Before Hall of Famer Barry Alvarez built the football house known as Camp Randall, he was a Cornhusker. In fact, Alvarez was the leading tackler for Nebraska during the 1967 season in Lincoln. Alvarez credits much of his success building the Wisconsin football program to the practices and values that he learned in his time at Nebraska.
The rivalry between Wisconsin and Nebraska dates all the way back to 1901, despite only meeting nine times, resulting in a 5-4 overall record in favor of the Badgers. In recent years, Wisconsin has controlled the matchup definitively, winning four of the last five contests and outscoring the Huskers 228-119. The rivalry found a new surge of life with Nebraska’s transition into the Big Ten Conference in 2010. Since the induction into the Big Ten fraternity, the Nebraska-Wisconsin football rivalry is considered by many to be one of the top up-and-coming rivalry games. In 2014 the teams created a pride trophy to commemorate the mutual respect known as the Freedom Trophy.
This contest promises to be dramatically different from years past in which the games were high- scoring and largely dominated by strong run games, featuring premier ball carriers such as Melvin Gordon and Ameer Abdullah. In the last meeting between the two squads in 2014, Gordon cemented himself as a true contender for the Heisman Trophy with a historic 408-yard performance against the Huskers. Going in a different direction this season, both offenses have been more pass-heavy, with Wisconsin and Nebraska both gaining nearly 60 percent of its yards through the air.
Both quarterbacks are coming off lackluster performances. Redshirt junior Tommy Armstrong Jr. completed only 32.3 percent of his passes against the Illini defense and gained a dismal 105 yards through the air, with 55 of them coming on a single play. Adding an interception and zero touchdowns to his stat line, Armstrong finished the game with a 21 quarterback rating. Redshirt senior quarterback Joel Stave also took a step backward Saturday at Camp Randall, throwing two interceptions and recording no touchdown passes against stout Big Ten opponent Iowa. Stave finished with a dismal 15.8 quarterback rating, by far his lowest of the season.
Much to first-year head coach Mike Riley’s dismay, inconsistency has defined Nebraska’s season. They have alternated wins and losses each week this season, a pattern they will undoubtedly welcome for at least one more week after losing to Illinois last weekend.
If patterns have anything to do with the outcome Saturday, it certainly bodes well that the Badgers, who will also be led by a first-year head coach in Paul Chryst, haven’t come away with a win in Lincoln since 1973. Nebraska has been equally unsuccessful in Madison, remaining winless since 1966. Its last win came when Alvarez was in his freshman season at linebacker for the Huskers.
With each team reeling from devastating close losses in their respective Big Ten openers, both coaches will be in search of a bounce-back week and a conference victory.
