This past Saturday was dubbed \Yard Stick"" Saturday for the Big Ten conference as several big wigs of the conference competed against high profile opponents. Ohio State sent Washington State back out west with the Cougars' pride being mailed back in a body bag. Michigan battled against the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame and were handed a loss in a very tough dragged out game. The Nittany Lions of Penn State surprised everyone by schooling big, bad Nebraska in Happy Valley. Michigan State got shelled by an unheralded California team in East Lansing. Meanwhile in Madison, Wis., the game on everybody's mind was the Badgers narrow victory over lowly Northern Illinois University.
After the game I thought of a scene from the movie ""King Pin."" In the scene Bill Murray's character Big Ern has just won the bowling nationals and a reporter asks him ""Big Ern, was there any pressure to win?"" Big Ern replies ""Yeah, I didn't want to lose to a guy for a hook with a hand."" Immediately after Wisconsin's game on Saturday a similar scenario could have been brought up with Coach Alvarez. Imaginary reporter: ""Coach Alvarez, was there any pressure to win today?"" Imaginary Alvarez: ""Yeah, I didn't want to lose to a team from the Mid-American Conference.""
Put simply, the Badgers played a very sloppy game on Saturday and are lucky to have four wins at this point in the season. Maybe it's too early to tell, but I really have my doubts about Wisconsin being able to beat Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State or even Michigan State.
At this point no single player, with the exception of Jim Leonhard, has played to or exceeded their potential, and he isn't even a scholarship athlete. It's pretty sad when players who are paid by the university to excel at athletics in exchange for a free college education have to look towards a 5'8' freak of nature from Troy, Wis., to show them how to play their sport.
Perhaps, the Northern Illionis game was a wake-up call and 14 weeks from now the Badgers will win another Rose Bowl; just like the other two seasons they have started at 4-0. But, I won't be holding my breath and until I see the proof on the field, the Badgers have not measured up to their own yard stick.
