Two-thousand eight has not been a year to remember thus far for Wisconsin head football coach Bret Bielema. The Badgers lost to Tennessee 21-17 in the Outback Bowl on New Year's Day. His offensive line coach left the team to take over the same position at UCLA shortly afterward. And several players have gone down with injuries during spring practices.
Throughout all of these difficulties, Bielema's girlfriend has remained by his side, publicly supporting him in front of Madison's overly critical press corps.
Yet that changed Monday when even Bielema's girlfriend gave an impromptu press conference at the McClain Center, chastising the head coach for his overbearing 1-0 philosophy.
At first it was cute,"" Bielema's girlfriend said. ""He'd say things like, 'Have a 1-0 day today, honey,' or 'Wow, that's a 1-0 hair style.'
""But now everything has changed,"" she continued. ""Now he says, 'That wasn't a 1-0 kiss,' 'What the hell? My last girlfriend knew how to make 1-0 omelets.' I just can't take it anymore.""
When asked to comment on the turmoilcaused by his 1-0 policy, Bielema sounded puzzled.
""I really don't know what's wrong,"" he said. ""I took her out to this great 1-0 restaurant on Valentine's Day. We only go to 1-0 movies. Heck, I even did a 1-0 job vacuuming the apartment last weekend.""
Current and former players had mixed opinions about what their coach's girlfriend said.
""The whole 1-0 thing doesn't really bother me as a football player,"" linebacker DeAndre Levy said. ""But if I had to live with the guy, yeah, it'd probably get old pretty quick.""
""When I told my girlfriend about going 1-0 she slapped me in the face,"" senior quarterback Allan Evridge said. ""I think she thought it was some sort of sex position, though.""
The most intriguing comments on the issue came from former Badger signal caller Tyler Donovan.
""I really don't know like, how ... you know ... you can live 1-0