From the opening gun, Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema knew he was in for a wild ride with the officials. There were a total of four personal foul penalties called against the teams in the first five minutes of play.
"Opening kickoff, we were called for a personal foul which was a clean hit 100 percent, I would encourage my guy to do it every time," said Bielema.
Bielema made sure to make his feelings known to the officials. At halftime, Bielema made a beeline across the field to see the striped-shirted men.
"I ran over at halftime because that set the tone for the half," Bielema said.
He noted that he believes his arguments were effective, pointing out that punt returner Zach Hampton received a helmet-to-helmet hit early in the game that went uncalled; but later in the game, following much ire from Bielema, SDSU was flagged for 15 yards for delivering a helmet-to-helmet hit on the senior.
"I think it helped us out," Bielema said. "I don't think there was anything wrong with [arguing]."
Aztec pow-wow
Possibly contributing to the hot tempers and personal foul calls early in the game was a pre-game dance by much of the Aztec team at midfield.
"I know this, they were fired up," Bielema said. "I saw that little Aztec dance they had going on over there before the game got going. Our guys were just kind of looking, seeing what it was all about. I didn't understand some of those gestures.
"It was great to see the response [from our team]," he added.
"I liked that, because we came in here and shut that down, crush their hopes," linebacker DeAndre Levy said. "It motivates a lot of guys. We saw that and took our intensity up and our energy level up to the next level."
DeBausche has off game
Wisconsin fans witnessed a very rare sight on Saturday: an off day from punter Ken DeBausche. The junior who is on the Ray Guy Award watch list for the nation's best punter averaged 39.7 yards on six punts, a far cry from his 44.8-yard average from a year ago.
"I did have a bad game, I thought," DeBausche said, adding that he believed the wind, which was a steady 18 miles an hour at game time, was something of a factor in the punting game.
"The wind was a little bit of a factor. I talked to the other punter after the game and he said it bothered him too, but there were punts that could've been a lot better.
"There were a couple of punts that my drop was affected by the wind, but other than that I think I had an off day."
DeBausche refused to blame the weather conditions, pointing out that there were bad weather games last year where he was generally unaffected.
"I am disappointed in the way I punted, I'm not going to blame it on the wind," DeBausche stated. "I just need to improve some things and improve my drop. I'll be fine."
Hill Low Blow
The Aztecs couldn't slow down running back P.J. Hill at all Saturday. That is until they resorted to low blows, though only incidental.
At the end of the third quarter Hill was writhing on the Camp Randall turf after a seemingly innocent two-yard carry. The play had men all around the stadium sending silent condolences to Hill, who was accidentally hit a little bit below the belt.
"I saw him move all of his limbs, I saw two arms, two legs moving but then I could see that he was holding another part of his body … I encouraged him to stay down," Bielema joked afterward.
Hill returned to the game shortly and was in good spirits.
"It did have an impact," said a jovial Hill, who added that there were no lasting effects from the hit. "I'm feeling good, feeling normal."