Team Notes
– With their 20-14 win over Miami, the Badgers improved to 11-10 all-time in bowl games, including a 4-1 mark in bowl games played at night.
– By downing Miami, the Badgers improved to 10-3 on the season to finish with at least 10 wins for just the sixth time in school history, and the first time since going 12-1 in 2006.
Offensive Notes
– John Clay’s two rushing touchdowns are tied for the third-most in UW bowl history and the most since Ron Dayne scored four times in the 1999 Rose Bowl.
– Clay ran for 121 yards, giving him 1,517 on the season. He is the seventh player in UW history to rush for at least 1,500 yards in a season.
– Tight end Lance Kendricks had a career-high 128 receiving yards, becoming just the third UW receiver to go over the 100-yard receiving mark in a bowl game.
– Kendricks’ seven catches are tied for second-most in school history in a bowl game. Only Pat Richter, who had 11 receptions in the 1963 Rose Bowl, had more.
– With 19 completions today, quarterback Scott Tolzien now has 211 on the season. He is the first quarterback in Wisconsin history to complete at least 200 passes in a season.
Defensive Notes
– The Badgers held Miami’s offense, which entered the game ranked 36th nationally in total offense (at 412.5 yards per game), to 249 total yards.
– The Hurricanes also were limited to just 61 rushing yards on 23 attempts, well below their season average of 144.4 yards per game.
Special Teams Notes
– With 40 kickoff return yards, David Gilreath became UW’s all-time leader in career kickoff return yards with 2,366, passing Brandon Williams (2,349 yards).
Quotes from the locker room
Clay on whether or not he will leave for the NFL:
“No, and that’s definite. I’m coming back. I’ve been telling you this whole year that we got an explosive offense. The sky is the limit. I’m missing Mickey and Garrett. But, you know, just like you saw today, Lance stepped up. We got Scott coming back. All the wide receivers coming back. Sky is the limit for this offense. I’m not going to miss any opportunity to be a part of this again.”
Bielema on the meaning of the win:
“Sometimes you got to go through a few scars to get to where you want to be. Those guys went through that. Our biggest leaders throughout the entire winter conditioning, summer conditioning, and this fall. And to get to this game, I let Jaevery (McFadden) talk to the team last night. He had every reason in the world to think about other things, all he wanted to do was have another win this football team. It’s great. It’s special.”
Tolzien on the statement made in beating Miami:
“Up to this game we had won the games we were supposed to win, but there wasn’t a big win, per se, against a ranked opponent, you know, just a real like exclamation point really. I thought this game kind of provided that for us.”
Clay on if he still plans to repay his offensive line:
“Oh yeah, I keep my word. Yeah, I’m going to take them out to eat. We’re probably going to have to hit an all you can eat buffet because you know, our linemen like to eat. So, I’ll take them there.”
John Moffitt on if he thought Miami wore down in the game:
“Yeah, I do. I do. You know, we were starting to run pretty basic things. Once things get basic at the end — run right and run left — it’s a sign to me that we’re starting to wear them down and what we’re doing is starting to work.”
Brad Nortman on his punting:
“I took a step in the right direction as far as my pooch punting is concerned. It was nice to take some time off between games and I finally got my pooch punts down and today I just made a great step forward for that.”
O’Brien Schofield on the win:
“To go out my senior year with a 10-win season, especially beating Miami — you know, a lot of people doubted us, saying we’re only going to win four games this year and we topped it off with 10 — it means so much to me and this program. I’m looking forward to seeing great things in the future from these guys.”
Jay Valai on what the 10-win season means:
“It’s a stepping stone to the future of our program. And it really means to me what the seniors have done to reestablish Wisconsin football — O.B., (Chris) Maragos, Dan Moore, Garrett (Graham) and the rest of them — they just helped us out so much and their senior leadership really changed the program.”
