ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Jazz Peavy made one quick head fake to the middle of the field before planting his left foot and breaking out toward the sideline. Channing Stribling, riding right on the redshirt junior receiver’s hip, took the bait and tried to jump inside to cut off the passing window.
Stribling kicked his own feet trying to get back to the outside and toppled over, stranded prostrate in the middle of nowhere. Peavy was all alone 30 yards downfield during a 7-7 game between two heavyweights.
Alex Hornibrook had a clean pocket. His offensive line had been shaky all night, but on this throw, he had all the time in the world. He let it fly and 110,000 fans held their breath.
The ball hung in the air for an eternity, but still not nearly long enough for Peavy to get under it. The pigskin landed harmlessly a few yards ahead of him, and Wisconsin punted three plays later.
“That was obviously not a great throw by me,” Hornibrook said. “Jazz ran a great route and got open and I just couldn’t come through on that one.”
It was the story of the night for the redshirt freshman quarterback. After a spectacular starting debut a week prior against Michigan State, Hornibrook couldn’t find the touch on his deep ball, and those missed opportunities doomed the Badgers.
“I see that as my strength and I couldn’t take advantage of those,” he continued. “There were a lot of passes we could have had and that could have changed the scoreboard, could have changed our momentum, but we couldn’t complete.”
And that was exactly it. Peavy’s corner route should have ended 77 yards later with 11 red jerseys celebrating in the end zone, but instead it turned into just one of nine punts for UW. Two quarters earlier, on the Badgers’ first drive, George Rushing had a step on his defender down the right sideline, but it took an acrobatic pass breakup by Rushing to save an interception. Just a little more air under the pass and UW might have had six.
The pocket wasn’t quite as clean for Hornibrook on that play, but again, a big opportunity went by the wayside and the Badgers punted on the next play.
The plays were there to be made all night. But each time UW had a guy in position to score, Hornibrook’s ball was just a little long, a little short, or a little wide.
“It’s not like we couldn’t get anything going,” he said. “We had chances to, we just didn’t [convert] … We give credit to them, but definitely feel like we could have taken advantage of some opportunities.”
In a one-score game, a couple of inches here and there can make all the difference. If Hornibrook completed that deep ball to Peavy, the Badgers likely would have gone into the fourth quarter up a touchdown.
Regardless, in the toughest stretch of UW’s schedule, Hornibrook won’t let a few bad passes throw him off his game. Michigan fields one of the stiffest defenses in the nation, and yet he found open spots all over the field.
“They’re a great team, a great defense, give credit to them,” Hornibrook said. “There’s no time to get down on yourself at the end of the game … we had another opportunity to get a drive and win the game, but we just couldn’t finish.”
The bye week couldn’t have come at a better time for the Badgers, as they prepare to host No. 2 Ohio State under the lights of Camp Randall in two weeks. The Buckeyes are rolling right now, and held Oklahoma’s superstar quarterback Baker Mayfield to the worst performance of his career.
But we’ve seen what Hornibrook can do when he’s firing on all cylinders. Even during a rough night in Ann Arbor, he showed glimpses of magnificence. He snuck a beauty into the hands of Dare Ogunbowale on a wheel route that resulted in the Badgers’ only touchdown of the night.
There are flashes of NFL talent when Hornibrook is in the backfield. There are passes made that haven’t been seen at Wisconsin since Russell Wilson was in Madison five years ago.
Big-time players live for big-time moments, and a night game against an archrival at home is a big-time moment. With the college football world watching, Alex Hornibrook will make his third career start in the biggest game of his life.
