Got this old buddy by the name of Milo in an old one-stop town south of Schulenburg. A professional vagabond, Milo pretty much spends all his days chatting to the gentler set and attempting high-elevation cliff dives. Not the most introspective fellow, but he’s got one adage: “If there ain’t no depth, you’re heading straight for a coma.”
Although “comatose” is such a superb adjective to describe the catastrophe that was Badger football in 2001, words like “shallow” and “thin” and “paltry” are probably more fitting. At almost every position on the field, Wisconsin was on the short end in both skill and maturity, which led to a dreary 5-7 season.
As fast as wide receivers were running free in the Wisconsin secondary, so too were the excuses flying from Camp Randall. Youth and inexperience, injuries and bad bounces were all common scapegoats. My man Milo called it lack of depth; I just called it bad recruiting.
With national signing day a horizon away, there will be much discourse and fodder about the talented prep players of the land and the schools that were able to woo them with the available means. You’ll hear all the rankings and speculations spouted from the “recruiting experts,” who, next to fire and brimstone televangelists, may be the most myopic loons roaming the earth. You’ll then hear all the rebuttals from the white-bread realists, who will mutter that it’s all just a crapshoot.
Milo isn’t one for backwoods sports nerds in chat rooms or betting on red or black, but even he can tell you recruiting matters — just look at the Badgers’ freshman class of 1999.
After blowing through the tissue-like defense of UCLA en route to an 11-1 season and a No. 5 national ranking, Wisconsin had landed their punch, giving a nice shiner to all their many doubters. The sky was the limit, and on Feb. 7, 1999, the Badgers unveiled their newest set of fresh faces ready to take the Camp Randall turf.
After three years in Madison, the 19 players that signed on the dotted line barely have rug burns, they have contributed so little to the program. After Ron Dayne and Aaron Gibson showed the nation the Badgers were the new leaders of the herd, the class of 1999 has produced nothing but sour milk.
From the outset, many around the country viewed the class as a disappointment for a team that had just won the Big Ten championship. The Badgers lost out at the last minute on William Green, who was an All-American running back at Boston College, but other than Green, Barry Alvarez could not corral even one player from the top 200 in the nation.
The class of 1999 began flawed, as one of the more promising impact players of the bunch, Jael Speights, was sent to prison for an on-campus rape. Highly touted out of Lake Butler, Fla., running back Isaac Booker was deemed academically ineligible; he transferred after weight problems. Kicker David Lantigua, who was supposed to challenge Vitaly Pisetsky for duties, flamed out and left the team before the 1999 season was over. In all, eight players that signed with UW three years ago have left the program, and it’s not as if the players who have stayed have had an impact.
On the bright side, the class of 1999 did produce Lee Evans, who is a surefire preseason All-American and may just be the best receiver to ever put on a Wisconsin uniform. After Evans, the only players that have had even a mild impact are the effortlessly blockable Jeff Mack and the erratic Jim Sorgi.
Compare that to this year’s senior class, where Wendell Bryant, Nick Greisen, Nick Davis, Michael Bennett, Brooks Bollinger, Al Johnson and Ben Johnson have all been all-conference players or borderline.
The results of the dud that was that class showed up mightily last season, as the Badgers were often two to three impact players away from winning four of the seven games they dropped.
Moral of the story: recruiting, however fickle and driven by speculation, matters if a program wants to be a consistent top 15 team, as the Tennessees, Michigans and especially Florida States of the world have shown us for so many years. Recruiting talent, and recruiting smart (Nebraska), are the keys to always reloading and never rebuilding.
As Randy Moss has so clearly shown us, it’s pretty easy to play a game on autopilot and disappear. But even the mercurial Moss could take notes from the Badger game Saturday. Dave Mader was as useful as a dead man when he was completely dominated by the supposedly ailing Chris Young, and a missing-persons report was filed for Devin Harris.
Badgerball has lost five straight and should plummet in the polls. Much like the demise of Martin Lawrence, you kind of just had a feeling this would happen.
