Badgers blow out Gophers to keep Axe home

[Da-news-now]

While the national media has been talking all about the Wisconsin Badgers and the College Football Playoff, the team was laser-focused on keeping Paul Bunyan’s Axe home. Mission accomplished, as the Badgers destroyed their rivals in a 31-0 route at TCF Bank Stadium. The win pushed the Badgers to 12-0 and completed an undefeated regular season. It also gave the Badgers their first-ever lead...

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[TW]

If the Badgers play as well as they did defensively against Minnesota, they can beat anybody in the nation. They did not lose track of lanes, and either cut off outside runs, or forced them to the boundary, by maintaining outside integrity, and using correct angles in attacking the outside run. I know it sounds ridiculous, but the Badgers played geometrically sound football on the outside. Angles, as all of you know who coached defense, is key. These kids looked as polished as I've seen in anybody in a long time.

Aranda is a great defensive coordinator. I hated to see him go. But, from day one, I felt that Jim Leonhard was the guy who could take them even further than Aranda. He was an over-achiever, who only knew how to win. An undersized walk on DB in college, who made his mark in the NFL, playing 10 years, despite his size. He made it up through smart football, and as his coach, Ryan said about him, "The brightest guy he ever coached, and a coach on the field as well." Ryan touted him as being the one person he coached that would someday be a great head coach. I believed in that because I watched him in the pros, and saw him taking young players under his wing, and teaching them, despite the fact it could lead to him losing his job. He was the epitome of a "team player."

Jim Leonhard brings that same attitude and commitment to the sidelines, and his players would run through fire to make themselves over in his image. That's leadership, because he never waivers in his beliefs, and never criticizes without offering coaching through dissecting what happened. This isn't only what I believe, but comes from a friend of mine - a father - of one of Jim's players, who bought into his program, and is on the rise to being a big time player on this team. Everything, to Jim, is a teaching moment.

Our offense, although somewhat sporadic at times, is doing pretty well under Joe Rudolph. He knows how to utilize those big kids on the offensive line, and the running game is obviously one of the best in the nation. The only questionable area is the passing game, and that has been improving over the course of this year. Whether or not they've developed enough to actually be strong enough to beat a national championship caliber defense remains to be seen, but I think they have a chance of holding their own. It will be nice, seeing how far they've come, against Ohio State.

I believe that one of the reasons the Badgers don't get as much attention as the other elite programs is that the Badgers don't get 5-star players coming in, like they do. Ohio State lives on the 5-star, and 4-star players, to make them highly competitive. The Badgers, on the other hand, are usually a couple of marginal 4-star players, 3-star, and walk-ons, who end up contributing. If you were Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, or Michigan State, would you want to admit that the Badgers are better than they are, despite not having the name players? I don't think so.

No matter what, Bucky is #3 in the academic race of major colleges. Only Duke and Stanford finished ahead of them academically. That's one hell of a statement for a team of over achievers, coached by alumni, who were also over-achievers, isn't it?

No matter what happens against Ohio State, The Badgers can still hold their heads high, and be recognized as being truly student-athletes, not pretenders.