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Three Badgers. Three seniors. All 300 pounds.

Only three games left together.

Eric Vandenheuvel (right tackle), Kraig Urbik (right guard) and Andy Kemp (left guard) have a total of 110 starts and over 970 pounds among them. They’ve been to three bowl games and have exceeded expectations since day one.

Needless to say, it’s been a long, four-year trek for this talented trio, one that none of them truly expected as high school football players.

“Things came into perspective when Kraig started getting scouted,” Vandenheuvel, a Hudson High School graduate said. “We played next to each other a couple times in high school. My coach told me I had a chance to play at Wisconsin with Kriag, and I was kind of surprised at first because I didn’t consider myself that good of an athlete in high school.”

Like most teenage athletes, playing Division I athletics was always a goal for these three linemen. But playing Wisconsin football took things to an entirely separate level for each.

“My family was always big Badger fans,” Vandenheuvel said. “I’ve got a lot of family in Green Bay and they’re all Badger fans, so this was definitely a dream come true for me.”

“It was always my goal to move on every place I was, from flag football to YMCA football,” Kemp added. “When I got to high school, I was one of the bigger guys in the Fox Valley. It was one of my goals to play in college. After my sophomore and junior years, it became a reality to me. It’s been a heck of a journey since.”

That journey started off similarly for all three. Urbik redshirted in 2004. In ’05, all three linemen lettered during their rookie campaigns. In 2006, the trio started in all 13 of Wisconsin’s games, a season in which the Badgers finished 12-1 and running back P.J. Hill was named National Freshman of the Year, as he rushed for 1,569 yards, an impossible feat without dominant big boys up front.

“It’s a great feeling knowing that you’re part of an offense with the tradition of a running game, the tradition of o-linemen,” Urbik said. “But you can’t just show up and expect to be part of that tradition; you’ve got to keep building on it. I think Andy, Vandy and I have definitely tried to establish that over the last four years, keep that tradition going and teach some of the young guys about it, too.”

“There’s a sense of pride for all of us on the offensive line,” Vandenheuvel added. “We’re supposed to be the rock, the center of the offense. I think we’ve succeeded in doing that. It’s taken a lot of work for four years, but it’s good to see our hard work come to fruition.”

According to the trio, Urbik is the brain of the bunch, Kemp is the talker and Vandenheuvel is the quiet, passive one. They’re three very different people, but as a unit, they’ve made great strides and will certainly leave their mark on the coveted Wisconsin football program. Their individual successes — like Urbik’s 45-game consecutive start streak that came to an end this season — have come from the camaraderie and chemistry they’ve established throughout their time while playing for the cardinal and white.

“We know each other pretty well, we hang out,” Urbik said. “We know a lot of details about each other’s lives and what not. That’s definitely helped us out on the o-line because we know we can count on each other, and we have each other’s backs.”

“We’ve all been playing together for a while,” Kemp added. “[Kraig and Eric] played together in high school, and this is kind of like back in high school.

“We’re a tight-knit group. Basically we’re just having a good time, having fun.”

As their final season winds down, the team’s current 4-5 record has been an unfathomable disappointment for all three seniors. But looking back, they know they’ll have plenty of memories to reminisce about.

“This year has been one of the biggest when it’s all sunk in,” Kemp said. “I know I talk to Vandy on Friday nights — he and I room together. Looking at where we were in high school, it’s like, ‘Wow, we’ve been starting for Wisconsin the last three years.’ It finally has sunk in. Now we’ve just got to finish out right this year.”

With just three regular season games remaining, Andy, Vandy and Kraig’s time as Badgers is rapidly coming to an end. All three have a legitimate chance to play in the NFL next season, but paychecks and Sundays remain distant in all of their minds.

“[We’ve talked about it] a little bit, but it’s first things first,” Vandenheuvel said. “We’ve still got three games left. We’ll talk about that when the time comes, but we do know it’s an option.”

I try not to focus on it all because I’ve got so much stuff to worry about like school and the rest of this season,” Urbik added. “It’s something that’s there, but I’ll just deal with it after this season.”

“It’s in the back of your mind, but all three of us are concentrating on this team and nothing else,” Kemp concluded. “We’re just concentrating on Wisconsin football, leaving this team and going out with a bang.”

That bang won’t be a BCS bowl game or a Big Ten title, like they had initially hoped, but Urbik, Kemp and Vandenheuvel know that when it’s all said and done, they have no reason to hang their heads.

“This is what we’ve been working for since high school, middle school — our whole lives,” Vandenheuvel said. “It all came down to this, our senior season when you’re supposed to shine.

“I think we’re playing the hardest we ever have.”