Unless you're paid to evaluate such things, you know little more about the UW football team than you did eight months ago. The season opener has come and gone, James White and Melvin Gordon are still fast, and the Badgers still don't have a quarterback who inspires much confidence.
And you definitely don't know more than the wise guys in Vegas. The point spread at game time was Bucky minus 44.5. Final score: Badgers 45, Massachusetts 0.
To the typical meathead fan or sportswriter, Saturday meant bupkes. Massachusetts had no more business taking the field at Camp Randall than the fraternity boys on the other side of Breese Terrace. The Minutemen were 1-11 last year in their first season as members of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), college football's top tier, and their losses were by an average of 31 points. According to the Sagarin ratings, UMass finished the season 178th in the country. (The FBS has only 124 teams.)
The game, such as it was, effectively ended late in the second quarter. UMass was down only 10-0, thanks to sloppy offensive play by UW, and was looking to cap its best drive all day with a 47-yard field goal. The UMass center delivered the ball just before the play clock expired and Blake Lucas drilled the kick, but the Minutemen coaches, fearing a delay-of-game penalty, had called time out to beat the snap. That's right, UMass iced its own kicker. The next attempt was wide left. Two plays later, Gordon found a hole on the right side, ran through the line untouched, and sprinted 70 yards for a touchdown. Ball game.
For the Badgers, it's on to the next tomato can, Tennessee Tech. It's hard to imagine a team worse than UMass, but the Golden Eagles finished 180th in last season's Sagarin team rankings. Seriously, the athletic department is charging $45 a seat for this?
