The Wisconsin Badgers might have relished and cherished a bowl of the Pinstripe Bowl’s stature in 1981. It was in 1981 that the Badgers played the Tennessee Volunteers in the New York metropolitan area. They went to the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J., for the 1981 Garden State Bowl. In 2018, the Pinstripe Bowl was a reasonable equivalent of the early-1980s Garden State Bowl, but it wasn’t a reward for Wisconsin’s season.
In the early 1980s, Wisconsin was a seven-win program. Compared to the misery of the 1970s, the early 1980s were a very good time for Badger football. However, once Barry Alvarez completely reshaped the program and established a very different set of standards for Wisconsin football, a 7-5 season became something the Badgers definitely did not aspire to. Seven-win seasons in 1981? Impressive. Seven-win seasons in 2018? Not impressive.
So it was that in a 2018 season when Alex Hornibrook lost his fastball and a ton of injuries decimated the defense, the Badgers limped to a 7-5 finish. Minnesota and P.J. Fleck drilled them in Camp Randall Stadium. When Wisconsin went to the greater New York area for a bowl — 37 years after doing the same in 1981 — the Badgers were not playing for a big prize.
Wisconsin won New Year’s Six bowls in the 2016 and 2017 seasons. The 2017 campaign was the winningest (13 wins, 1 loss) in UW history. The 2018 season was a departure from excellence. It was not what the program expected or had become accustomed to.
Bowl games, as we all know, are theaters of motivation. They are usually decided by the team which takes the occasion more seriously. Would both Wisconsin and the Miami Hurricanes — reunited in a bowl one year after playing in the Orange Bowl — play with passion, or would they drift through the motions? Would they grumble or would they go for it with gusto? Would they sulk or soar, drift or drive themselves to a higher level?
We all got our answer, and Wisconsin answered this test of character properly. The Badgers had the advantage of playing a warm-weather opponent in cold weather conditions, but if they didn’t play hard, it wouldn’t have mattered. Wisconsin definitely played hard, powering through Miami’s front seven and enabling Jonathan Taylor to run for 205 yards. Wisconsin led 14-3 after one quarter (mirroring Miami’s 14-3 lead after one in the 2017 Orange Bowl). However, while Miami lost the plot in the Orange Bowl after grabbing an early lead, Wisconsin built on its 14-3 advantage and landed a knockout punch, 35-3 over the dazed and paralyzed Hurricanes.
Wisconsin didn’t have the 2018 season it wanted to have. Fine. Nothing could have been done to change that reality when the Badgers went to New York for the Pinstripe Bowl. All Wisconsin could do was play its bowl game as well as it possibly could, thereby restoring confidence and a sense that the program could bounce back. The Badgers did that, and in 2019, they definitely reestablished the Wisconsin Way.
Miami coach Mark Richt retired just after this Pinstripe Bowl. Manny Diaz was Temple’s head coach for a few hours, and then went to South Florida to take over The U. He face-planted in a 6-6 season. Wisconsin has the stability and reliability Miami could only dream of. Yes, the 2018 Pinstripe Bowl was a turning point for two programs.