By the time the Wisconsin defense trotted out onto the Camp Randall field for the first time in 2013, it was already blessed with a seven-point lead. Although 38 more were given throughout the remaining 57 minutes, those first seven were all that was needed as it shutout UMass 45-0 Saturday afternoon.

And it wasn’t long after those first seven Wisconsin points that the defense made a statement. After a Badgers penalty granted UMass a free first down, Minutemen running back Stacey Bedell cut forward, slowed at the line of scrimmage. With Bedell spinning for an extra yard, Brendan Kelly popped the ball loose for Wisconsin’s first turnover of the season.

Although it was followed on the next play by a Joel Stave interception, it was that flocking defense that stood out to head coach Gary Andersen during his Wisconsin debut.

“Defensively, they swarmed the ball. I thought they did a nice job,” Andersen said. “I’m very impressed with them overall. There’s a lot to work on, especially with some zone coverages and a little bit of communications, but they were solid; they were physical.”

The shutout came in not only the debut of defensive coordinator Dave Aranda, but also his 3-4 defensive scheme, also new to the Wisconsin program. Known as a more aggressive style defense with blitzes coming from different players and positions, forcing a turnover early in the first game was significant for a team that was slim on forcing turnovers a year ago.

“It’s been a big stress during fall camp, so we’ve chartered it,” senior linebacker Chris Borland said. “We wanted to get three today, came up a little short, but it’s a good sign that we got them early.”

Although turnovers tend to shine brightest for a defense’s success, the more telling stats of Wisconsin’s dominance were the yardage totals, especially since they didn’t record a single sack or tackle for loss.

Massachusetts garnered just 212 yards of total offense Saturday, 100 rushing and 112 passing, but the Badgers largely escaped surrendering the big play. The longest run of the day for the Minutemen tallied just 11 yards, less than the per rush average of both James White and Melvin Gordon.

UMass gained most of their yardage on quick plays to the flat or outside the tackles, limiting the effectiveness of Wisconsin’s pressure, though the Badgers applied enough to force quarterback Mike Wegzyn to miss-throw his receivers, many times five yards or more from the target. In their first game displaying the 3-4 defense, the 45-0 effort seemed perfect to Borland.

“It was a lot of fun,” Borland said. “I think we could kind of sense the confusion on the other team’s side … It was good for us that we were able to be aggressive but still not show a lot.”

It was Wisconsin’s first shutout since 2011 when they topped Oregon State 35-0, but it likely wouldn’t have been the case if not for an ill-timed timeout by UMass had coach Charley Monar as kicker Blake Lucas converted his 47-yard try. Redoing the try after the timeout, Lucas pulled his kick left, conserving the shutout midway through the second quarter.

Pair of freshmen stand out

A bright spot of the shutout was the play of the inexperienced Wisconsin secondary, likely the biggest question facing the defense in 2013. The youthful concerns surrounded true freshman Sojourn Shelton, starting at cornerback opposite sophomore Darius Hilary.

The big stage of Camp Randall in his first college game could have consumed Shelton, but he played solid from start to finish, recording a secondary-best four tackles.

“Sojourn, I thought, handled it as a starter good,” Andersen said. “Those kids on the outside for UMass, I thought ran pretty good. They challenged him with a lot of different coverages and some things he was doing. He was not starry-eyed. He was ready to go from the first snap.”

Shelton also recorded a quarterback hurry late in the first half, but made his presence known halfway through the third quarter when he picked off Wegzyn to halt a Minutemen scoring opportunity.

An ill-advised throw from the start, Wegzyn tried to thread a pass near the sideline where three Badgers and just one Minuteman were within reach. Glued to the backside of the receiver, Shelton vaulted himself in front of both the target and his patiently salivating teammate, grabbing his first career interception.

“It’s big time, for the first game ever to get a pick,” senior safety Dezmen Southward said. “It was kind of triple coverage there, but you know what, he went up and he made the play.”

And Shelton wasn’t the only freshman to make a big play Saturday. On the other side of the ball, running back Corey Clement took what he could get from his third string position, which ended up being more then most were expecting.

Clement got his first touches late in the third quarter but his big play came minutes later in the fourth after the team and stadium had jumped around. The 5-foot-11 frosh broke his handoff out wide beating the pursuing defenders 23 yards to the corner and the eventually the endzone.

But he wasn’t done there. Clement continued to take most of the finishing snaps – amassing a team-high 16 for the game, racking up 102 yards – exciting the remaining Camp Randall crowd by turning an inside handoff into a scamper, leaping a grounded teammate in the process and twisting his way just yards short of a second touchdown.

Clement became the first Badger to rush for 100 yards in his debut since P.J. Hill tallied 130 in 2006. In the end he was pretty happy with his start, topping the century mark with a score. He won’t soon forget his first trip to the Camp Randall endzone. Smiling wide enough to connect the headphones draped around his neck, Clement likened it to another favorite moment.

“It felt like Christmas when I was five years old, when I got every present I asked for.”