When Alex Erickson heard the Wisconsin football team was heading to San Diego to take on USC during the Holiday Bowl, he became excited for a number of reasons.

One, he and the rest of the Badgers have a chance to face a well-respected and top-tier program. Second, spending time in southern California isn’t the worst place to play a bowl game on Dec. 30, a nice weather break from a Wisconsin winter.

“Any time you get to go somewhere warm you don’t take it for granted,” Erickson said. “It’s fun to go somewhere different, see different things, play a different type of team. It’s cool.”

When the current UW players were growing up in the mid-2000s, USC was a powerhouse and competed for national titles. Senior linebacker Joe Schobert remembers watching players like Reggie Bush, Clay Matthews and Matt Leinart lead the Trojans to national acclaim year after year.

Though the caliber of the program has declined over the last decade, USC is still a worthy opponent, Schobert said.

“It’s still a big time bowl game,” Schobert said. “For me, it’s been nice because I’ve been to a different bowl game.”

Erickson, Schobert proud of awards

Erickson, who was named first-team all-Big Ten by the league’s media, said his honor was more of a reflection on the team rather than his own individual accomplishments.

“I just get to catch the ball,” Erickson said. “My job’s the easy part … It’s an honor being on there with a lot of these guys.”

Schobert was named the league’s top linebacker last week.

He said he was honored to win the same award as Chris Borland, the only other UW linebacker to win the award.

“I couldn’t do the things I could do without guys on the d-line, [Vince] Biegel on the other side and [Michael] Caputo in the secondary,” Schobert said.

Q&A with redshirt junior running back Dare Ogunbowale

The Badger Herald: “Have you ever looked at yourself on tape and been like, ‘Oh man, I shook that guy pretty good?'”

Dare Ogunbowale: “Yeah. I do, actually. Honestly, I’m not going to lie, it’s fun to see it. Even after the play during the game, I feel like I might have shaken a guy, I’ll look up at the big screen. That’s just me having fun playing football. Everyone wants to have the big moves and make the defender miss so it’s always nice to see yourself do it.”

BH: When you get the ball in the open field and only see one guy coming at you, what are you thinking? 

DO: “A lot. In the Minnesota game, there was a play I slipped on the first drive just because I got too excited. You don’t get those one-on-ones very often. That’s probably my biggest strength — in that open space, making guys miss. There’s a lot of moves that I’ve practiced in the offseason, so being in a one-on-one, there’s a lot of stuff that goes through my head in which way I want to go.”

BH: That was going to be my next question. Do you know what you’re going to do before you get there?

DO: “I’m looking at the defender and kind of seeing where he’s leaning. We always talk about the soft shoulder, so if he’s showing me a soft shoulder I’m obviously going to break to that side. But if not, I just have to get him leaning with some movement. It’s tough to have premeditated move. That’s what I’ve learned being a running back.”