As hokey as the 1-0 mentality seems, there's a lot of truth to it.

Granted, it's perpetually difficult to determine whether players and coaches actually do just focus on the week at hand when the temptations to look at the big picture are there. Yet on the same account, that's what makes the philosophy so ingenious — if you focus in on the detail of each week and get the results, the big picture will solve itself.

So much speculation was made at the beginning of the season about how well Wisconsin would do in 2007. These preseason theories revolved around two games on back-to-back weekends: Michigan Nov. 3 and Ohio State Nov. 10.

If Wisconsin could win both of those games, fans and members of the media said, it would be crowned Big Ten champions and could even be in a position to play for a national championship in New Orleans.

As for the first eight games, they'd take care of themselves; they are almost certainly write-in wins for Wisconsin, Ohio State and Michigan.

That theory held up for an entire 59:54 of football until Appalachian State showed up and blocked Michigan's game-winning field goal attempt to send the Wolverines to arguably the most humiliating loss in NCAA Division-I history.

Michigan followed a performance to forget with its biggest defeat in 39 years, a 39-7 loss to Oregon.

Those two losses do not spell the end of Michigan's season, although many are seeing it that way, and the players seem to have all but given up. And without quarterback Chad Henne, who is listed as "very doubtful" for the Michigan-Notre Dame game this weekend, the offense might be as anemic as the defense is terrible.

If the Wolverines go 1-0 this week and continue that into the ensuing nine weeks after that, they could still win the Big Ten title. (I'm trying to rationalize why the team should continue trying.) If they can right the ship with a change of mind — and that's a big if — those early November games will still hold significant meaning.

The lesson to be learned from Michigan's struggles, however, is that players, teams, fans and media members alike cannot overlook anyone or any team.

Think about it: If all that mattered were those games in November, what would be the point of playing any other games leading up to that time? There wouldn't, which is why the 1-0 philosophy is the key to success.

The mastermind behind this ingenious idea is University of Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema.

Wisconsin is now 14-1 under him, and finds ways to win when other teams don't.

There was a situation last year when his team was down by 14 points at the break to a team Wisconsin was supposed to beat: Illinois.

The fact that it was Halloween weekend probably didn't help the situation, as very few fans were cheering in the stands throughout the first half, probably still hung over from the previous night's festivities. And the team seemed in a stupor as well. Needless to say, Wisconsin overlooked Illinois in the first half, much like everyone overlooked the front end of Michigan's schedule.

In the locker room Bielema asked his team what the score was, and universally everyone responded, "0-0."

Bielema replied, "You're close; we're down by 14."

He continued his spiel by saying that the team needed to play Wisconsin football — move the chains, keep the ball in hand on defense and tackle and strip the football better.

Wisconsin went out and won that game 30-24 by scoring 20 unanswered points indicating, according to Bielema, that the Badgers knew how to settle down and do business.

When a similar situation occurred Saturday night in Las Vegas, the Badgers were not deterred; they found a way to win a dogfight against the pesky Rebels.

"A lot of teams that play bad find a way to lose, but we found a way to win tonight," linebacker Elijah Hodge said.

So to all the Lloyd Carr's of the world, I say this: Take some advice from a man who knows where it's at. Instead of trying to calculate how many wins you'll need this season to keep your job, focus on picking up that first win against Notre Dame this weekend, and going… 1-0.

Kevin is a senior majoring in economics and journalism. Interested in living your life by the 1-0 mentality? He probably can't help you there. For general questions about his writing, or how you can write for The Badger Herald, he can be reached at [email protected].