Lee Evans, senior co-captain of the Wisconsin Badger football team, was named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week after his performance this past Saturday. The wide receiver caught nine passes for 214 yards and two touchdowns, including a 99-yard scoring reception in the Badgers’ win over Akron. Evans’ nine receptions established a new career high for the Badger wide receiver.
Tailback Anthony Davis, who recorded 247 rushing yards, combined with Evans’ receiving totals to make Wisconsin the first team in Big Ten history to have a 200-yard receiver and 200-yard rusher in the same game.
As of Monday, both Davis and Evans were drawing acclaim for their early season performances and many prominent sports websites had both Badgers on lists of probable Heisman finalists.
“Those guys had the credentials coming into this season,” head coach Barry Alvarez said of Evans and Davis. “Both of them had the numbers, and that’s what it’s all about. I think they are in the upper echelon of their position in the country.”
Davis has rushed for more yards than anyone else in collegiate football over the past two seasons, and Evans has come back from two knee surgeries to set himself even further apart from your average NCAA receiver.
“To win that award or to be considered for that award, your team has to play well and you have to win a lot of games,” Coach Alvarez said of Evans’ and Davis’ chances. “I hope they are considered; I hope they’re both at the end of the year.”
Against Akron, Evans was nearly the lone target for quarterback Jim Sorgi. Other than Evans, junior Darrin Charles was the only Wisconsin receiver with more than one catch in the game. With such an emphasis on Evans, the passing game might get a little tighter. However, early on this season the Badger coaching staff made it perfectly clear that Evans’ numbers will fluctuate, and the rest of the talented receiving corps will get their catches.
“I’ll tell you, the one thing that’s maybe as impressive as Lee and Anthony’s performance in that game was how well our receivers blocked,” Alvarez said. “That goes back to being unselfish and not worrying about numbers of catches, but knowing how you can help the football team.”
Despite the performances of the Badgers’ skill players, Alvarez has been very happy with the play of the offensive line. Of the three sacks the Badgers gave up in two games, none were made by the oppositions’ defensive linemen — proof that the line is doing their job.
“The most encouraging thing is that no one notices the offensive line,” Alvarez said. “They’ve been solid and they’ve seen a lot of blitzing … they’ve seen a lot of pressure put on them, a lot of movement up front [with] linebackers coming.”
Defensively, the Badgers are still a team of concern. Wisconsin gave up 534 yards of offense to Akron last Saturday, including 372 passing yards. The Badgers were working with a depleted defensive line due to the possible season-ending injury to Erasmus James and the one-game suspension served by Darius Jones Saturday. Starting cornerback Brett Bell also left the Akron game with serious cramping in his lower body. Sophomore cornerback Levonne Rowan played most of the second half for the Badgers.
“I thought Levonne Rowan played particularly well,” Alvarez said. “I really thought he competed well for the long ball, and had good leverage and positioning on his guy, and that is a guy playing with a [cast] on his hand.”
