Matt Schabert had been here before.

The Wisconsin backup quarterback saw his first career action against Michigan State in 2001 when he entered the game in the third quarter for an injured Jim Sorgi.

It took only three collegiate snaps before Schabert showed off his stuff. On third-and-11, he connected with Lee Evans on a go route for a 70-yard touchdown pass. The Wisconsin defense couldn’t hold the Spartans as UW lost 42-28, but Schabert proved his consummate readiness, passing for 177 yards and another touchdown on the day.

Flash forward to Saturday night.

On his third series after replacing Sorgi (who left the game with 5:26 remaining in the third quarter due to a throat injury) Schabert faced a second-and-nine from his own 21-yard line.

Calling Schabert’s favorite target, Lee Evans.

Flanked out on the right side of the field, Evans put a beautiful out-and-up double move on Ohio State corner Chris Gamble at the UW 35. Schabert launched a perfect strike to his wide-open receiver, and Evans sprinted away from the opposition into the end zone where he was greeted by a raucous UW student section.

“We’d been running a lot of those routes all day, and we usually like to throw that when we get teams jumping,” Schabert said after the game. “I trust Lee; he runs great routes. [Gamble] bit on it big time, and I just threw it over the top and let him go chase it down.”

But Schabert wasn’t done just yet.

After UW forced an Ohio State punt following the Evans touchdown, Schabert faced a third-and-two on his own 14-yard line. After surveying the OSU defense, Schabert called a timeout, came back from the sidelines, and made his second huge play of the game.

Schabert faked a handoff to Booker Stanley going to the right side, paused momentarily while hiding the football on his hip, then took off to the left side of the line. The entire Buckeye defense bit on the fake, and by the time linebacker Robert Reynolds tracked him down, Schabert had six yards and a giant first down for the Badgers. Schabert alertly stayed in bounds to keep the clock running, and UW needed only one more Booker Stanley 24-yard first-down run to seal the game.

The call displayed the confidence that the UW coaching staff has in Schabert. If UW failed to pick up the first down, Ohio State likely would have had excellent field position for a potential game-tying drive. Stanley pounded through the Ohio State defense much of the day but was contained in the fourth quarter, and the UW staff felt that the naked bootleg to Schabert was the right call — gutsy as it was.

“I thought that if we ran [the bootleg] we had a great chance,” Schabert said. “They were talking about it before that play when we called a timeout. We didn’t have the right guys in, and I figured it would be better to take a timeout and get everything set, and when we came back to the sidelines they told me we were running it, and all I could do was smile.”

Schabert did plenty of smiling after the game, saying he was elated about the win and his performance but maintaining an air of complete cool. When asked how long it would take him to come back to earth, Schabert responded without hesitation, “I’m already there.” He credited UW quarterbacks coach Jeff Horton with keeping him prepared for a situation like the one he faced.

“In big games, in any game, you see yourself coming in and making a big play; you never see yourself coming in and doing badly,” Schabert said. “I never thought it would happen like this. I never expected anything like this to happen, but it’s like coach Horton always says, ‘You’ve got to be poised and come in and get the job done if they need you.’ He makes us practice every week like you’re going to be the starter. He tells the backups we’re one play away.”

Even with the long touchdown pass to Evans, Schabert’s stat line wasn’t astounding: 2-of-3 passing for 104 yards and three rushes for a net of 16 yards. But against an Ohio State defense that ranked in the top 10 nationally in total defense entering the game, Schabert made every play he had to without making any mistakes.

Schabert ran 12 yards for a first down on his initial drive to help pin Ohio State deep in UW territory, and he completed a 25-yard pass to Brandon Williams on third-and-15 early in the fourth quarter to escape from the shadow of his own end zone. Both drives resulted in punts, but Schabert’s efforts helped UW win the battle of field position, and the Wisconsin defense did the rest, making the stops it needed to.

In the biggest game of his life, Schabert didn’t let his past success go to his head, and he focused on the little things (clean exchanges with center Donovan Raiola, crisp handoffs to Stanley, selling the play fake on the crucial bootleg run) and still came up with the critical touchdown pass that gave the Badgers their biggest win in years.

“You can’t just assume that because you’ve done a great job twice you’re going to do it again,” Schabert said. “You’re always going to have some hard times. I think it’s just really important for me to stay humble, remember what got me there, make some good decisions, put the ball where it needs to be, and try to be a leader.”