores of 25-17, 25-22, 11-25 and 25-23.
Read on Issuu
Solutions by The State News
