Sports: Football
Badgers quarterback job still up in air
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Also by Derek Zetlin:
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When Bret Bielema took the podium for his weekly press conference yesterday, one thing was on everyone’s mind: Who will play quarterback for the Badgers Saturday at Iowa?
But don’t ask Bielema; he doesn’t know.
“(Offensive coordinator) Paul (Chryst) and I have made discussions in the last couple weeks about the quarterback situation, where we’d go,” Bielema said. “During the course of Saturday’s ball game, after [Allan Evridge’s] last series, we obviously made the change and went in a certain direction.”
Evridge’s last pass Saturday was intercepted by Lydell Sargeant on a play Bielema called an “easy read” after the game.
Junior Dustin Sherer replaced him.
“On Sunday, we both agreed that Dustin, when he was in there, did a lot of good things,” Bielema said. “I liked Dustin’s response. [We’ll see] how he handles this week.”
That said, Bielema still hasn’t given up on Evridge, whose touchdown run Saturday accounted for the Badgers’ lone seven points.
“Allan, on that scoring drive, did a lot of things that we’ve been asking and expecting him to do in terms of taking off with the football,” Bielema added.
Although he is uncertain who will be under center against the Hawkeyes, Bielema is certain about one thing: Next year has no bearing on the decision.
“How they handle this week will determine who plays on Saturday,” he said.
Putting Penn State behind them
There’s no doubt that a 48-7 loss at home is about as devastating a defeat as a team can suffer. However, Bielema, his staff and his players are ready to put it in the past and move on.
“As early as Saturday night after the game [I was] trying to gauge the pulse of our team in the locker room, the mood of our coaches,” Bielema said. “I decided to change things up and go in a little different direction. We did our normal lifting, conditioning and stretching with our players [Sunday]. After that, we gave them some time to get away, come back. We had a team meeting that I briefly spoke about where we were as a football team, where I thought we needed to go.”
Despite being 0-3 in conference play, Bielema is still confident that he has the right group of guys to move forward.
“We have a large majority of seniors in our starting lineup,” he said. “Guys that have been through some adversity, guys that understand tough times bring about tough people and tough people are the ones that last.”
And according to their coach, those players still have accolades to achieve.
“We have 13 team goals, and the first six of those 13 are all day-to-day thinking, day-to-day mentality, how we approach practice every day, how we approach game week,” Bielema explained. “Obviously one of the biggest ones on our board is the ‘1-0’ mentality, and I don’t think there’s any better time in this season to focus on that mentality to get where we need to be.
“What I gave the staff direction to do was show the guys the clips that they need to see from Saturday’s game, but the emphasis needed to be on moving forward.”
Urbik’s streak on the line
Senior guard Kraig Urbik, a team co-captain, has made 45 consecutive starts on the offensive line. But after leaving Saturday’s game with a left knee injury, that streak will be in jeopardy Saturday.
“Kraig, although he might have been in more pain than Gabe (Carimi), his injury may not have been as significant as Gabe’s,” Bielema said.
Carimi left the game against Ohio State with a similar injury and was inactive against Penn State.
“It wouldn’t be surprising to me if [Kraig will] do everything he can [to play] and plead with the doctors as much as he can,” Bielema added.
As for the streak?
“It’s impressive because it’s been at multiple positions,” Bielema said. “He was recruited by other schools, but Kraig was a typical Wisconsin kid that came in, bought into what we were doing, was able to find himself in a starting role at an early age and played as many snaps as he [could]. That’s surviving the storm in the middle there quite a bit.”
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Next home game, I want to hear a Curt Phillips chant. Make it happen, student section.
ENOUGH WITH THE CURT PHILLIPS TALK. He’s REDSHIRTING! He won’t play this season! He’s 5th on the depth chart! 5th! So unless Evridge, Sherer, Tolzien, and Stallions all find ways to get hurt, you won’t see him on the field.
I think it is a good move to redshirt Curt. However, next year when a lot of the Seniors are gone and the team is in a rebuild mode, (different offence, I hope) we need to take a look at rebuilding with a freshman quarterback. As an UW Alumni in Tennessee, I watched Curt through his High School career. Good coaching and given playing time, he will be better than Florida’s QB.
christ, if the quarterback’s job is “up in the air”, i think there should be an article written tomorrow entitled “head coaches job up in the air”… seriously, we are 3-3 and 0-3 in the big ten… we’ve given that JV QB evridge enough of a chance…
speaking to my previous comment, someone has started this website:
http://www.firebretbielema.com/
Yeah, “tough people” are the ones that last, Bielema…but if they’re seniors, they won’t be lasting that long.
The QB makes the only rushing TD?
Pitiful, just pitiful.
I thought that the Badgers had some running backs and an O-Line. Guess not.
The fact may be that Everidge is the best chance to win any of our remaining games, but we must think of the future. I don’t just mean next year, which truly will be a rebuilding team, but two and three years from now. NO HIGHLY RANKED TEAM IN THE NATION HAS A QB THAT JUST GOT HIS FIRST START IN HIS SENIOR YEAR! We need to take a red shirt freshman or sophomore and give him playing time this year, that way he will be better equipped to run the team in the coming years. We need to bring along a QB that can be an eligible starter for the next three to four years. Since I believe that we will not get a decent bowl bid this year, why not roll the dice with a young QB who we can season for the next two years, hopefully to lead us back to the Rose Bowl or BCS bowl in 3 years. We are not USC, who always seems to have players in the wings ready to take the next step, we need to bring along a QB and a cohesive group for 2 to 3 years so they can compete with the upper level teams. GO BADGERS! But please Forward not Backwards!!!!!