After suffering a last-second loss to Michigan over the weekend, the Badgers must now face a one-two-three punch as they prepare to end their season on Saturday.
The first problem the team will have to address is an incident from last weekend, in which quarterback Brooks Bollinger suffered facial injuries during a scuffle.
“Brooks Bollinger was hit in the face,” UW head coach Barry Alvarez said on Monday. “As far as we know, what we understand, Brooks was the peacemaker in an argument in a pizza shop. Somebody hit him in the face. He was taken to the emergency room, where he was treated and released.”
While Alvarez doesn’t know the details of the argument, he did say that other football players were present and that they are currently cooperating with the police to further the investigation.
The Madison Police Department is still trying to identify who was involved with the incident, although they do know that it took place in the Frances Street/State Street area.
As far as Bollinger’s condition is concerned, Alvarez said he anticipates his starting quarterback will be cleared to play on Saturday.
If Bollinger can’t play, that will add to the already tough weekend Wisconsin has ahead of it. After suffering such a tough loss to the Wolverines, the Badgers must rebound in order to prepare for Minnesota next weekend.
“When you lose a hard game and you invest a lot, you’re down,” Alvarez said of his team’s morale after losing to Michigan. “They’re not going to bounce back today and jump around like nothing happened. You’re not natural, you’re not human if that happens, or you haven’t invested enough. And they certainly invested enough, because they played their fannies off.”
Now Alvarez and his team must overcome this disappointment, and according to UW’s head coach, this begins with the coaching staff.
“There’s nothing magical to get [that loss] out of your system,” Alvarez said.
“You just have to work it through, and we as coaches have to get it out of our system first and then move on to the next game.”
For the Badgers, the next game is at Minnesota, where there’s an axe to be won.
The longest rivalry in college football will pit the Gophers and the Badgers against each other in battle for Paul Bunyan’s axe.
“This axe is so rich in tradition, and it’s so much a part of this program, that we have to bounce back and keep going,” UW flanker Lee Evans said.
This appreciation for the axe exists because the UW coaches have made their players realize its importance.
“We try to make [the axe] important to our players,” Alvarez said. “I think they recognize that, and they want to keep it here. It’s what you make of it, and we’ve made it important.”
If the Badgers want to keep the axe in Madison for another year, they will first have to stop a tough Minnesota offense. The Gophers possess two running quarterbacks in Asad Abdul-Khaliq and Travis Cole, as well as a talented running back in Tellis Redmon. In the backfield Minnesota also has the threat of receiver in Ron Johnson. The 6-foot-3 all-American wide receiver set a school career receptions record this season with his 194 catches.
The Badgers’ defense will have to contain all of these offensive threats in order to bring home the axe for another year.
