“Trip Recap: Ohio State at Wisconsin, October 4, 2008”

“Trip Recap: Ohio State at Wisconsin, October 4, 2008”
OR
“I didn’t just drive all the way from Minneapolis to watch an NFL game, did I?”

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2008
CAMP RANDALL STADIUM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
MADISON, WISCONSIN

This past weekend brought me down to Madison for a rare night game at Camp Randall Stadium, this time against the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Perhaps I had better back up and cue you in on the backstory of what brought me to Madtown this weekend. It’s been a crazy month for me. I’ve moved back to the Midwest from Seattle over the course of September, as well as dealing with/staying out of the way of all of my blood relatives at a wedding in Colorado. To celebrate surviving this gauntlet, as well as reinforcing my enjoyment of college football, I asked 847Badgerfan if I could come down to Madison for a night game at the Camp against Ohio State. He gladly agreed, and I made the necessary arrangements to make the epic drive across Wisconsin. Before you call me bat-guano crazy for going to Madison to see a non-Gopher Badger game, I like college football too much to let something petty like archrivalry get in the way of enjoying the game.

Other than the 400-mile distance, the drive from Minneapolis to Kenosha on Friday afternoon was uneventful, for the most part. On I-894 around downtown Milwaukee, a truck was stopped in the left lane, jamming up traffic on the southbound side. I thought he had killed his motor until I got around him and saw why he was stopped in the traffic lane instead of pulled off to the median. It appeared that someone had hit a dog, and he stopped in the traffic lane to get the corpse off to the side. That drive should get a nice fat illegal stopping ticket.

I’ve been trying all summer to get down there, but this was the first time I’d been down to see Badge’s boat. He has a very nice setup, and the other folks that were there were fantastic people. We ate dinner with a one of them at the Kenosha Yacht Club. Badge’s friend then brought us back to his boat and served us the most lethal white Russians any of us have ever had. There was no messing around with those drinks. After three of them, we staggered across the dock to our sleeping quarters.

6:00 Saturday morning came way too early, and after hitting the boathouse for a shower, we were on the road to Madison. Before we got on I-94 in Kenosha, we stopped into a McDonalds for a McMuffin to keep our stomachs occupied. I saw a stack of Milwaukee Journal-Sentinels stacked next to the register. Something about “UW band” caught my eye, and I went over for a closer look. The headline, above the fold and in boldface, said something along the lines of “UW Marching Band Shelved.” Below was the article outlining why the band had gotten suspended. I showed this in disbelief to Badge and Gator, and it took a while for the news to sink into their heads as well. I’m sure it had nothing to do with the fact that they were feeling just as awful as I was.

There was a lot of company on 94 between Milwaukee and Madison, but for some reason the coffee I had with breakfast was doing nothing for me, as I was yawning like crazy all the way up to the hotel. We parked the other vehicles at the hotel, then headed over to their tailgate lot on Regent Street. We arrived shortly after 10:00 AM, and there was already more life around the campus than there has ever been 9 hours before a night kickoff in Minneapolis.

Between my seized-up back and a wicked hangover from those white Russians, I was not feeling too chipper. After the first round of brats had been served, I crawled up in the Tahoe for a brief siesta. I was out of it for about 40 minutes, and I felt much better once I woke up.

The band suspension was the talk of the tailgate, at least in the early goings. Personally, I’m withholding judgment on the situation. On the one hand, not having the band at Camp Randall was a loss not only for the Badgers and their faithful, but all of college football. If the University of Wisconsin Marching Band isn’t the best band in the country, they aren’t far from it. This also has the makings of a nasty power struggle, with all accounts saying that the director made no consultation with any higher-ups before making the call. On the other hand, whatever happened on that bus must have been a real doozy in order for the director to get that wound up. Regardless of what comes out of this, I think it’s safe to say that the UW band won’t be going to Ann Arbor again anytime soon.

The spread of food put out at the tailgate was hard to beat. Bratwurst on multiple occasions, hamburgers, hot homemade soup, pulled pork, macaroni and cheese, lots of dips, bacon-wrapped jalapeños, and probably a dozen other things that I forgot about. Every bit of it was fantastic. I really liked the mac-and-cheese, not just for the spiral noodles they used, but whatever else got mixed into it. Someone said it was creamed corn.

Gatorama had not been feeling well all day, and around 5:00 he decided to go back to the hotel. When trying to unload his ticket, I found out the hard way how rancid the re-sale market was. A little while later, WifeOfBadgerfan went back to the hotel to stay with him. I managed to get $45 for the two of them, and I had to work very hard to get that much.

The band getting shelved made a big difference in game atmosphere. I’ve been there before for a Gopher game, and even though the game was effectively over midway through the first, the band kept everyone much more involved than if nothing was keeping the crowd around. Canned music played with the volume pegged doesn’t make for much of a college football game. I didn’t drive all the way down from Minneapolis just to watch an NFL game. However, the crowd in there last night was a very smart bunch. They knew when to

I also found it VERY strange that the recording of “Varsity” that was played during halftime wasn’t played after the end of the game. The tOSU fans and team were belting away on “Carmen Ohio” even without any musical accompaniment, “Varsity” shows up at all other Badger events, and even “Hail Minnesota” is a postgame staple at all of our athletic events. Someone dropped the ball big-time on that one.

On the way back to the tailgate lot, a conversation was overheard between two Ohio State fans. It went something like this: “I have heard nothing good about the Wisconsin fans ever since that 2003 game. I was the only Buckeye in a whole section of Badgers, but it ended up being a great time as we were surrounded by great people.” I didn’t notice any other altercations between Buckeyes and Badgers, and the Buckeye fans that came by our lot were all very friendly.

The group that tailgates with Badge has some of the nicest folks you ever met in your life. I plan on being down there again on November 15 for the Gopher game.

Sunday morning I went to Mass at the UW Newman Center at the west end of State Street, then ate breakfast at Mickey’s Dairy Bar, across from the Fieldhouse on Monroe Street. Mickey’s is a must-eat place for visitors to Madison, as the pancakes are big and very, very tasty. It poured rain most of the way back to the Twin Cities, so I got a free car wash out of the deal.

Some brief thoughts on the actual game:

This isn’t the first time that BB’s time management skills have cost the Badgers a win, and nor will it be the last.

I can see John Clay becoming an Anthony Davis-style thorn in the Gophers’ side. It seemed as if Davis always went for about 250 yards and 3 TDs whenever he played the Gophs. However, that would require the coaches to keep giving him the rock, and the Badger coaching staff seems quite content with PJ Hill getting stuffed at the line of scrimmage every time.

Terelle Pryor is a horse. There were a few rookie mistakes (a couple of bad sacks where he had all day to throw it away and took a 10+ yard loss), but there was still plenty of brilliance too. He was able to shake off the first man more than once without slowing down.

Say what you will about the Badgers’ inability to defend it, but that option was a brilliant call by tOSU on the go-ahead TD. Put the ball in the hands of your two best players (Pryor at QB and Wells as the pitchman) and let ‘em loose. Granted, Wells hadn’t been doing much in the second half, but it was still a great call. I once saw the Gophers run an option on a had-to-have 2-point conversion, with Brian Cupito at QB and Marion Barber III and Lawrence Maroney as the pitchmen. Needless to say, they got the conversion.

If the Badgers had Adam Weber at the helm, they would be undefeated and a sizable favorite over Penn State this Saturday night. Everidge single-handedly cost them this game. On the last series, the Badgers had way too far to go and not enough time to get there for Everidge to be running around in the backfield like that, on 1st down no less. If no one is open, roll out, throw it away, and try it again on second down. And make sure you don’t go over the line of scrimmage before you do. Instead, the last interception gets thrown without a single red jersey within striking distance of catching the pass.

A big thank you to everyone who I ran into this weekend for making it a blast. If you ever get the chance to go to a night game in Madison, go!