As the 2019 season brings to a close another decade of college football, Badgers Wire has been engaged in a series of reflective pieces. “Record Review” is another series examining how the Badgers have fared against the rest of the Big Ten. Next up is an examination of the Badgers’ record against a program that found a winner in Mark Dantonio. Michigan State has been a mixed bag for the Badgers. Let’s look at what Badgers Wire means by that.
Using Stassen, Badgers Wire pulled up every result against Michigan State since the start of this decade. The Badgers gained a 4-3 advantage in wins with this year’s victory, but the Spartans prevented UW from getting on a roll in this series over the past decade. Only this year did Wisconsin win two games in a row in the series during the 2010s. The Badgers had a 2-1 advantage at Camp Randall, a 1-2 disadvantage in East Lansing, and had the only victory at a neutral site, which happened to be the 2011 Big Ten Championship Game. The two teams seem to trade losses and wins, and that was true within the 2011 season itself. Wisconsin and MSU split the 2011 meetings between them.
Let’s talk about the biggest game played between these teams in the past decade, Wisconsin’s gritty win in the 2011 Big Ten Championship Game. The Badgers trailed 29-21 at one point and allowed Michigan State to take a late 39-34 lead, but Montee Ball capped an eight-play, 64-yard scoring drive on a score with 3:45 left and then closed the game out with more disciplined responses in key situations. When the chips were down, the Badgers found a way to win. This is what they haven’t done as often against Ohio State and Penn State.
If the Badgers could somehow take the success they have against Michigan State and Michigan, and apply that to Penn State and Ohio State, they would be cooking with gas. It’s hard to tell where they would be in the overall conference title picture if they’d won a few of these close games against the tougher teams and found a touch more consistency against Michigan State. Fortunately for the Badgers, the biggest game they played against the Spartans this past decade resulted in a Wisconsin victory. More of that in 2020, and the grill will be cooking all season long… and well into the decade to come.