Beating Minnesota yet again in 2015 — continuing what was then a 12-game winning streak over the Golden Gophers — certainly rated as a big highlight of Wisconsin’s 2015 season, the first under Paul Chryst. The best win might have been over USC in the Holiday Bowl, a game we looked at as part of our bowl memories series at Badgers Wire.
Yet, if one was to identify the most important win of the year — at least in terms of giving the program a continued sense of stability, something Badger fans have come to count on ever since Barry Alvarez established a true foothold — the win at Nebraska is probably the best answer.
Remember the 2012 season, the last one under Bret Bielema? That 2012 team did lose a bunch of games, but it wasn’t a 6-6 team which missed out on the Big Ten Championship Game in a year when Ohio State wasn’t eligible for postseason play. Wisconsin took advantage of the opportunity other Big Ten teams could have pounced on, but didn’t. That Wisconsin team found a measure of stability by beating Utah State early in the season. We noted that Wisconsin had just lost a 10-7 game to Oregon State and needed a confidence boost.
What might have happened if the Badgers hadn’t beaten Utah State in 2012? One shudders to think of the answer. It was similar in 2015 with the Nebraska game.
The week before going to Lincoln, Wisconsin lost 10-6 at home to Iowa, the team which would make its only Big Ten Championship Game appearance to date on the strength of that victory in Madison. Wisconsin might not have won the Big Ten West in 2015 had it beaten Nebraska, but in terms of maintaining the Barry Alvarez Wisconsin standard in Paul Chryst’s first season, that road trip to Lincoln was immensely important.
It was hardly an easy ride. Wisconsin was outrushed, 196-147. Joel Stave threw 50 (!) passes and completed only 24. Kicker Rafael Gaglianone missed two field goals… but he made the one that counted, a clutch 46-yard boot with 1:03 left for a 23-21 lead. The defense was able to thwart Nebraska in the final minute and preserve the kind of win which tells a first-year coach, “Hey, my kids will go to the wall for me. We got this.”
A total of 50 months have come and gone since that game. Paul Chryst has Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl and a very solid place. Yes, I’d say 2015 Nebraska was a darn important game in the past decade of Badger football.