Merry Christmas, Wisconsin fans! One thing Badger fans can celebrate this Christmas is the fact that UW has won five straight bowl games. Starting with the 2015 Outback Bowl win over Auburn, the Badgers have an active five-bowl win streak. They hope to push that streak to six wins in the 2020 Rose Bowl against Oregon.
There are several aspects of the five-game bowl winning streak worth celebrating. Let’s start with this: Except for Western Michigan, the Badgers have beaten big-name programs in their streak: Auburn, USC, and Miami twice. That is impressive in and of itself.
Then realize that Wisconsin — like any other Big Ten team — normally travels to the opponent’s back yard for a bowl game. Wisconsin has usually played in or near opponents’ home bases. Wisconsin beat Auburn in Tampa. The Badgers beat USC in Southern California, more precisely, San Diego. Wisconsin won in Miami’s home stadium in the 2017 (December) Orange Bowl. In three of its five bowl wins, Wisconsin was playing in the opponent’s home region. The 2018 Pinstripe Bowl (New York) and the 2017 (January) Cotton Bowl were more genuinely neutral-site games.
The coaches Wisconsin — mostly Paul Chryst, who is 4-0 in bowl games — has beaten is also impressive: Gus Malzahn of Auburn was beaten by Barry Alvarez in the Outback Bowl. Chryst beat P.J. Fleck of Western Michigan and Mark Richt of Miami. (We can shove aside Clay Helton of USC, but if you want to include him, you can. He did win a Rose Bowl as USC’s head coach.)
What also stands out about these bowl games is that they were usually close. Wisconsin won by only one possession (eight points or fewer) in three of these five bowl games, and by 10 points or fewer in four of these five bowl victories. Wisconsin won the 2017 Orange Bowl by 10 points over Miami, 34-24, but trailed 14-3 in the first quarter. Only the 2018 Pinstripe Bowl was an easy joyride. Every other bowl was a struggle, and Wisconsin prevailed in those four struggles, a testament to this program’s toughness and dependability under Chryst.
Five straight bowl wins — don’t take this for granted. Wisconsin once won seven bowls in eight appearances under Barry Alvarez. Paul Chryst has genuinely taken the baton from Barry and ushered Wisconsin into a new period of bowl-game success.