Big Ten grades

Mark Hasty over at (The) Fanhouse has posted a two part piece grading the Big Televen football teams.

His take on Wisconsin:

"WISCONSIN: F

"Bumbling" is a harsh word, but somehow it seems to sum up the Badgers' 2008 season. It started with a terrible decision to get rid of defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz, who was unemployed for about the length of a commercial break. (See Northwestern above.) It continued with a thoroughly inexplicable preseason ranking of No, 13. Toss in Bret Bielema's misplaced loyalty to quarterback Allan Evridge, woeful special teams play, and a defense no better than mediocre, and you've got a formula for disappointment.

The Badgers got flogged by Penn State, 48-7, and by Iowa, 38-16, in the midst of a 1-5 stretch. Those were good teams, however. The Badgers also lost to Michigan in there, and would have lost to Cal Poly if not for the Mustangs having special teams problems of their own. Then in the Champs Sports Bowl they got cratered by what was probably the weakest Florida State team since the 1970s. It wasn't the Badgers' fault they were overrated in the preseason, but this team didn't get better as the season went on.

2009 outlook: Gut check. Bret Bielema will be on the hot seat at the start of the season. Bank on it. Since his first season the Badgers have lost more and more games every year. The Badgers will be shockingly young next year, which isn't a good sign for them. The only thing the Badgers can be sure of is that in 2009, they won't have to overcome a too-high preseason ranking."

Yeah, pretty spot on, I'd say. While next year will be a "gut check" for the Badgers, and Bielema will most definitely be on the hot seat, the homer in me still sees the future with rose-colored glasses. Seriously, it'd take a losing record two or three games into conference play with no signs of improvement to start getting pessimistic. With Evridge gone, Bielema's hand forced to utilize John Clay more and a defense that (knock wood) won't get worse, the ship could (and should) get righted....

Since You've (I've) Been Gone

December 10th? Wow. Obviously, in the five weeks since I posted here at LTW a lot's happened. The Packers' season limped to an end. And thank goodness they didn't drop their last game against Detroit; to be an answer to a trivia question for all time would have been no way to go out.

In the wake of that game, defensive coordinator Bob Sanders and a handful of defensive assistants were given the bum's rush outta Green Bay. Amid speculation that Mike Nolan and then Gregg Williams would be named the new Packers D-coordinator, Mike Nolan and then Gregg Williams took other jobs. Ultimately, the situation has resolved itself with the naming of Dom Capers. Begin the 3-4 (well, multiple scheme, I guess) era in Green Bay! I'm actually really interested, now, in the off season transactions and upcoming draft.

Wisconsin had a fitting end to their season getting waxed by Florida State in their bowl game. Then, P.J. Hill declared for the draft. I gotta admit, I was initially against it before I was for it. At first, I doubted Hill's pro prospects. Ron Dayne was bigger, faster, and stronger than Hill. He stayed for four years, won a Heisman, and we all saw how his career panned out. But then I stopped to consider things from Hill's perspective. Another year in Madison was unlikely to help his draft position; more wear and tear on a body that's already shown itself prone to injury is good for nobody. And then, too, after a season in which redshirt John Clay seemed to be a stronger runner and better future prospect, it's hard to imagine that Hill was going to see any more touches in 2009 than 2008. In fact, it's likely that he'd see considerably fewer. (Maybe it's just me, but after Hill's first year, while he mightn't have had the sort of Dayne-ish runs exploding through the line, then running over the second and third levels of defense on his way to 50, 60, or 70 yard runs, Hill showed flashes of that potential. This past year, though, his running seemed even less specatcular than the "pedestrian" 4.1 yards per carry, or whatever he averaged.)

Being a stereotypical homer, I still like the '09 squad's chances. Both sides of the ball are losing starters, but honestly I don't see that as a huge problem. The 2008 team had a ton of starters back and we all saw how that panned out. Recruiting is such an inexact science that it's hardly worth breaking down Bielema's 2009 class. (On that note, though, the comments to the article are picture perfect demonstrations of the law of the internet: those with the least credibility to speak speak loudest. It seemed everywhere I looked during the season, commenters were on Bielema's ass about his unhealthy devotion to "measurables" over talent and yet here are a bunch of assholes going on and on about recruiting undersized players. It's almost as though none of these dipshits have ever considered the fact that these players may actually spend a redshirt year *gasp* working with the staff's trainers. I wonder if any of those people realize that a 6' 213 lb linebacker may well be 235 by the time he sees the field?)

Still, in his fourth year, Bielema's first recruiting class will be true juniors or redshirt sophomores and should, in theory, be the prime contributers to the team. Add to that the fact that you can easily point to multiple instances that coaching either failed to put the team in position to win or actively put the team in position to lose, and you can see how 2009 could well be a make or break year for BB in Madison.

And on that note, I wonder if, put in a position to fire Bielema, Barry Alvarez would search for another head coach or reinstate himself until the team was on the right track? Needless pondering. I hope.