On October 13th, 2012, former Wisconsin running back Montee Ball broke the Big Ten record for career rushing touchdowns with his 72nd car…
On October 13th, 2012, former Wisconsin running back Montee Ball broke the Big Ten record for career rushing touchdowns with his 72nd career rushing touchdown against the Purdue Boilermakers. Big Ten Network Wisconsin’s Twitter properly commemorated the eighth anniversary of the record-breaking touchdown with a video of the run itself.
Ball ran for more than just Big Ten records during with time with the Badgers, in fact, he finished his collegiate career holding the FBS record for career rushing touchdowns with 77 as well as the FBS record for total career touchdowns with 83. Although these FBS records have since been broken, the legacy that Ball has left at Wisconsin will always be remembered by Wisconsin fans.
Montee Ball may not have had the best professional career, but Badger fans will forever be grateful for his time at Wisconsin. I am reminded of Wisconsin’s dominance of the Big Ten in the early 2010s from this video and am excited to see how Wisconsin will fare this season.
Many Wisconsin fans, including myself, are looking for any way to consume some Badger Football content, and today at 4:30 p.m. CT the Big…
Many Wisconsin fans, including myself, are looking for any way to consume some Badger Football content, and today at 4:30 p.m. CT the Big Ten Championship Game from 2012 between Nebraska and Wisconsin will be re-airing on Big Ten Network.
This game was a special one for the Badgers because they decimated the Cornhuskers 70-31. This game also included some very memorable performances from former Badgers like Montee Ball, James White, and Melvin Gordon.
Rewatching this blowout will bring back a lot of nostalgia for many fans, including myself, and is a good way to spend one of the last few Sunday nights without NFL football.
Over the years, @BadgerFootball has run wild on so many Saturdays.
Relive its ridiculous 539-yard performance in the 2012 B1G title game at 4:30 p.m. CT today on BTN. pic.twitter.com/n5fFwTlMRK
On Saturday afternoon, Fox College Football tweeted out the rushing leaders of every season from the last decade and an interesting trend emerged.
Wisconsin had three rushing leaders in the last ten years starting with Montee Ball with 1,923 rushing yards in 2011, Melvin Gordon with 2,587 rushing yards in 2014, and lastly Jonathan Taylor with 2,194 rushing yards in 2018.
On Saturday afternoon, Fox College Football tweeted out the rushing leaders of every season from the last decade and an interesting trend emerged.
Wisconsin had three rushing leaders in the last ten years starting with Montee Ball with 1,923 rushing yards in 2011, Melvin Gordon with 2,587 rushing yards in 2014, and lastly Jonathan Taylor with 2,194 rushing yards in 2018.
As impressive as this is, I have to wonder what this list would look like if it was only power five schools that were included in the rankings. Although the rushing feat from Rashaad Penny of 2,248 yards in 2017 was impressive at San Diego State, it’s hard to justify those numbers against the not so tough competition of the Mountain West Conference versus what Jonathan Taylor did against Big Ten opponents. Taylor only had 1,977 yards in 2017, but those yards are a lot harder to earn against teams like Ohio State than Colorado State.
Jonathan Tayor was close to another rushing title in 2019 as well, finishing only 91 yards behind Chuba Hubbard of Oklahoma State. In short, Wisconsin has been pretty close to having five rushing leaders in the last ten years.
Despite actually having three rushing titles, Wisconsin still leads the nation in rushing leaders from the last decade, which shows the program’s commitment to running the ball and finding great running backs. It will be interesting to see who Wisconsin can find to replace Jonathan Taylor this season, but I have no doubt that they can.
😤⚡️ @BadgerFootball had more rushing leaders in the past decade than any other team
The NFL draft has come and gone and college football’s summer offseason programs have yet to receive a date for when they can…
The NFL draft has come and gone and college football’s summer offseason programs have yet to receive a date for when they can get underway, leaving us with not a lot of news relating to Wisconsin football.
So today, in prime offseason and no sports form, we’re outlining the best Wisconsin football teams since 2000.
As a disclaimer, this is only a ranking of the best teams, not necessarily the seasons we’ve watched with the most accomplishments.
5. 2016
Wisconsin Badgers running back Corey Clement (6) is tackled by Penn State Nittany Lions safety Malik Golden (6) during the Big Ten Championship college football game at Lucas Oil Stadium. Credit: Thomas J. Russo-USA TODAY Sports
The 5-3 range on this list simply came down to ranking the Big Ten Championship-losing teams from the last four years.
Though the 2016 squad fell 38-31 to then-No. 8 Penn State in the conference championship game, this Badger team was better than many remember it to be and was an easy selection for this list.
On offense the team was led by a young Alex Hornibrook, current Philadelphia Eagle running back Corey Clement and Troy Fumagalli and Jazz Peavy on the outside.
The defensive unit was led by T.J. Watt, T.J. Edwards, Leo Musso, Jack Cichy, D’Cota Dixon, Sojourn Shelton and Derrick Tindal and was a squad that ranked No. 4 in the nation in opponent points-per-game.
Highlights of the season came Week 1 when they defeated No. 5 LSU at Lambeau Field, Week 4 when they upset No. 8 Michigan State 30-6, a 23-17 win against No. 7 Nebraska and their 24-16 Cotton Bowl victory against No. 12 Western Michigan.
Simple Rating System is a statistic used by Sports-Reference.com that analyzes teams based on a combination of their strength of schedule and average point differential.
Paul Chryst‘s 2016 unit received a 15.30, with zero being the average, which is good for No. 3 among Badger teams since 2000.
So why isn’t this team higher on the list, as they were in the AP Top 10 every week from Week 2 to the end of the season and their three losses all came against other top-10 teams?
Two reasons, the first of which being offensive efficiency and quarterback play.
The offense finished the year ranked No. 67 in the nation in points-per-game and were led at quarterback by Hornibrook who finished the season with a 9-7 touchdown-interception ratio and had an adjusted-yards-per-attempt of only 6.2.
The second is the fact that they were unable to beat the Nittany Lions in the conference championship despite being the higher-ranked team and winners of their last six games.
History will still look upon this team finely, though it was hard to rank them above other recent teams given their lack of adequate quarterback play and overall offensive efficiency.
Check out Gilreath’s new interview podcast with Badger athletes past and present
[lawrence-newsletter]As Suzanne Gilreath sees her Wisconsin career come to an end on the floor, she has already begun her career off of the hardwood. Gilreath has aspirations to take that on-court experience and translate it to the world of sports media. The Wisconsin guard, who just finished up her senior season with the Badgers, recently started a podcast called “Beneath it All” that features in-depth interviews with Badger athletes past and present. Her podcast guests include Nigel Hayes, Rashard Griffith, and Madison Cone among others. BadgersWire caught up with Gilreath to talk about her podcast and her best memories as a Badger basketball player.
BadgersWire: What was your favorite part about being a Wisconsin student-athlete?
Gilreath: My favorite part about being a student-athlete at the University of Wisconsin-Madison was making an impact on the bigger community such as fans and outreach on campus. I loved that every game I would be making a child’s dream come true by showing them they can be a women’s basketball player one day.
BadgersWire: What is your best on-court memory from your time at Wisconsin?
Gilreath: The best memory I had on the Kohl Center court was Kelly Karlis’ game-winning 3 pointer against Nebraska with .7 seconds left on the clock. The Kohl Center was sold out that game too, so it was an amazing atmosphere to play in.
BadgersWire: What inspired you to start your podcast?
Gilreath: The inspiration behind my podcast was Oprah Winfrey, and my passion for storytelling and want to always ask questions. In the summer of 2018, I would listen to her podcast episodes every day and I realized then that I need to start my own podcast. I begin to understand that I love the aspect of knowing who an athlete is because we often define a student-athlete by what they are producing in their respected sport, but I want to highlight the aspect that athletes have stories to tell that have shaped who they are today. The name was inspired because I want to understand the athlete beyond their sports and focus on the non-obvious things about them.
BadgersWire: What has been your favorite moment from the podcast so far or a great memory from episodes you’ve done?
Gilreath: A great memory I’ve had so far with the podcast is with Montee Ball because his story was intriguing to me and he came into the interview with such great energy about inspiring those who are going through problems of addiction. But to be truthful, every podcast episode I’ve done is my favorite because I love the fact that I am able to provide a platform for these current and former athletes to tell stories or experiences that have shaped who they are today.
BadgersWire: What are your future goals?
Gilreath: My goal is to continue playing basketball overseas post-graduation and receive my masters while playing too.
Former Broncos running back Montee Ball has turned his life around after overcoming alcoholism.
When the Broncos selected Wisconsin star Montee Ball in the second round of the 2013 NFL draft, many fans in Denver expected him to become the team’s next great running back. It didn’t work out that way.
Ball dressed for just 21 games with the Broncos, earning only three starts. He lost four fumbles during that time and averaged just 3.1 yards per carry in 2014, which turned out to be his final season in Denver.
Ball was struggling with alcoholism and in 2016, he was arrested for domestic violence. He was a Patriot at the time and was cut by New England shortly after that arrest.
Ball has since overcome alcoholism and he now serves as a public speaker and an AODA recovery advocate.
On Friday, on the anniversary of Denver’s win in Super Bowl 50, Ball shared an inspiring tweet about his comeback story.
4 years ago today, I was sitting inside of a jail cell watching the Broncos win the Super bowl. Now today, I am preparing a speech that I will share in front of 250 therapists who all work in the state of WI. Rock bottom was not the end of my story. It was only the beginning.
The Wisconsin Badgers and their fans know that Jonathan Taylor ought to have made the Heisman Trophy ceremony as a finalist in his shimmering career. Yet, Taylor never did get that opportunity and reward for his excellence. At least Montee Ball received that honor in 2011, when he was one of five Heisman Trophy finalists with winner Robert Griffin, plus Andrew Luck, Trent Richardson, and Tyrann Mathieu.
Ball’s 2011 season is right in the same ballpark as Jonathan Taylor’s best seasons, which doesn’t detract from Ball at all, but shows how dumb it is for the Heisman Trust and Heisman voters to have not rewarded Taylor with a finalist appearance in more recent years.
Montee Ball was a featured part of one of the best Wisconsin offenses of all time. The Badgers never scored fewer than 28 points in any game that season (and they played 14 games). Sharing the field with Russell Wilson obviously helped Ball and the Badgers’ ground game, but Ball made the most of his carries and his 2011 season at large.
One detail which jumps out about Ball’s body of work in 2011 is that even when Wisconsin lost, the Badgers scored big and Ball played well. He averaged at least five yards per carry in each of Wisconsin’s three losses. He averaged 121 yards per game in those three losses. Wisconsin scored at least 29 points in those three losses. The fact that the Badgers gave up 33 or more points in those games caused Wisconsin to throw more and run less than it otherwise would have wanted. Ball didn’t get 20 carries in either of the team’s two midseason losses to Michigan State and Ohio State.
Ball didn’t accumulate 250-yard games as Melvin Gordon or Jonathan Taylor did. However, Ball scored. He scored a lot. Ball ran for 33 touchdowns in 2011, caught six touchdown passes, and threw a touchdown pass for good measure. He scored 40 touchdowns. He scored 14 touchdowns in Wisconsin’s final five regular-season games, including three in the 42-39 Big Ten Championship Game win over Michigan State in Indianapolis. Ball rushed for at least five yards per carry in 13 of his 14 games, “only” 4.6 in the 14th game. The final rushing totals: 307 carries for 1,923 yards and 33 rushing touchdowns.
Not bad, Montee. Not bad at all. At least you got a Heisman finalist dance card, unlike Jonathan Taylor.
