Tag: Nebraska Football

Big Ten, big ’20s: Nebraska football

Nebraska football in the 2020s

When considering the biggest question facing Nebraska Cornhuskers football in the 2020s, the focus naturally shifts to Scott Frost. Will the favored son, the people all Husker fans loved for a long time, be the man who can turn around the program?

It is true that Nebraska fans will embrace a revival no matter how it comes, but it would obviously mean so much more if the Huskers can return to prominence under Frost, whose return to Lincoln a few years ago was met with universal enthusiasm — not just because he had just conquered college football at UCF, but because he was a Nebraska man who played for a national championship team under Tom Osborne and therefore represents a strong connection to Nebraska’s glory days. Emotion, nostalgia, sentimentality, and coaching quality (at UCF) were all part of the euphoria felt in the Nebraska community when Mama called, and Frost came home.

Here we are, two seasons into the Frost era, and Nebraska hasn’t yet made a bowl game under Frost. Moreover, Nebraska didn’t make a bowl game this year even though Northwestern and Purdue endured brutal seasons in the Big Ten West. What happens when the Wildcats and Boilermakers improve, as they almost surely will? Plus, Minnesota now seems to be a factor in the Big Ten West, another impediment to Nebraska’s rise. Nebraska’s ceiling is, at least at the moment, very low.

How will Frost raise that ceiling? One answer comes from Parrish Walton, who said on a podcast with me that Nebraska needs to recruit the state of Ohio better and get the kinds of players Ohio State doesn’t want. Kentucky has been getting a number of those players to stay relevant (and a bowl team) in the SEC. Nebraska, Walton says, would do well to adjust its recruiting strategy in that and other ways.

That ultimately leads me to the central question for Nebraska football entering the 2020s: It’s not so much whether Frost himself leads a revival; it’s more about whether a revival will happen under any coach or any set of circumstances. The key is finding a recruiting formula which works.

Ever since the move from the Big 12 to the Big Ten, Nebraska’s recruiting in the state of Texas has fallen off. Nebraska wasn’t competing with Texas A&M or Texas for recruits anymore. Finding the right path in recruiting and getting better “dudes” is the key challenge the Cornhuskers need to respond to if they want happy days to return to Lincoln, under Scott Frost or anyone else.

Great Wisconsin moments of the 2010s: 2015 Nebraska

Wisconsin-Nebraska 2015

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.

Great Wisconsin moments from the 2010s: 2011 Nebraska

The 2011 Wisconsin-Nebraska game

We already wrote about the 2011 Big Ten Championship Game here at Badgers Wire, recalling the first time the Big Ten moved to two divisions and played a neutral-site conference championship showdown in Indianapolis. Russell Wilson starred in that game, the biggest win of Wisconsin’s 2011 season. The victory sent the Badgers to the Rose Bowl, where they played the Oregon Ducks.

Hey, that sounds familiar. Wisconsin will do that all over again when it reunites with Oregon in the 2020 Rose Bowl.

On the road to Pasadena, Wisconsin needed to beat Michigan State in Indianapolis. Before that, however, the other especially great moment from the 2011 UW regular season was Nebraska’s first-ever conference game as a member of the Big Ten.

Nebraska lost to Oklahoma in the 2010 Big 12 Championship Game. Nebraska’s next conference game was in Camp Randall Stadium roughly 10 months later, on October 1, 2011. This wasn’t an ease-your-way-into-the-Big-Ten opener for Nebraska, against Illinois or pre-Jeff-Brohm Purdue. This was Wisconsin, the Big Ten co-champion from 2010 which was reloading and would eventually put two players — Russell Wilson and Montee Ball — in the top 10 of the Heisman Trophy voting for the 2011 season.

This was a sexy game played under the lights in prime time. How would Nebraska answer the moment, and how would Wisconsin welcome the new member of the Big Ten?

After 17 and a half minutes, Nebraska had to like its chances. The Huskers survived the early storm and took a 14-7 lead with 12:45 left before halftime. It was reasonable at that time to expect a closely fought game. Nebraska was the runner-up in the Big 12 in 2010. This was not the NU program we see today under Scott Frost; the Huskers weren’t an elite team, but they were very good at the start of the decade.

In many ways, this game contained powerful symbolism as a harbinger of what was to come: The roof caved in.

Wisconsin scored 20 points in the second quarter to take a 27-14 lead. Nebraska quarterback Taylor Martinez threw three interceptions to fuel the Badgers’ surge. Wilson, in the first really big game of his Wisconsin career after transferring from North Carolina State, didn’t throw a ton of passes (20), but the ones he completed were big gainers. Wilson’s 14 completions went for 255 yards, or just over 18 yards per completion. Wilson hit Jared Abbrederis on a 36-yard touchdown pass, and Nick Toon on a 46-yard scoring strike, to blow the game open. Before the third quarter was over, Wisconsin had built a 41-14 lead. The Badgers had scored 34 straight points. Nebraska’s Big Ten opener had turned into a clear and vivid sign of what was to come in the remainder of the decade for the Cornhuskers.

In the fourth quarter of the blowout — the final score was 48-17 — Wisconsin fans serenaded Nebraska with a simple chant. It didn’t need to be any more complicated:

“BIG TEN FOOT-BALL! CLAP! CLAP! CLAP-CLAP-CLAP!”

“BIG TEN FOOT-BALL! CLAP CLAP! CLAP-CLAP-CLAP!”

That was a mic-drop moment for Wisconsin football, part of a very successful decade for the Badgers on the gridiron.

Why Wisconsin fans shouldn’t worry about the Nebraska performance

An explanation of why fans of the Wisconsin Badgers should put the performance against the Nebraska Cornhuskers in perspective.

Yes, the Wisconsin Badgers played below-average defense against the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Saturday. Yes, the Badgers’ defense is thin at safety, due to multiple injuries. Yes, backups are being thrown into the mix and can’t be expected to perform at the same standard established earlier in the season. Yes, other Big Ten teams seem to be improving while Wisconsin is treading water — surviving, but not really getting better.

Wisconsin’s best and most locked-in performances of 2019 came in the first half of the season. The second half — which included a week off, a time to hopefully sharpen some instincts and polish some imperfect habits — has not created a meaner defensive unit. Jack Coan is not making steady progress. He is also playing at the same B-minus/C-plus level he displayed against Illinois a few weeks ago. This team isn’t deteriorating, but neither is it peaking at the right time.

That last point is what I wish to explore: No, Wisconsin isn’t peaking… and that is part of why fans shouldn’t be too worried about what’s happening at the moment, two weeks before the huge Minnesota game which is likely to decide the Big Ten West. I will frame my argument around a larger reality which pervades the national scene in major college football.

Look at Georgia’s mid-October siesta, when the Bulldogs played two bad games in a row against South Carolina and Kentucky. Look at Ohio State basically taking the last three quarters off against Rutgers on Saturday. (Rutgers nearly played OSU even on the scoreboard for a few quarters, following OSU’s onslaught in the first 11 minutes.) Look at LSU giving up a ton of points to Ole Miss and a boatload of yards. Look at Clemson playing like a bored team in the first half of the year, especially versus North Carolina.

So many very good teams have played games or sequences of games (or both) in which they weren’t dialed in. Focus was lacking. Energy was inconsistent. This happens. This is NORMAL, not aberrational. Kids aren’t going to have the same razor-sharp focus every week.

Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney are better than most at getting relatively consistent performances from their teams each week, but they aren’t airtight gods. They still get at least one if not two games a year in which their players drift through a Saturday.

This, I submit, is what Wisconsin is going through now. Wisconsin was shaken by the Illinois loss and then kicked to the curb by Ohio State. This created an emotional tidal wave the Badgers are still absorbing. This team played with such confidence and decisiveness in the first half of the season that a two-game losing streak was a thunderclap of disruption. Wisconsin is still trying to find its bearings, and not being able to control its fate in the Big Ten West race might have played a small but real part in keeping this team depressed — maybe not to a huge extent, but small margins can matter when explaining why one-on-one tackles in open space are being missed instead of made.

Now that Wisconsin controls its fate in the Big Ten West once again, you might see this team perk up. You might see the vibrant, optimistic, relentless identity seen in September. It’s not a guarantee, but I think some Badgers are ready to come out of hibernation. Let’s see if this thesis is proven to be correct. If it IS correct, some Gophers are about to be pushed into a deep, dark hole on Nov. 30 in Minneapolis.

Twitter reactions: Wisconsin takes down Nebraska 37-21

Here are some of the most notable Twitter reactions from the Wisconsin Badgers’ 37-21 victory over the Nebraska Cornhuskers in Madison.

It wasn’t easy by any stretch, but No. 14 Wisconsin ultimately took care of business and earned its seventh straight victory over Nebraska, taking down the Cornhuskers 37-21 yesterday afternoon in Lincoln. As a result, the 8-2 Badgers remain in the hunt for a Big Ten West title with two games left to go.

The events that took place at Memorial Stadium yesterday elicited a flood of reactions and takes throughout the Twitterverse, both during the game and after. Here are some of the most notable:

With its confidence back after last week’s thrilling victory over Iowa in Madison, Wisconsin appeared to be in high spirits in pre-game warmups.

However, that mood didn’t last long.

After marching down the field with ease into Nebraska territory on their first drive of the game, Jack Coan threw an errant pass to Jonathan Taylor out of the backfield. The All-American running back managed to haul it in with a sensational one-handed grab, but just couldn’t hang on and got the ball knocked out. Nebraska recovered and quickly seized the game’s momentum, going up 7-0 on Wisconsin after running back Dedrick Mills’ 12-yard touchdown run.

Unfortunately for the Cornhuskers, Wisconsin kick returner Aron Cruickshank immediately took the wind out of their sails on the ensuing kickoff, taking the kick all the way back for an electrifying 89-yard touchdown and tying up the game once more. It was the speedy sophomore’s first return touchdown of his career, and likely will not be the last.

While Wisconsin would end up claiming victory, many Badger fans are understandably concerned about the performance of this defense moving forward. It gave up a total of 493 yards against the Cornhuskers, the most the Badgers have allowed since the 511 it gave up in last season’s matchup with Nebraska at Camp Randall. Most concerning were the 273 yards it gave up on the ground, including a whopping 188 on just 17 carries from Mills.

A key factor in the defense’s woes yesterday? Missed tackles. A lot of them.

Overall, the unit’s performance was reminiscent of its awful outings against Illinois and Ohio State, a major red flag with the regular-season finale against Minnesota that will likely decide the Big Ten West looming

The next major galvanizing moment from the Badgers following Cruickshank’s touchdown return came about midway through the second quarter. Down 14-10 after a 5-play, 73-yard touchdown drive from the Cornhuskers, Coan hit A.J. Taylor over the middle on an easy pass. The senior wide receiver proceeded to break multiple tackles and scamper all the way into the end zone. At 55 yards, it was the longest pass play for Wisconsin on the year, and it gave the Badgers the lead for good in this one.

Taylor’s reception was part of a broader effort from Paul Chryst and offensive coordinator Joe Rudolph to get their weapons at wide receiver more involved in the offense this week, both to discourage Nebraska from loading the box against Jonathan Taylor and simply because they are talented playmakers.

Speaking of JT, he made history against the Cornhuskers by breaking the legendary Herschel Walker’s record for rushing yards in the first three years of a career on a run early in the fourth quarter.

Another week, another massive goal-line stop from this Wisconsin defense. Last week, it was Chris Orr stuffing Iowa quarterback Nate Stanley on a two-point conversion attempt late in the fourth quarter to keep the Hawkeyes down 24-22.

This week, it was Reggie Pearson’s turn. The redshirt freshman safety essentially sealed the victory for Wisconsin by making an incredible tackle on Nebraska running back Wyatt Mazour on the one-yard line on a 4th-and-goal attempt.

That was an enormous play by Pearson, who had a fantastic day overall by leading the Badgers with ten tackles. However, as usual, the day belonged to Jonathan Taylor, who racked up over 200 yards against this Nebraska program for the third straight season. He finished with 204 and two touchdowns on 25 carries, bringing his career totals against the Cornhuskers to 644 yards and seven scores.

Nebraska deserves credit for giving the Badgers quite the scare, but Wisconsin managed to close out the Cornhuskers and maintain possession of the Freedom Trophy for the seventh straight time in this rivalry.

We’ll close with this gem from Oakland Raiders linebacker Will Compton, who played at Nebraska from 2009-12 and has some thoughts on Wisconsin’s dominance of this rivalry over the years that Badger fans should enjoy.

Wisconsin-Nebraska highlights the need for better tackling in space

Reviewing one aspect of the Wisconsin Badgers’ 37-21 win over the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

It is true that the Wisconsin Badgers continue to be dogged by injuries. It is true that injuries matter, and that one shouldn’t expect the same high level of performance from backup players. Against the Nebraska Cornhuskers, against Iowa, against Ohio State, this idea remains relevant and necessary.

One can question the performance of specific backups if they have gained a lot of snaps in the past, and have been demoted due to poor play. One can raise questions about the trajectory or development of specific players. Yet, for the most part, backups are backups for a reason, and starters are starters for a reason.

One thing starter-level players do better than backups is play sound assignment football. They aren’t out of position as often. They don’t get confused as often. They know where they are supposed to be. This point leads into an analysis of Wisconsin’s defense on Saturday against Nebraska.

One can note the injuries to UW’s defense and yet point out that a lot of the failures on this side of the ball are not flowing from defenders being out of position. Inexperience — due to Eric Burrell and Reggie Pearson getting hurt on Saturday — certainly played a part in shaping this defensive performance. Those injuries are relevant in assessing the Badgers. However, they can’t be allowed to tell the whole story of this game against the Huskers.

Many times on Saturday, Wisconsin defenders weren’t out of position. They weren’t caught off guard. They weren’t failing to diagnose a given play or action. They simply didn’t make the tackle.

How many times on Saturday in Lincoln was a Wisconsin defender one-on-one with a Nebraska ballcarrier in open space, and unable to make a sure tackle? How many times did the Badgers have a chance to get off the field in third down, only to fail to make a play Jim Leonhard and Paul Chryst would expect them to deliver? How many times were linebackers or safeties wondering how a Nebraska rusher slipped away?

One can chalk up some of these missed tackles to inexperience, but a lot of them were much less about football IQ and more about not trusting one’s athleticism and instincts. Wisconsin can’t remain on its heels to this extent when it plays defense. What’s worse is that the Badgers’ poor fourth quarter against Iowa ought to have led to a lucid, energized display in the first 30 minutes against Nebraska. Yet, that first half was as poor a half as Wisconsin’s defense had played all season.

Has the depth chart on this team gotten a workout this season? Yes. Has there been a lot of injury-based attrition this season? Yes. However, Wisconsin defenders were in position to make plays against Nebraska, and they simply failed. Wisconsin got away with it this time. It won’t get away with it against a good opponent. The task is clear for the remainder of this season, especially against Minnesota in a few weeks.

Top three takeaways from Wisconsin’s 37-21 victory over Nebraska

The No. 14 Wisconsin Badgers took down the Nebraska Cornhuskers 37-21 in Lincoln. Here are three takeaways from the game.

It wasn’t pretty, but No. 14 Wisconsin found a way to close against a pesky Nebraska team and will head back to Madison with the Freedom Trophy in hand on the heels of a 37-21 victory. As a result, the 8-2 Badgers remain in the hunt for a Big Ten West title with two games left to go.

Here are our top three takeaways from the win.

1. This Wisconsin defense has some soul searching to do. 

There’s no sugarcoating it; this was an absolutely atrocious performance from the Badgers defensively. Defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard’s unit just didn’t have much of an answer to Nebraska’s dynamic spread offense all game long.

Wisconsin surrendered a total of 493 yards, the most the Badgers have allowed since the 511 it gave up in last season’s matchup between these programs at Camp Randall, including 220 through the air from quarterback Adrian Martinez and 273 on the ground.  The Cornhuskers averaged 7.4 yards per carry collectively, an effort spearheaded by a breakout outing from running back Dedrick Mills, who gashed Wisconsin for 188 yards and a touchdown while picking up an average of 11.1 yards each time he touched the ball.

While the coaches were largely ineffective in making adjustments throughout the game as the Cornhuskers picked up big play after big play, the Badgers simply could not tackle to save their lives. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so many missed tackles by a Wisconsin defense, and those mishaps resulted in far too many chunk plays that moved Nebraska rapidly down the field. To put this into perspective, not one of the Cornhuskers’ three touchdown drives took longer than 1:49.

While the Badgers do deserve some credit for making some critical fourth-down stops throughout the game, overall, this was an embarrassing effort that resembled the defensive debacles against Illinois and Ohio State. Wisconsin has some major adjustments to make before taking on an explosive Minnesota offense for a potential shot at a Big Ten West title in a few weeks.

2. Wisconsin’s special teams got the job done today.

The play of special teams can often go underappreciated, but today, there’s no question that they played a critical role in Wisconsin’s victory.

That conversation begins with Aron Cruickshank, whose electrifying kickoff return touchdown in the first quarter gave the Badgers a much-needed boost in momentum following a Nebraska score.

Mills had just scampered into the end zone from 12 yards out to give his team a 7-0 lead after the Cornhuskers recovered a Jonathan Taylor fumble in Wisconsin territory. It was a devastating turn of events, as the Badgers had been running the ball down Nebraska defense’s throat on their first drive and were threatening to score before the turnover. The momentum dramatically shifted to the home team.

It didn’t last for long, as Cruickshank proceeded to completely take the wind out of the Cornhuskers’ sails on the very next play.

The sophomore’s 89-yard house call was the first return touchdown of his young career, and it came in a huge moment for his team. Cruickshank has always had blazing speed,  and it was only a matter of time before he found the end zone in the return game.

Credit is also due to placekicker Collin Larsh, who accounted for 13 of Wisconsin’s 37 points while going 3/3 and 4/4 on field goal and extra-point attempts, respectively.

3. Jonathan Taylor owns Nebraska.

Though they weren’t able to get the win today, it’s safe to say the Cornhuskers and their fans have got to be ecstatic that they will never again have to worry about facing Jonathan Taylor, assuming he takes his talents to the NFL after this season as we all suspect.

For the third straight season, Nebraska had no answer for All-American back. Taylor carried this Wisconsin offense on his back today, turning his 25 carries into 204 yards and two touchdowns and breaking the legendary Herschel Walker’s record for rushing yards in the first three years of a career in the process. Assuming there is no fourth year, Taylor will conclude his storied college career with 644 yards and seven touchdowns in just three meetings with the Cornhuskers.

Taylor was in the midst of a bit of a cold spell that coincided with Wisconsin’s two losses to Illinois and Ohio State, but he’s gotten back to his usual dominance in these last two games. The Badgers desperately need him to keep the momentum going down the home stretch.

Wisconsin’s play vs. Nebraska won’t cut it against Minnesota

An initial reaction to the Wisconsin Badgers’ victory over the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

The Wisconsin Badgers defeated the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Saturday. They won by 16 points. They won without too much drama. Yet, given how flawed the Huskers are, a strong Wisconsin team would have blown the doors off this game. As it was, Nebraska was still in the hunt midway through the fourth quarter. Wisconsin needed a red-zone stop to finally feel good about this game. Until then, the Badgers had to legitimately doubt whether they could put away Nebraska.

That is a problem. Victory should not — and cannot — obscure that reality. Wisconsin handled a bad team well enough to win, but not nearly well enough to inspire confidence about the Nov. 30 matchup against Minnesota on the road. We will continue to unpack various nuances of that game — it’s not as though next week’s Purdue game will offer a hugely revealing insight into the Minnesota contest — but for now, we can simply assert this basic point: Wisconsin’s level of play was nowhere near what Paul Chryst needs it to be against Minnesota.

If the Badgers play like this against the Golden Gophers, they might not merely lose. They might get run out of the building and feel very dissatisfied about the nature of their season. Sure, Minnesota is impressive (we’ll see if the Gophers beat Iowa; this article was written before the start of that game in Iowa City). If the Gophers happen to beat the Badgers by playing a phenomenal game, so be it. Wisconsin can’t control how well Minnesota plays. Wisconsin can control how the Badgers play, and right now, the Badgers aren’t playing particularly well, especially on defense.

Yes, the offense still needs work. Jonathan Taylor can’t keep fumbling (his fumble at Illinois was very costly). Jack Coan has to be more accurate. The offense isn’t a finished product. Yet, the offensive line is knocking the snot out of opposing defensive fronts. Wisconsin can beat Minnesota based on the way the O-line is performing.

On defense, however? Good luck standing up to Minnesota’s speed at wide receiver or the Gophers’ pace, or P.J. Fleck’s scheme. If Nebraska could bust open big holes; if the Huskers could gain first downs with the run on third and seven; if Scott Frost could make Jim Leonhard’s defense look bad for most of the first three quarters; if a 34-14 lead wasn’t entirely safe (and it wasn’t, not with Nebraska being 15 yards from making the score 34-28); and if the back seven was slow to defend a number of downfield pass plays yet again, how will Wisconsin contain Minnesota’s offense?

That question — as we come closer to Nov. 30 — has to dominate coaches’ meetings. It has to be a central talking point on the practice field. It has to be the topic Wisconsin’s defensive players think about. What happened against Nebraska wasn’t acceptable. Victory can’t allow the Badgers’ defense to ignore that point.

Wisconsin should revel in Nebraska’s failures

An explanation of why Nebraska’s failures are meaningful to the Wisconsin Badgers, and should give UW fans a measure of satisfaction.

Let’s be clear at the outset of this piece: When I say that the Wisconsin Badgers should revel in the failures of the Nebraska Cornhuskers, I don’t mean to imply or suggest that Wisconsin fans should laugh at Nebraska. No. This is not about spitting at or looking down on an opponent. I wish to convey the point that Nebraska’s inability to rise to the top tier of the Big Ten should make Wisconsin fans happy. This is an important reality to grasp on the eve of the latest football reunion between the two schools on Saturday.

Wisconsin fans, everyone else in the Big Ten, and all other college football fans in the United States know that Nebraska is immersed in an identity crisis. The Huskers were solid under Bo Pelini, often winning nine games in a season and coming close to winning a conference championship on a few occasions, but they have never regained the top-tier status they had under Frank Solich in 2001. Nebraska has played in a handful of huge games this century, but the Huskers have clearly lost their status as a program which is annually relevant in college football.

This is not funny. This is not worth laughing at. It is a reality Wisconsin fans should cherish because of what the Badgers have been able to achieve… and how they have achieved it.

What was the foundation of Nebraska’s elite status in college football, in the Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne years? Big offensive linemen knocking the snot out of the opposition. What is and has been Wisconsin’s calling card since Barry Alvarez remade and transformed the program in the early 1990s? Big offensive linemen knocking the snot out of the opposition (much as the Badgers did against Iowa this past Saturday).

The thing which made Nebraska great is the thing which made Wisconsin great… and Wisconsin is continuously winning with this identity firmly intact. Nebraska can’t get those farm-grown linemen. Nebraska can’t develop elite offensive line play. Nebraska can’t regain sledgehammer force in the trenches. That is WISCONSIN’S brand. That is WISCONSIN’S identity.

Here is something for Wisconsin fans to briefly contemplate: Yes, Minnesota might win the Big Ten West this year (though hopefully, Iowa will rise up and enable the Badgers to win the division on Nov. 30 in Minneapolis), but even if the Gophers do win the division, Wisconsin could go 10-2 in this 2019 regular season. Do you want to know how many 10-win regular seasons Nebraska has had since 2001, when it played Miami for the national title? Two.

Want to know how many 10-win (or more) regular seasons Wisconsin has had since 2014? Three. Want to know how many 10-win regular seasons Wisconsin has had this decade? Five. It will be six if the Badgers can beat Nebraska, Purdue, and Minnesota to round out their 12-game slate in 2019.

Nebraska fans would kill for Wisconsin’s level of success. Think about that. Nebraska was playing for national championships 25 years ago, when Barry Alvarez got the Badgers off the ground and roaring. The 1995 Nebraska team is the greatest team I have personally witnessed in my years following college football. Who would have possibly imagined 20 years ago that in 2019, Wisconsin — and not Nebraska — would be nationally relevant?

Nebraska’s failures magnify Wisconsin’s successes. Wisconsin’s successes make it all the more striking that the Huskers haven’t been able to replicate their own formula, the formula Barry Alvarez used and passed along to both Bret Bielema and now Paul Chryst.

No one needs to laugh at Nebraska’s misfortune. Simply know that each year Nebraska fails to recover or revive itself, is a year in which Wisconsin retains the identity of being the foremost program with a commitment to muscular and punishing line play. What Nebraska used to be is what Wisconsin now is — maybe not to the extent that the Badgers are playing for national titles, but certainly when viewed through the prism of being nationally relevant and a good bet to win 10 games a year.

Wisconsin fans don’t have to be happy due to Nebraska’s struggles. They should be happy, however, that Nebraska’s failures make it easier to marvel at and appreciate the Badgers’ successes over an extended period of time.

Wisconsin, not Ohio State, is Nebraska’s main Big Ten roadblock

A reminder about the brief period of Big Ten history connecting the Wisconsin Badgers and the Nebraska Cornhuskers

It is not breaking news to note that the Wisconsin Badgers, not the Ohio State Buckeyes (or Penn State Nittany Lions, or Michigan Wolverines), represent the foremost roadblock to progress for the Nebraska Cornhuskers. As the latest Wisconsin-Nebraska game approaches this Saturday, it is worth offering a reminder that the Badgers are more responsible for holding back the Huskers than anyone else in the Big Ten Conference.

Wisconsin holds the distinction of being the only team to play — and beat — Nebraska in a Big Ten Championship Game. Before the divisions were realigned, the Badgers and Huskers played in the 2012 game. A Wisconsin blowout not only prevented Bo Pelini from giving Nebraska its first (only) conference championship of the 21st century; it humiliated Pelini and left a lasting mark which, in the course of time, helped usher him out of Lincoln.

Yes, Pelini’s lack of people skills — an abrasive manner which rubbed people the wrong way — led to his exit from Nebraska, but if he had been winning conference titles, Pelini’s lack of tact and decorum probably would have been tolerated to a much bigger degree. When Nebraska and Wisconsin moved into the same division, the Big Ten West, Wisconsin hounded Nebraska and remained the foremost obstacle for the Huskers on their path to Big Ten glory.

Nebraska has beaten Wisconsin only once since the Huskers joined the Big Ten at the start of this decade. Nebraska has never beaten the Badgers since the formation of the current Big Ten West. We can point out that if Nebraska ever does win the Big Ten West, Ohio State will probably be looming in the Big Ten Championship Game in Indianapolis. Yet, it seems rather silly to center Ohio State in this discussion when Wisconsin has been extremely effective in barring Nebraska from Indianapolis. The Badgers haven’t needed Ohio State’s help, thank you very much. UW has made sure that Nebraska has remained without a conference title this century.

If Scott Frost wants to improve his program, he has to beat the team which will stare down his Cornhuskers on Saturday. The latest Wisconsin-Nebraska game is a time to remind ourselves which school stands squarely in Nebraska’s path on the road to revival.