Wisconsin enters Saturday’s game with a 5-0 record, the No. 16 ranking and a senior quarterback. The game will also mark the potential return of an All-American receiver. Still, from a national standpoint, many analysts and coaches around the country aren’t quite sure what kind of team Wisconsin really is and if it will be playing with Lee Evans anytime soon.
Nittany Lion head coach Joe Paterno can’t see past the Evans smokescreen either but believes UW is dangerous with or without him.
The UW coaching staff and players have been very careful to say they do not know anything about when Evans will return. Ideally, the first time any opponent knows Evans will play will be when he puts on his pads and takes the field. While the Nittany Lions surely hope they won’t see Evans, they have respect for the Wisconsin offense, with or without the star receiver.
“They obviously have adjusted very well because of Jonathan Orr and a couple of other kids in there, and they throw to the tight end,” said Paterno. “I think they have done a very good job with their offense. Obviously, Lee Evans would be another explosive player, but Jonathan Orr has really stepped to the front and done a good job for them. The quarterback is very comfortable with him.”
The Lions bring one of the better quarterbacks in the Big Ten with them to Camp Randall in Zack Mills. Mills has thrown for 1015 yards, seven touchdowns and only two interceptions. UW QB Brooks Bollinger, by comparison, has thrown for 869 yards and five touchdowns. It is Bollinger that Paterno thinks might be the best quarterback in the Big Ten and Bollinger he credits for the play of the Wisconsin offense.
“Bollinger is a great competitor, and he has gotten better all of the time. Good football players that I have been around in my career always wanted to get better and were never satisfied with how good they were. This kid is very similar to that,” said Paterno. “He is a much better quarterback now than he was a couple of years ago. He has a lot of poise, is aggressive and strong. He is a good, tough competitor that is, obviously, very coachable. He is very intelligent. He is a coach’s player, and I would love to have him.”
Don’t get Paterno wrong; he might be impressed with Bollinger, but he is more than happy to have Mills running the show for Penn State. Mills had the team off to a perfect 3-0 start before dropping an overtime thriller against Iowa 42-35 at Happy Valley in Penn State’s Big Ten opener. Penn State managed to get the game into overtime on the strength of Mills’ arm after trailing by several touchdowns in the final minutes.
“I think [Mills] can do some things. He is very similar to [Bollinger]. They are both kids that are very, very alert,” said Paterno. “They don’t make a lot of mistakes and are good leaders. They can improvise and don’t do stupid things with the football. They give you a solid performer in there, Brooks Bollinger and Zack Mills.”
During the Iowa loss, the officials made several questionable calls in overtime in Iowa’s favor. After the game, Paterno, now 75 years old, showed the kind of fire that has made him one of the game’s outstanding coaches for the last 52 years when he chased down a referee exiting the stadium.
“What did I do? All I did was try to stop him, because he was running ahead of me. I was running in the locker room and grabbed him by the shirt, and I said, ‘Hey, Dick, you had two lousy calls.’ I said two guys on the other side of the field had two lousy calls,” said Paterno. “Am I not allowed to do that? I just stopped him to make sure he knew that I was behind him. I didn’t want to knock him over.”
After the Penn State loss, Iowa was ranked 25th in the coaches poll. The advantage for Penn State according to Paterno is that while Wisconsin had the week off to rest, his team faced a team he feels is similar to the Badgers.
“I think that Wisconsin is very similar to Iowa. Both [Barry Alvarez and Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz] coached together with Hayden Fry, and they coach very similar types of games defensively. They are out to stop the run and do a good job of it,” said Paterno.
“They have great kicking games and are very, very sound. They don’t beat themselves. They have great patience. I think this is a very similar football team to the one we just played.”
Despite having faced tough opponents in Nebraska and Iowa already this season, Paterno knows any time a team goes on the road in the Big Ten it will be a tough game, and he believes Wisconsin’s Camp Randall is one of the toughest venues in the league.
“It is as difficult as anybody in the league. The Wisconsin crowd is as loud as any crowd we have played before. I think it is a tough place to play.”
