My gut shot "What if?" Badger thread.

[midranger]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a self hating Badger fan and love what they've done thus far this year. They've fully surpassed my expectations. But....

What if.... we don't surrender 3 non-offensive touchdowns to Ohio State? I bring this game up because of how physically dominant we were every where but the scoreboard.

Time of Possession: 43 v. 17 minutes
Passing Yards: 250 vs. 89
Rushing Yards: 118 vs. 97

We had more penalties, more turnovers, more special teams breakdowns and basically handed them the game. If we played again, I'd like to think we'd beat them by at least 10 points.

The reason this makes me so sick is that if we win that game, we'd be playing a good Northwestern team for the Rose Bowl on Saturday. And even if we lost that game, we'd be a Stanzi-less Iowa loss to Minnesota from the Rose Bowl as well.

Ugh, it may keep me up a few nights.

[MadCityBucky]

Yeah, definetely sucks to think that this team had a great chance to be in the Rose Bowl or atleast Capital One bowl, but instead headed to the Outback bowl or something of similar prestige.

[midranger]

I guess to me, after the BCS most bowls are about the same.

I'd say the drop off in excitement level between the Rose Bowl and the Capital One Bowl is about 1000x the drop off between the Capital One Bowl and the Outback Bowl.

[jerrod]

I guess to me, after the BCS most bowls are about the same.

I'd say the drop off in excitement level between the Rose Bowl and the Capital One Bowl is about 1000x the drop off between the Capital One Bowl and the Outback Bowl.

i'd call that accurate

[Ryan5UW]

I guess to me, after the BCS most bowls are about the same.

I'd say the drop off in excitement level between the Rose Bowl and the Capital One Bowl is about 1000x the drop off between the Capital One Bowl and the Outback Bowl.

i'd call that accurate

Agreed. I tend to rank them BCS bowls, New Years bowls and then everything else.

And yeah, I've been thinking about this what-if for a few weeks now. OSU is a good team, but I still think that's a game we very well could have won, and probably should have.

[MickeyDavis]

I'd love a New Years bowl but I really crave a BCS bowl. So damn close this year. I give Bielema credit, we are now working with almost all his own recruits and they have played well and should be very good next year.

[LUKE23]

Yeah, I think we'll be even better next year. Lose Graham but return everyone else of significance on offense. Schofield is the big loss on D, hopefully someone steps up there. Offense should be able to put up a lot of points again.

[Newz]

Yeah, I think we'll be even better next year. Lose Graham but return everyone else of significance on offense. Schofield is the big loss on D, hopefully someone steps up there. Offense should be able to put up a lot of points again.

Is Nick Toon coming back? If not, I assume we won't even win a game.

[MikeIsGood]

It does/did suck, no doubt about it. Losing that game hurt, especially the way we lost it. But if you told me before the season started that I'd be upset an Ohio State loss kept us from possibly getting to the Rose Bowl, I would have told you that we must have a pretty damn good year ahead of us, then. We still have to finish strong, because Kafka and Northwestern will not be pushovers, and we have to get it done in Hawaii too, but we're sitting at a very solid 8-2 right now with the knowledge that both of our losses were in many ways winnable games. Have to feel good about the rest of the season, as well as next season with (likely) 10 starters on offense returning.

[Kerb Hohl]

If we do get a lucky Iowa loss and PSU loss (or PSU eeks out a 1 point win and we blow out our final 2 opponents, probably not going to help because of the jersey they wear is more prestigious than ours), a likely matchup with Boise would incur in the Fiesta Bowl.

That would be fun.

EDIT: Just looking at who remains in the picture if that miracle day were to happen:

Pitt: Tough schedule left and if they want an at-large, they'll have to beat Cincy, which would spin the wheel to their conference favor and put Cincy in a possible at-large spot. Gotta root for Cincy to win when they meet.

Oklahoma State: Hopefully Oklahoma beats them, however, knowing the polls, somehow the Harris/USA Today (and the BCS would also find a way) would bring Oklahoma up to #8 from unranked after beating the Pokes.

LSU: Screwed by virtue of the 2 team rule. Unless the Gators or 'bama loses to a horrible team before the title game, they have no shot.

Virginia Tech: Ugh, if they get in the BCS with 3 losses over us I'm going to puke. That conference has been a steaming pile of dog **** the past 2 years.

Stanford: Eh, I dunno. They're alright. Maybe.

Clemson: See: Virginia Tech.

USC: Well, I just wasted a bunch of time typing out this post. If we beat Northwestern and Hawaii by 50 pts each and USC loses out, I still see USC getting a Fiesta Bowl berth.

The muddy Pac 10 will play a big role in deciding who else gets an at-large.

[Kerb Hohl]

^^^To add to my post, we also have to hope for no major upsets in the conference title games.

Another helper would be TCU/Boise losing.

Especially Boise. If they go down to Nevada, they have no shot at the BCS.

[Kerb Hohl]

My final point and rant:

In the BCS, the computers actually have us ahead of Penn State. Here are my suspicions/gripes if Stanzi-less Iowa loses to Minnesota but Penn State takes out MSU:

1. We have an extra game to play. Play well and win our final 2 games. The USA Today/Harris is giving Penn State the edge right now. In a blowout win over Hawaii there is no way those dumbass pollsters put us over the top of Penn State if we look better and get that extra burst at the end.

2. If this situation was reversed, a 40-14 win for Penn State over Hawaii would leapfrog them ahead of Wisconsin in the human polls from being down 2 slots in the final week.

3. In an alternate reversal, if Wisconsin leads Penn State all year in the rankings with 1 loss and Penn State's 2, and Wisconsin loses to OSU as Penn State just did, the "who lost more recently" rule will come into play and Penn State would jump in front of us in the human polls. Since the situation reversed, we are going to get jobbed by the human polls and they won't use that rule.

Depending on the 4, 8, or 16 playoff system, we maybe wouldn't even be included but then I wouldn't be so pissed about getting jobbed from the BCS which is a beauty pageant and a USC/Oklahoma/Notre Dame/Penn State/any other school with prestige jerk-off session. I was having a good laugh as an extremely mediocre USC team that won on a bit of a fluke vs. Ohio State was being kept alive by the pollsters all year and will probably jump back into the BCS even though I honestly think Wisconsin could give them a run this year, and even if they couldn't, USC has a worse resume than a lot of these other teams. Their defense has been scorched, and while he may be a stud down the line, Matt Barkley sucks right now.

Oh, and another good one was the human pollers trying to keep Oklahoma around while Bradford was out and they were 2-2. And even a short while after that. If in the Capitol One beatdown of Auburn year we had been BCS contenders and we lose Stocco for a game, the humans and BCS wouldn't have given a damn.

PLAY. OFFS. PLEASE.

[MickeyDavis]

I'm worried about Northwestern, we haven't won there in 10 years.

[mnstinks]

What if UW would have lost to Fresno State, Minnesota, or Indiana? Or Played PSU?

Would you want Beiema fired?

This is a typical UW team. Beat the lesser teams lose to the better teams.

[Kerb Hohl]

What if UW would have lost to Fresno State, Minnesota, or Indiana? Or Played PSU?

Would you want Beiema fired?

This is a typical UW team. Beat the lesser teams lose to the better teams.

They didn't, however. I've not been as much of a BB hater except for his boneheaded management of not giving his team a chance to come back vs. MSU last year.

When my friends and whoever asked on here, I had this quiet confidence about the team and one of my predictions(calling this team good after some shaky opening games) actually was correct.

Isn't the whole point of judging a coach on his ability to get those close wins and wins that you should get? After this short rebuilding and retooling, we can hold him accountable for getting us to the big one. We have a very young team.

I also seem to remember the earlier Alvarez days sometimes involving big wins vs. big teams and then absolute joke losses to a crappy Northwestern or something.

Those what-ifs are stupid: My favorite rebuttal is what if LSU didn't convert the dumbest play ever called in 2007? They would have had 3 losses and wouldn't have even been in the SEC title game.

Setup: Down 1 at Auburn 22 with 6 seconds left and a timeout. Instead of setting up for the winning field goal, Les Miles calls a back shoulder jump ball in the endzone pass that was caught for the win with 1 second left. However, if he doesn't catch it, I have a strong feeling that the clock shows zeros. In which Case, Auburn and LSU have 3 losses, Auburn goes to the SEC title game, LSU plays the Capitol One Bowl. Les Miles is not a national champion.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=272930099

The point of this is that we won those games, and Indiana has proven to be a very tricky team this year. And I think this team gives Penn State a run as they played well for large portions of the game vs. Iowa/OSU.

Ugh, another call for playoffs when I think about that LSU game. They were a miracle save of a stupid play call away from having 3 losses but some media guys felt like putting LSU in the title out of the bunch with 2 (don't get me wrong, anyone who gets through the SEC with 2 is pretty damn good).

[trwi7]

If we do get a lucky Iowa loss and PSU loss (or PSU eeks out a 1 point win and we blow out our final 2 opponents, probably not going to help because of the jersey they wear is more prestigious than ours), a likely matchup with Boise would incur in the Fiesta Bowl.

I don't see anyway Iowa loses. Minnesota had trouble last week with South Dakota State. Seriously, they were tied with like three minutes left when South Dakota State fumbled deep in their own territory giving Minnesota an easy field goal (after they couldn't get the TD on a short field against South Dakota State's defense). Michigan State has been playing better and the game is in East Lansing, so I'll at least give them a shot at the upset, though still unlikely.

Stanford: Eh, I dunno. They're alright. Maybe.

I can't see them getting in. Unless they win the conference. First place right now is Oregon and they have to go to Arizona and then play Oregon State which could give them three conference losses. Stanford has to beat Cal which would make them 7-2 in the conference, but Oregon State has Washington State before Oregon and if Oregon State beats Oregon, they have the same conference record as Stanford but they also have the head-to-head against them.

And Arizona still has three conference games left. vs Oregon, @ Arizona State and @ USC. I don't feel like looking through all the teams to see who gets the tie break if they end up tied, but the ranked teams are going to be playing each other a lot in the next few weeks. I don't see them getting two teams.

[Kerb Hohl]

I don't think Minnesota is that good to beat Iowa, but when they have Stanzi and get outplayed by Northern Iowa, Michigan State, Indiana for 3 quarters, and Northwestern when Stanzi was still in, I don't know what to expect with Vandenberg. Sure, he looked quite a bit better vs. Ohio State considering the circumstances but I wouldn't call Iowa a lock. He looked pretty bad against a decent Northwestern team. Maybe they let another game play close and Vandenburg throws a back-breaking INT.