Montee Ball said it best himself: he just has a nose for the end zone.
Saturday, as Ball celebrates his final game at Camp Randall and Wisconsin welcomes Ohio State to Madison, the senior running back will attempt to make history. Ball is only a touchdown shy of tying former Miami (Ohio) running back Travis Prentice’s 78 career touchdowns – the NCAA record – and needs only two to break it.
And he is more than cognizant of it.
“It kind of says itself,” Ball said. “I’m the one who has scored the most touchdowns – if I break the record – and (am) just that person you want to get the football to.”
The setting and opponent could not be more perfect. Ball knows Ohio State wants to spoil his party, but the senior doesn’t want to have it any other way on Senior Day.
“I believe it’s the ideal picture for myself, to break the record at home, in my last home game,” he said.
But beyond the fact that it is Senior Day, a matchup with Ohio State is the very reason Ball cites time and again that he turned his career around. In 2010, when the Badgers toppled a top-ranked Buckeyes squad 31-18 at Camp Randall, Ball didn’t see the field.
Now, two years later with Ohio State back in Madison, the 5-foot-11, 215-pound senior is on the precipice of history.
“I’m happy that that happened because it really showed me what I have to do during practice, because I was working hard but I wasn’t working as hard as I am now,” Ball said. “I wasn’t doing the extra that you need to do every day to be a really good football player in college football. So I’m really glad that that happened … when times get hard I look back on that time because that was my first time never to be able to contribute in a football game and that was really challenging. Now I make sure to look back on it and keep telling myself I overcame that, so anything that comes my way, I’ll overcome it.”
Even at the time, Ball considered switching to linebacker simply because he wanted to get on the field.
If he had made the switch, 2012 and 2011 would have never happened – but there was a time this season when it seemed unlikely Ball would even be close to breaking the record, especially after a slow start and a Heisman campaign led by the UW Athletic Department that almost seemed to be mocking his less than stellar performance early in the season.
“Just coming out of the summer, with everything that happened to me this summer and coming out of the gates real slow, personally I felt it was way out of reach,” Ball said. “But I’m really glad I stuck with it, kept pushing, kept fighting, kept working hard with my teammates in practice.”
Ball certainly hopes the Heisman campaign wasn’t all for naught, but on Saturday, with a chance to put his own name in the record books, the tailback will also celebrate the historic career few expected of him.
“I think it actually hit me after the last game day in Indiana that the next game is going to be my last game in Camp Randall,” Ball said. “It hits me every single day at random times, but it’s bittersweet because it’s kind of sad. It’s the last time I’ll be able to play here, but everything that I’ve done here is something I can look back on and love to think about.”
