College football preview: Northwestern at Wisconsin
By Lindsey Willhite
lwillhite@dailyherald.com
Northwestern (7-4, 3-4) at Wisconsin (10-1, 6-1)
When: 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Camp Randall Stadium
TV: Ch. 7 in Midwest; ESPN elsewhere
Radio: WGN 720-AM, WNUR 89.3-FM
Series: Wisconsin leads 55-33-5
Coaches: Pat Fitzgerald (34-27, fifth year at NU); Bret Bielema (47-15, fifth year at UW)
NU players to watch: With Dan Persa (Achilles’ tendon), Mike Trumpy (wrist) and Jacob Schmidt (ankle) on the sidelines, Northwestern’s offense won’t have most of its firepower for this regular-season finale. Redshirt freshman QB Evan Watkins (13 of 27, 179 yards, 1 INT) gets his second start while true freshman Adonis Smith (26 carries, 106 yards) will get first call at tailback. WR Jeremy Ebert (56 catches, 876 yards, 8 TDs) needs a big game to earn more all-Big Ten votes. S Brian Peters (91 tackles, 3 INT) is NU’s best all-Big Ten bet on defense.
UW players to watch: Wisconsin is thick with all-Big Ten and all-American candidates. Fremd HS graduate Scott Tolzien is among five finalists for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award that goes to the nation’s best senior QB. LT Gabe Carimi is among three finalists for the Lombardi Award. TE Lance Kendricks is among three finalists for the Mackey Award. RB John Clay is among three finalists for the Doak Walker Award…and he hasn’t even played in three weeks. Not that you’d notice because sophomore Montee Ball and freshman James White combined for 665 yards and 11 TDs the last two games.
The skinny: While Northwestern nurses bruised bodies and egos after last week’s loss at Wrigley Field, No. 7 Wisconsin battles for a Big Ten title and BCS bowl berth. Throw in the Senior Day festivities, as well as any leftover hard feelings about NU’s 33-31 win last year, and the Badgers have every reason in the world to continue their huge run. During their six-game winning streak, they’ve won by an average of 22.7 points per Saturday. Of course, that’s skewed slightly by the 83-20 win over Indiana. If the Wildcats can’t turn about 4 turnovers into scores (or discover some secrets to stopping the run), then this could unravel into another opportunity for Wisconsin to run up the score for the benefit of the pollsters.
Bowl ramifications: If Northwestern doesn’t win, it’s all but assured of the TicketCity Bowl in Dallas or the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl in Detroit. Wisconsin clinches the Big Ten’s automatic BCS bid with a win combined with a Michigan State loss. If the Badgers, Spartans and Ohio State all win Saturday, then the team that’s highest in the Dec. 5 BCS poll gets the BCS spot.
He said it: Pat Fitzgerald on Wisconsin: “It’s an outstanding football team in all three phases. Their kicking game is as solid as we’ve seen. Great balance on offense and defense. They’ve got great players. I mean, they’ve got probably as many guys that’ll be nominated for all-Big Ten as anybody in the league. So their players are out there taking to the schemes and playing really well. I just think we’re playing a great team. It’s something we aspire to have said about us, and at times we’ve played that way.”