Ever since I found out Santa Claus wasn’t real, I have viewed life with a cynicism that would make Mark Twain proud.
If there is groupthink pointing one way, it is a strong bet to go against the grain. And if Lou Holtz proclaims something as an obvious truth, put money down in Vegas that he is wrong.
It is this same thought process that has led me to be the official Grumpy Gus of UW football.
After Northern Illinois, Badger fans rejoiced that the defense made a crucial fourth quarter stop, a clear improvement over last year’s D, as I was told by the legions in red.
On the other hand, I lamented we were put in that position in the first place.
Fresno State drove me deeper down the path of eye rolling. Overtime games should be reserved for teams of equal talent — such as Cal Poly — not WAC teams that aren’t named Boise State. We were surely on the brink of collapsing if it takes an interception where the pass hung up higher than the scoreboard at the Cowboys Stadium to save the game.
Even with the 44-14 thrashing of Wofford, I fixated on the SIX fumbles and missed PAT instead of the otherwise stellar play against an option offense that could prove valuable down the stretch.
Cubs fans had more faith than I did at this point.
Curiously, all it took was an eight-point win over a 1-2 Michigan State team, for me to flip flop faster than Wisconsin weather.
I have drunk the Kool-Aid, hopped on the bandwagon, and you can insert your favorite clich? here for me changing my mind. In plain-speak, I see big things for the Badger football team.
At the beginning of the season, I wrote a column titled “Wisconsin Badger Football: glass half full or half empty?”
My cup currently runneth over with rainbows and puppies.
In the half full/half empty column, I pointed to five question marks the Badgers must answer. They were the quarterback tandem, young wide receivers, split running backs, an inexperienced defense and Bielema himself.
Although I should be preparing for a J646 midterm, I’ll tackle football questions first.
Quarterback — The position could not have changed more from one year to another if Brett Favre decided to sign with UW. After last season a positive touchdown to interception ratio was considered a bonus, junior Scott Tolzien has been nothing short of remarkable. Synonyms looked up on Dictionary.com do not do justice for how well he has played. He is confident, calm, accurate, consistent, insert a common quarterback adjective here. After a two-interception day against NIU, the junior signal caller has taken care of the football, completed passes short, deep and medium and impressed more in his first four games then any UW quarterback in recent memory. An A+ doesn’t do his play justice.
Wide Receivers — Nick Toon has channeled his father’s spirit and Isaac Anderson has proven to be a big play threat. Right there you have more production than last season.
Running Backs — Most fans were happy to see P.J. Hill drive out of town (too soon?) despite being one of the most productive backs in Badger history. So far, UW still hasn’t been able to replace his production. Sophomore John Clay has played about at average with two good games so far. Zach Brown has been just a guy, spotting a 3.7 yards per carry average. For a Wisconsin ground game, it hasn’t been quite up to snuff.
Defense — Besides Tolzien, no facet faced more questions than the newcomers on the defensive side of the ball. It has been a mixed bag so far, with freshman linebackers Mike Taylor and Chris Borland and defensive end J.J. Watt excelling, while the cornerbacks have mostly struggled. With the corners turning in their finest game of the season against the Spartans, however, improvement can be expected. And not that it was all that difficult, but the defense has been better than last year. So hey, this newfound optimist is happy.
Bielema — Finally, we have the headman himself. Bielema proclaims what you learn from your mistakes is how you measure the growth of a man. Through four games he has yet to pick up any unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, call any costly timeouts and his team hasn’t blown any big leads. So far, so good.
The Badgers avenged a bad loss to MSU last season and gave hope to an entire fan base at the same time. They have looked sharp enough offensively and opportunistic enough defensively to turn this skeptic around. Finishing top three in the Big Ten is well within the realm of possibility.
Just don’t lose to Indiana and scar me for life.
Michael is a senior majoring in journalism. He would like to apologize to Tolzien and Dustin Sherer for mixing their names in a Big Ten preview article last week. It was a hideous lapse in concentration and just poor form. If you would like to continue to mock Michael, he can be reached at [email protected].