Jeff Miller/UW Madison
Wisconsin quarterback Alex Hornibrook (12) and running back Jonathan Taylor (23) will need to play a near-perfect game to beat stupid Ohio State.
The Wisconsin Badgers football team made history with a 31-0 thumping of the Minnesota Gophers on Nov. 25, becoming the program’s first team to finish the regular season 12-0.
The Badgers, facing blowback in the national polls for a soft schedule, soundly beat No. 25 Iowa and then No. 19 Michigan before marching into TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis and playing their most complete game of the season. Wisconsin outscored those three opponents, 93-24.
The Badgers needed a convincing win over the Gophers to help make their case for a spot in this week’s top four of the College Football Playoff rankings, and they got it. UW’s defense held Minnesota to 133 yards (only 40 of them in the air). Meanwhile, sophomore quarterback Alex Hornibrook completed 15 of 19 passes for 151 yards and three touchdowns, with no interceptions.Wisconsin remains the only unbeaten Power 5 school in the country.
When the CFP rankings were announced Tuesday night, the Badgers came in at No. 4, behind top-ranked Clemson, Auburn and Oklahoma. To maintain that, the Badgers will need to beat No. 8 Ohio State at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Dec. 2 for the Big Ten title. That win would likely earn the UW a spot in the four-team College Football Playoff. One early prediction, should the Badgers prevail against the Buckeyes, has Wisconsin facing Clemson in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day, with the winner of that game playing for the national championship on Jan. 8.
That type of positive prognosticating is all for naught if the Badgers can’t take care of the Buckeyes. As much as it hurts to remember, Ohio State crushed Bucky, 59-0, for the Big Ten title in 2014, en route to winning the national championship in the inaugural College Football Playoff. The UW last played OSU in 2016 at Camp Randall, suffering a 30-23 overtime loss.
This year’s Big Ten Championship Game marks the fifth appearance by the Badgers since that game’s inception in 2011. But Wisconsin has won only twice — in 2011 against Michigan State and in 2012 against Nebraska. Last season, Penn State edged Wisconsin, 38-31, after the Badgers blew a 28-7 lead.
Wisconsin’s showing in the title game could be one reason Ohio State was the early favorite among oddsmakers. That said, these Badgers are an optimistic bunch. “I think we’re playing our best football right now,” senior fullback Austin Ramesh told the Wisconsin State Journal after the Minnesota shutout.
He’s right, and the timing couldn’t be better.
