Huskers @ Badgers

[neiLz]

What's the single season rushing record? I think if gordon gets 200+ the next two games and has a good game in the B10 championship i think he can over take mariota.... His numbers would be ridiculous and you'd almost have to give it to him.

[ReasonablySober]

This is the best read about his day.

On the year, Gordon leads the nation (obviously) in rushing yards (1,909), rushing touchdowns (23), yards from scrimmage (1,992), and plays covering at least 20 yards (and 30 yards, and 40 yards, and 50 yards). At his current pace of 190.9 yards per game, Gordon will surpass Barry Sanders’s single-season rushing record (2,628) if Wisconsin goes on to play in the Big Ten championship game, which would give the team four remaining contests, including a bowl game. Saturday’s win, their fifth in a row, left the Badgers alone in first place in the B1G’s West Division.

With Gordon’s name appearing alongside the likes of Tomlinson and Sanders, maybe the stat line is all anyone really needs to know to put Gordon’s day into context. On the way to the national mark, Gordon passed 1999 Heisman winner Ron Dayne for the single-game school record, and will almost certainly break Dayne’s single-season rushing mark (2,109) as well, possibly as soon as next weekend against Iowa. Over the past two decades, Wisconsin has boasted an unbroken lineage of wildly productive tailbacks, and from a statistical perspective Gordon is or will soon be looking down on almost all of them. (If, by some miracle, Gordon decides to return for his senior season in 2015, Dayne’s FBS record for career rushing yards [6,397] may be in his sights.)

I think if he continues his pace and the Badgers win the B1G Championship game, the Heisman is his.

ETA: It's worth remembering that Sanders set the record in 11 games.

[JimmyTheKid]

Its a shame Gary Anderson started the season with Tanner "can't complete the layups" McEvoy at QB. The result? Another "what might have been" season for the Badgers.

Can't wait to watch Kenosha's very own Melvin Gordon in the NFL. Unlike a number of Badgers RB's who's numbers were inflated behind the best OLine in the nation, I think Gordon's can be very successful at the next level. Even one of the best.

[jakecronus8]

Its a shame Gary Anderson started the season with Tanner "can't complete the layups" McEvoy at QB. The result? Another "what might have been" season for the Badgers.

Can't wait to watch Kenosha's very own Melvin Gordon in the NFL. Unlike a number of Badgers RB's who's numbers were inflated behind the best OLine in the nation, I think Gordon's can be very successful at the next level. Even one of the best.

Unless you think Bart Houston was a better option he kind of had to go with McEvoy. The whole "yips" thing with Stave was legit.

[Bernman]

Unless you think Bart Houston was a better option he kind of had to go with McEvoy. The whole "yips" thing with Stave was legit.

Na, from all insiders I've heard, the "yips" came from Stave going mentally in the tank AFTER not receiving the starting nod in spite of clearly out-playing McEvoy in camp. There were multiple explanations as to why GA might have went with McEvoy instead like his superior running ability as opposed to overall and a recruiting promise.

So indeed, what if is a valid question in this case.

[JimmyTheKid]

Unless you think Bart Houston was a better option he kind of had to go with McEvoy. The whole "yips" thing with Stave was legit.

Na, from all insiders I've heard, the "yips" came from Stave going mentally in the tank AFTER not receiving the starting nod in spite of clearly out-playing McEvoy in camp. There were multiple explanations as to why GA might have went with McEvoy instead like his superior running ability as opposed to overall and a recruiting promise.

So indeed, what if is a valid question in this case.

Exactly.

[jakecronus8]

Unless you think Bart Houston was a better option he kind of had to go with McEvoy. The whole "yips" thing with Stave was legit.

Na, from all insiders I've heard, the "yips" came from Stave going mentally in the tank AFTER not receiving the starting nod in spite of clearly out-playing McEvoy in camp. There were multiple explanations as to why GA might have went with McEvoy instead like his superior running ability as opposed to overall and a recruiting promise.

So indeed, what if is a valid question in this case.

Interesting. That kind of put GA between a rock and a hard place. Still tough for me to fault him. Knowing the passing game was not going to set the world on Fire this season, he went with the higher upside.

Also, not coming through on recruiting promises is a slippery slope. I hope they can convince Mcevoy to either go back to safety or maybe tight end. He is definitely a good football player.

[Bernman]

We need to hire you as team psychologist.

That was certainly uncalled for. It was a simple observation that they've been in every game the last several years, but regardless of the qb, they haven't made the plays in crunch time, leading to close game struggles. When they've won an extremely high majority of the time it's been by domination (which is great, but you're not going to dominate everybody, so you have to win different ways if you want to be elite). That's a statement of fact.

What was the big deal about what I said? I didn't say I had the recipe for turning the trend. I'm sure plenty of the players know it exists, and want to change it, but can't. It's just going to take a win or two in those situations to start believing they will win. For the Super Bowl Packers, it was probably Peprah's INT and the win over the Bears in the finale, to get over their previous close game struggles.

[Kerb Hohl]

In 2011 the issue was one of the worst defenses they've had. Their losses were of the Rodgers-esque "he can't bring them back to win" when it turns out every loss was because the defense got torched late (the entire game, really).

Every other season the problem has been QB play in crunch time against good teams or the QB just not being good enough to keep them in it the whole time. I'm not going to say there is zero mental factor in it, but every team that has beaten them late in these close games is an NFL/Heisman candidate and most of them beat Scott Tolzein or Joel Stave late. Yes, I know Tolzein is a decent player but give me Dalton, Cousins, Braxton Miller, or maybe even Hackenberg in the pros and especially college. Their close loss to Stanford involved Curt Phillips. Their close loss to LSU was McEvoy (not allowed to run much read-option).

Throw in a few bad bounces/luck and they've lost more of their fair share.

If they aren't overmatched in QB play going forward, these close losses will suddenly even out quite a bit.

[Ron Swanson]

Unless you think Bart Houston was a better option he kind of had to go with McEvoy. The whole "yips" thing with Stave was legit.

Na, from all insiders I've heard, the "yips" came from Stave going mentally in the tank AFTER not receiving the starting nod in spite of clearly out-playing McEvoy in camp. There were multiple explanations as to why GA might have went with McEvoy instead like his superior running ability as opposed to overall and a recruiting promise.

So indeed, what if is a valid question in this case.

If your QB is so mentally fragile that he loses all confidence because his coach doesn't hand him the starting gig on a silver platter, then he doesn't deserve to start in the first place.

The Stave hindsight is lost on me. The LSU game is a convenient "what if" because we didn't know the extent of how emotionally crushed he was, but the Northwestern game was an epic collapse almost entirely of his own design. But again, the excuse is that he "wasn't prepared to start".

I'll blame Anderson for not installing a read-option based offense around McEvoy before I start blaming him for not starting Stave. Because McEvoy's legs and handing off to Gordon is still a better recipe for success than any number of passes attempted with Stave. With Tanner, at least you have to respect another guy on the field that can run.

[Kerb Hohl]

McEvoy may be helpful at another position next year but I like their 2-QB system in reasonably good harmony until they maybe have a decent option in 2016.

[Kerb Hohl]

Unless you think Bart Houston was a better option he kind of had to go with McEvoy. The whole "yips" thing with Stave was legit.

Na, from all insiders I've heard, the "yips" came from Stave going mentally in the tank AFTER not receiving the starting nod in spite of clearly out-playing McEvoy in camp. There were multiple explanations as to why GA might have went with McEvoy instead like his superior running ability as opposed to overall and a recruiting promise.

So indeed, what if is a valid question in this case.

If your QB is so mentally fragile that he loses all confidence because his coach doesn't hand him the starting gig on a silver platter, then he doesn't deserve to start in the first place.

The Stave hindsight is lost on me. The LSU game is a convenient "what if" because we didn't know the extent of how emotionally crushed he was, but the Northwestern game was an epic collapse almost entirely of his own design. But again, the excuse is that he "wasn't prepared to start".

I'll blame Anderson for not installing a read-option based offense around McEvoy before I start blaming him for not starting Stave. Because McEvoy's legs and handing off to Gordon is still a better recipe for success than any number of passes attempted with Stave. With Tanner, at least you have to respect another guy on the field that can run.

I come in on both sides here. I don't fault them for taking a leap of faith on McEvoy early. I think it's lame if Stave did develop the yips (not at Stave, it happens, but you also can't fault the coach for that).

I do fault them for not utilizing McEvoy better early in there.

Once they did go to Stave, things got a lot better. It helps when you have a guy that can clear the defense out of 10 in the box. Even with the stupid mistakes (really just one in his first serious action of the season), they could have won with Stave against Northwestern. He completed multiple 3rd and longs that McEvoy would have missed by 5 yards.

Now we've reached phase 3: finally harmony in the 2 QB system. Just a little bit too late, unfortunately.

[trwi7]

If your QB is so mentally fragile that he loses all confidence because his coach doesn't hand him the starting gig on a silver platter, then he doesn't deserve to start in the first place.

What a bunch of bull ****. Stave didn't expect to be handed the job on a silver platter but he probably did expect a fair competition. He knows how he's doing in practice and he probably has a good idea of how McEvoy is doing so he most likely knew he was outplaying him. Then Andersen decides to go with his guy even though Stave outplayed him.

At the very least Andersen should've went to both and said there will be packages installed for both QB's and both will play. It's garbage that there was even a competition to begin with if he was going to choose McEvoy no matter what.

[Kerb Hohl]

Again, I don't think it was a great decision in hindsight, but even if Stave honestly did outplay him the whole time, you still shouldn't expect a kid to come up with the yips in this situation.

Maybe there was a plan to use both, which would be relatively ideal from what we've seen. I'm sure when GA made the decision he didn't expect the kid to have a mental failure over it and have to go into damage control mode.

Maybe GA was walking a tightrope trying to match a promise he made yet still have Stave as a viable backup option and it blew up far worse than anyone could imagine there. Of course all of the people earlier in the year that thought GA and staff were akin to a Will Muschamp style fall from grace earlier this year will say that he should have known that could happen, but I think he made a risk thinking there was limited downside and there ended up being massive downside.

[El Duderino]

I love how the team is using their two QB system right now and it's just a bummer that we can't restart the season right now with how things currently are at quarterback because the Badgers would very likely be undefeated.

McEvoy really is gifted as a read option running threat and when used on these third and three yards or less plays, it leaves defenses in a very tough spot given how great Gordon is. Hell, McEvoy at QB is tough to stop even starting drives now that he's used almost entirely just as a runner/running threat. Stave offers at least a somewhat decent passer as the primary quarterback.

Man, if McEvoy could just be half way decent as a passer, with that OL and Gordon, this offense would be an absolute beast that could hang with any offense in the country, even with the weak group of receivers. To bad we had to have Gordon being this great in a season without just a say Stacco and some quality receivers.

[jakecronus8]

The biggest problem with the LSU game was that he rarely let mcevoy leave the pocket. This is akin to Peyton Manning running the read option.

[Kerb Hohl]

The biggest problem with the LSU game was that he rarely let mcevoy leave the pocket. This is akin to Peyton Manning running the read option.

Yes...and the Northwestern game was even worse in this regard.

[ReasonablySober]

The single biggest problem with this season was Anderson completely forgetting MGIII existed in the 2nd half vs LSU. That's it. Keep feeding the best player in the country and the Badgers have one loss right now, at worst.

On a separate note, this insurance issue with Gurley has me wondering what the Badgers could do with Gordon. Gurley apparently had an injury clause that got him a payout if he dropped out of the 1st round.

There is a silver lining, however. According to a report from ESPN.com, Georgia recently upped Gurley's insurance policy to $10 million. $5 million of that policy is in place for total disability, meaning that if Gurley were to get hurt and never be able to play again, he'd still be insured for $5 million.

The other part of the policy included $5 million to protect against loss of value in case Gurley was injured and fell in the NFL Draft because of it.

This is good news for Gurley. He had been projected to be a first-round NFL Draft pick next spring, even though NFL teams are taking running backs in the first round a lot less often than they used to. Now, with a torn ACL and no set timetable for when Gurley will be able to return to the field, odds are he won't be taken in the first round of the draft.

That's a large loss of money in Gurley's first professional contract, but with this insurance policy Gurley can limit the financial loss if he falls out of the first round. If he goes entirely undrafted -- which is not likely -- he'd receive the entire $5 million.

I'm obviously expecting MGIII to declare for the draft, but I do wonder if we're going to see situations arise where stud players return if schools are willing to take out expensive insurance policies. You could protect against the catastrophic injuries, yes, but also protect against draft stock taking a hit too.

[Ill-yasova]

Unless you think Bart Houston was a better option he kind of had to go with McEvoy. The whole "yips" thing with Stave was legit.

Na, from all insiders I've heard, the "yips" came from Stave going mentally in the tank AFTER not receiving the starting nod in spite of clearly out-playing McEvoy in camp. There were multiple explanations as to why GA might have went with McEvoy instead like his superior running ability as opposed to overall and a recruiting promise.

So indeed, what if is a valid question in this case.

Interesting. That kind of put GA between a rock and a hard place. Still tough for me to fault him. Knowing the passing game was not going to set the world on Fire this season, he went with the higher upside.

Also, not coming through on recruiting promises is a slippery slope. I hope they can convince Mcevoy to either go back to safety or maybe tight end. He is definitely a good football player.

If he's smart he'll become the biggest safety in the NFL and get paid.

[skitch815]

This is the best read about his day.

On the year, Gordon leads the nation (obviously) in rushing yards (1,909), rushing touchdowns (23), yards from scrimmage (1,992), and plays covering at least 20 yards (and 30 yards, and 40 yards, and 50 yards). At his current pace of 190.9 yards per game, Gordon will surpass Barry Sanders’s single-season rushing record (2,628) if Wisconsin goes on to play in the Big Ten championship game, which would give the team four remaining contests, including a bowl game. Saturday’s win, their fifth in a row, left the Badgers alone in first place in the B1G’s West Division.

With Gordon’s name appearing alongside the likes of Tomlinson and Sanders, maybe the stat line is all anyone really needs to know to put Gordon’s day into context. On the way to the national mark, Gordon passed 1999 Heisman winner Ron Dayne for the single-game school record, and will almost certainly break Dayne’s single-season rushing mark (2,109) as well, possibly as soon as next weekend against Iowa. Over the past two decades, Wisconsin has boasted an unbroken lineage of wildly productive tailbacks, and from a statistical perspective Gordon is or will soon be looking down on almost all of them. (If, by some miracle, Gordon decides to return for his senior season in 2015, Dayne’s FBS record for career rushing yards [6,397] may be in his sights.)

I think if he continues his pace and the Badgers win the B1G Championship game, the Heisman is his.

ETA: It's worth remembering that Sanders set the record in 11 games.

In 1988 Sanders had 2628 yards on 344 carries. 7.6 yards per carry. At his current pace Gordon would break the record in 40 fewer carries. I keep hearing that it would be less impressive because of the number of games but I think it would actually be more of a feat due to the number of times he touches the ball.