Unlike professional sports, college football’s schedule is generally decided by the conferences a couple weeks before the game is played. The teams are locked, but kickoff times fluctuate depending on the quality of teams playing and other matchups taking place.
For the past two seasons, Wisconsin has been denied a home night game, and fan displeasure had bottled up. The pent up emotion exploded when the Badgers (3-1) defeated the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors (2-2) 28-0 Saturday night at Camp Randall Stadium.
Wisconsin’s first three games of the Paul Chryst era seemed to feature a new look for UW offense that thrived on the pass, making up for an average run game. That theory was squelched on the Badgers’ first drive of the game.
Wisconsin was pinned on its own three-yard line by a Hawaii punt, and responded with a 16-play, 97-yard touchdown drive that chewed up nearly 10 minutes of game time and put the Badgers up 7-0. Of the 16 plays, 13 were runs, and of the three passes, only two were completed. To say the run game carried the drive would be an understatement.
“That was big for us, to be able to know we could just come out on them like that and get going on the ground right away, so that was big for us going forward, and it helped in the pass game as well,” redshirt junior running back Dare Ogunbowale said.
The running back corps was incredibly efficient on the drive despite the absence of junior Corey Clement who is out four to six weeks following surgery for a sports hernia. Ogunbowale averaged seven yards per carry, and redshirt freshman Taiwan Deal averaged 6.22 yards per carry, but his 2-yard score, the shortest run of the drive, brought down the average from 6.75.
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Much like last week, UW suffered a drought for most of the second quarter, but thankfully for the Badgers, the Wisconsin defense stood firm and held the Rainbow Warriors scoreless in the first half.
As the second quarter began to wind down, the Badgers again started with the ball deep in their own territory, this time starting from the 5-yard line. This drive was significantly more balanced with six passes and five runs as the Badgers took it down the field, and Deal scored his second of the day with another 2-yard score.
The drive could have been entirely different if Lady Luck didn’t swing Wisconsin’s way. On second down, redshirt senior quarterback Joel Stave was blitzed hard, and barely got the ball off in what was a hasty throw. A Hawaii defender laid out to make the interception, and as he rolled with the ball in his hands, it slipped out and fell right into the hands of redshirt senior Alex Erickson.
“That’s one of those things you can’t really practice, it’s a lot of luck,” Erickson said.
Erickson and Stave seemed in sync throughout the game, but especially so in the first half, when Stave went 7-of-8 to Erickson, but only completed 1-of-5 to other receivers, with the one non-Erickson completion coming with two-and-a-half minutes left in the half. For the game, the duo went 9-of-11.
“Every week, we’ve been out on the practice field getting extra catches after practice, stuff like that,” Erickson said. “It’s been a process over the last few years, and it’s nice to see it start to click here full steam.”
Wisconsin’s 14-0 lead held through halftime, and deep into the third quarter when the Badgers scored with 53 seconds left before "Jump Around." The 80-yard scoring drive was impressive, yet pales in comparison to the 95-plus-yard drives the Badgers had earlier in the game. Regardless, the Badgers put together a balanced drive fueled by a pair of receptions by redshirt senior fullback Derek Watt, as well as a consistent running game by Deal and Ogunbowale.
The score, a 12-yard catch by Austin Traylor, marked the third-straight week the senior tight end caught a touchdown, starting with his first touchdown two weeks ago against Miami.
“It’s awesome to see what Austin’s doing this season. He put a lot of time in this offseason, to working on his hands and catching balls every day. He’s not dropping many this year, he’s kinda locked in,” Watt said.
Wisconsin continued their one score per quarter routine early in the fourth on another run-heavy drive, running seven times and passing only once. The difference between this drive and the rest was that multi-threat redshirt senior Tanner McEvoy came in and ran the wildcat, picking up 15 yards on two carries. Ogunbowale hit paydirt with a 9-yard scamper that finalized the score at 28-0.
While the Badgers’ final offensive drive was when the backups came in, a small story emerged. Freshman Alec Ingold rushed for 60 yards in his first week playing on the offensive side. For the previous portion of the year, Ingold was a linebacker.
For the third-consecutive game, the Badger defense acted as Camp Randall’s bouncer, denying the opponent access to the end zone. The unit has faced adversity in the form of injury, and against Troy, ejections, but in the last 12 quarters it has allowed only three points. This may spur momentum going forward, but the team doesn’t like to think of it that way.
“Like I’ve said to the guys before, 24-hour rule is you’ve got to focus on Iowa and keep doing the same thing every week in preparation,” senior safety Michael Caputo said.
The Badgers’ non-conference schedule is over, which means the cupcake teams will stop rolling into Camp Randall. There have been questions among the media and the Badger faithful over whether the team will be prepared to face off against the physical Big Ten foes after only above average play against weaker opponents, but Paul Chryst didn’t seem as phased, having nothing to say other than “ready or not, here it comes.”
The Badgers take on Iowa (4-0) at Camp Randall Stadium Saturday, Oct. 3 at 11.
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