If the hype surrounding Wisconsin senior quarterback Russell Wilson and his teammates was intense entering Thursday night's season opener, it may rise to a fever pitch by the time Oregon State rolls in September 10.
Wilson, the North Carolina State transfer, showed off the skill-set that has Wisconsin ranked No. 10 in the preseason polls and Badger fans expecting at least a return trip to the Rose Bowl. Wilson accounted for 317 total yards of offense and three scores in UW's 51-17 romp over Las Vegas-Nevada in only three quarters of action.
""Two words: Russell. Wilson. The guy put on a show,"" said senior free safety and team captain Aaron Henry. ""His ability speaks for itself.""
Wilson put UW on the board with a four-yard touchdown pass to junior running back Montee Ball three minutes into the game on a short pass to the flank out of a shotgun formation. He moved outside the pocket to find senior wide receiver Nick Toon for 39 yards and then hit Toon again after standing in the pocket and delivering a strike over the middle on Wisconsin's third scoring drive.
The exclamation point came in the second quarter when Wilson looked down the field only to pull the ball down, make a defender miss in the middle of the field and outrun the defense down the sideline for a 46-yard touchdown run. Junior center Peter Konz said he wondered if Wilson's running ability would put additional pressure on the linemen to stay on blocks while the quarterback scrambled in the backfield. Those concerns were quickly alleviated.
""I don't want to have a defensive lineman at the line of scrimmage rolling off and making a tackle, but he ran outside a lot tonight,"" Konz said. ""Once he turned the corner, the linebackers weren't catching up to him at all.""
For all the varieties of ways Wilson excelled in the debut, the pace at which it all came may have been the most striking. The Badgers scored on all eight drives he led. The starters racked up 51 points in just 14 minutes and 39 seconds of offensive possession. Their longest scoring drive took just 3:11. They didn't just score in the two-minute offense before the half—they scored twice.
The scores came so fast that head coach Bret Bielema said at times the defense did not have enough time to make its adjustments on the sidelines.
""I've been in this profession for a while now, and you can just see guys that naturally have a little bit of something to them; some moxie, some savvy, some God-given ability that makes him love every minute of the day,"" Bielema said.
UNLV GAME NOTES
UNLV based a large part of its offense around a ""pistol"" formation that features the quarterback approximately three yards in the backfield with a running back directly behind. Henry said the defense prepared for a spread attack, but the unbalanced alignment in the pistol required some adjustments on the fly.
""That wasn't what we were expecting at all,"" Henry said. ""They showed us something completely different. It took us a while to get in the groove.""
Bielema was not happy with the way his defense tackled and contained. Sophomore linebacker Chris Borland, playing his first game as the team's ""Mike"" or middle linebacker, agreed when asked if improvement is coming.
""It needs to. We left a lot of yards out there because of bad tackling, myself included.""
Borland finished with seven tackles but looked uncomfortable at times in the middle of the field.
Wisconsin committed six penalties for 50 yards, which did not sit well with Bielema.
""I'm not going to be the head coach of a team that makes that many penalties,"" he said. ""In a tight game that'll cost us.""
Wilson honored as Big Ten Player of the Week
The Russell Wilson era for the Badgers got off to a strong start this past Thursday against UNLV and the Big Ten honored the Badgers' senior quarterback as the conference's offensive player of the week for the first week of the season.
The transfer from North Carolina State completed 10-of-13 passes against the Rebels for 255 yards and two touchdowns. Wilson also scrambled for 62 yards including a 46-yard touchdown run just before halftime that drew the loudest cheer of the night from the Badger faithful and had the student section chanting his name.
In three quarters of action Wilson led the Badgers' first team offense to scores on all eight of its possessions, seven of which were touchdowns.
Wilson's 317 total yards, 292.5 pass efficency and 76.9 completion percentage against UNLV were all records for a UW quarterback in his debut game.
Wilson will look to continue his early success and defend his title next weekend when the Badgers take on Oregon State.
- Ryan Evans
UWBadgers.com contributed to this report.
