Flash back seven years, to a crisp October night when Purdue's Drew Brees blew through Madison to the tune of 55 completions in a record 83 attempts for 494 yards. Brees ripped apart a young UW secondary until freshman corners Mike Echols and Jamar Fletcher snared key interceptions that led the Badgers to victory.
A similar performance could be the best-case scenario when UW kicks off the 2005 campaign Saturday against Bowling Green. But if this secondary is not up to the task and Falcons quarterback Omar Jacobs picks up in 2005 where he left off in 2004, it could be another epically long Saturday for an inexperienced Wisconsin defense.
Pick any of the Heisman hopeful's 2004 statistics-they all read like the stuff of video games: 333.5 yards passing per game, a 67 percent completion rate, a nation-leading 41 touchdowns, second in the country in passing yardage and passer efficiency and an NCAA record for lowest TD/interception ratio. Oh, and \The Fantastic Four"" gave a superhuman effort every snap, playing with a broken toe and broken bone chips in both feet.
""He had one of the best years in the country last year, possibly one of the best years ever as a quarterback by his stats,"" said junior middle linebacker Mark Zalewski. ""[Stopping him] is going to be a huge challenge for us.""
Despite being a backup to senior cornerback Brett Bell, Wisconsin freshman cornerback Jack Ikegwuonu should get an up close and personal look at Jacobs in his Badger debut Saturday, as Bowling Green's multiple wide receiver sets will test the depth of the UW secondary.
""You've gotta give him respect, he earned it last year,"" Ikegwuonu said. ""But we're going to be ready to play. We're taking it as a privilege to be able to go up against him in the first game.""
The secondary faces extra pressure because the 6'4"", 226-pound signal caller is not one to be sacked. In more than 462 pass attempts, Jacobs took only 13 sacks all season.
""From what I see, the ball's released by the time people get there,"" Wisconsin head coach Barry Alvarez said. ""It's not like a Daunte Culpepper where you bounce off him-although [Jacobs] is a big strong guy, you see him run through some things-but he's in the shotgun. A lot of it is quick releases, a lot of it is sprint-outs.""
Not only does he not take sacks, Jacobs is not one to make a careless throw, tossing just four interceptions in 2004.
""He doesn't make dumb decisions,"" Badger senior cornerback Levonne Rowan succinctly stated.
""What I do is take what they give me,"" Jacobs said in an interview with USA Today. ""If they give me the corner route, I take the corner route. If they give me the hitch, I throw the hitch. If there is nothing there, I throw it away and live to fight another day.""
Running the quarterback-friendly spread offense, one which now-Florida Gators coach Urban Meyer installed at Bowling Green when he was head coach there from 2001-'02, certainly has helped Jacobs put up his circus statistics. But he appears to possess the rare combination of athleticism and intuition that makes him capable of elevating a good team to greatness.
""If he finds something that works he's going to keep going back to it, so we pretty much have to stop everything,"" Ikegwuonu said.
Against Omar Jacobs, that may be an impossible task.
