Greetings Fellow Badgers! It’s always a bit hard to start turning your thoughts from summertime activities to football, but it’s that time of year again! The Badgers return with high expectations in many fans’ minds. They’ve been ranked #12 in both the AP and USA Today polls, with Ohio State (#2) and Iowa (#9/10) the only Big Ten teams ahead of them in the rankings. We play Ohio State (night game at Camp Randall) and Iowa (in Iowa City) on back-to-back weekends in October, so it could make for an exciting season. John Clay looks to be healthy after his ankle surgery and we have an experienced quarterback returning. These players in combination with a number of other talented returning players (check out this great article on Chris Borland - http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/preview10/news/story?id=5487900) could make this a special year. This year’s team captains are (Guildford’s own) John Moffit, Scott Tolzien, Gabe Carimi, Lance Kendricks, Culmer St. Jean and Jay Valai. The Badgers kick off their season against the UNLV Rebels in Las Vegas on September 4th. The game doesn’t begin until 8 pm Las Vegas time (11 pm ET), so we won’t be heading to Rookies to watch this one. And you’ll only be able to catch it on TV if you get Versus. The four sellouts at Sam Boyd Stadium in football games against UNLV have all been when the Badgers have been in town (1986, 1996, 2002 and 2007). We’ll see if we can keep that tradition going. The economy may slow the masses of Badgers heading west, but I know of at least a couple of Connecticut Badger fans that will be in Vegas to cheer the team on. On September 11th, the Badgers will take on the Spartans of San Jose State in their first home game at Camp Randall. The Spartans have 15 returning starters on this year’s team and a new head coach. But that’s not necessarily good for them, given that last year’s defense was one of the worst in the nation, allowing 259 yards/game and giving up 34.5 points/game. The Spartans will be coming to Madison on the heels of a game against defending national champion Alabama, so it looks like they’ll have two tough matches in a row. Kick-off is scheduled for noon Eastern time and the game will be shown on either ESPN or ESPN2. It looks like we’ll be meeting at Rookies Sports Bar in Cromwell, so why not join us? For directions, go here: http://rookiesct.com/site/directions/ For those of you who didn’t tune into sports news all summer, the big news is that Nebraska will be joining the Big Ten. The expansion of the league will split it into two divisions and rumors are rampant as to which teams will be in which division. According to a published report, Barry Alvarez has confirmed that Wisconsin will not be in the same division as Iowa, putting the battle for the Heartland Trophy in jeopardy, unless Iowa is granted a permanent crossover rivalry status. Did you know? Jake Byrne, who is working to replace Garrett Graham at tight end, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes as a junior in high school and plays with an insulin pump taped onto his back, covered by protective padding. Did you know that when Chris Borland kicked those extra points against Hawaii last year, he had never kicked an extra point in a game before? Neither did Bret Bielema. According to the article linked above, Bielema said of Borland, "I'll never forget this. After the game, he comes up to me and goes, 'Thank you, coach, I never thought I'd have an opportunity.' I didn't realize that was his first time ever doing it. I thought he'd done it in high school." That's it until after the San Jose game. Check back here then for the latest in Badger football news. On Wisconsin! Edit |
