Earlier this year, former Minnesota head coach Tim Brewster criticized Wisconsin’s Bret Bielema for attempting a two-point conversion when the Badgers already had the game in hand. This week, the Badgers put up 83 points on Indiana, and again the criticism of Bielema came pouring in.

ESPN’s Mark May referred to Wisconsin and its head coach as bullies on the network’s website. Many other members of the media questioned if the Badgers were looking for style points from the pollsters in their hunt for a Big Ten championship.

But one place the disapproval did not come from was the opponent. Indiana’s head coach Bill Lynch put all the blame for Wisconsin’s 83 points on his own team.

‘I didn’t have any problem,’ Lynch said in the Big Ten coaches’ teleconference Tuesday. ‘I said it after the game, and I feel the same way now. I think it’s our responsibility to stop them, and we didn’t do a very good job of that. And we didn’t take care of the ball. … That’s on us.’

The No. 6 Badgers (9-1, 5-1) set all sorts of marks with their 83-20 demolition of the Hoosiers (4-6, 0-6) Saturday. They even did it without running back John Clay, last year’s Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year. It was the most points scored by Wisconsin since 1915. It was also the highest point total for a Big Ten team since Ohio State put up 83 against Iowa in 1950.

But even with the obscene numbers, Bielema, Lynch and some of the other Big Ten coaches agreed there was no element of running up the score involved.

‘If you watched it, you’d see the way it unfolded,’ Bielema said. ‘I put guys out there, in the second half especially, we had our fourth string center snapping to our fifth string quarterback, and so on and so forth, and we were still able to have productive yards.’

The game was close through the first quarter. The Badgers were only up 10-7 at the end of the period, and Indiana even knotted the score at 10 to start the second.

But after that, Wisconsin took over. Hoosiers starting quarterback Ben Chappell left the game with a hip injury near the end of the first half. And by that point, the Badgers had already started a string of 12 straight possessions that resulted in scores. By the end of the third quarter, Wisconsin was up 59-13.

At that point, Bielema pulled most of his starters, including running back Montee Ball and quarterback Scott Tolzien, who accounted for six of the Badgers’ touchdowns.

But perhaps the biggest part of the controversy occurred halfway through the fourth. The Badgers scored on a 74-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Jon Budmayr to freshman receiver Jared Abbrederis on a third-and-six to make the score 76-13.

‘My backup quarterback has thrown (10) passes, and he could be the starting quarterback in one play this weekend so I would do it again 100 times over,’ Bielema said. ‘It was a broken play if you watch the play. It was something that, just the way it happened at the end, the way the whole game unfolded, it was really good for us and, unfortunately, not great for Indiana.’

Although many members of the media have questioned the ethics behind Wisconsin’s 83-point outburst, other Big Ten coaches said it was just an unfortunate situation. Michigan State’s Mike Dantonio, Minnesota’s Jeff Horton and Michigan’s Rich Rodriguez said it wasn’t a matter of running up the points by the Badgers.

‘If somebody’s truly running it up, then their starters are in all the way to the end,’ said Rodriguez, whose Wolverines take on Wisconsin Saturday. ‘You know, sometimes games just get away from you. (Indiana) had some turnovers and they had some depth issues, their quarterback went out, then all of the sudden things snowballed on them.’

Rodriguez also echoed Bielema’s thoughts that backups deserve a chance to run the offense when they get a chance to play instead of just handing the ball off every snap.

And even with all the focus on this scoring outburst, Lynch said none of his players, coaches or any member of the Hoosiers program has even mentioned the idea of Wisconsin running up the score.

‘I’ve been in this long enough, and sometimes games get away from you,’ he added. ‘And it’s really nobody’s responsibility. We didn’t play well enough to make it competitive after the first. … So that’s on us.’

Big man on campus

Marcus Lattimore

Freshman running back

No. 17 South Carolina

Last Week’s Stats: 40 carries, 212 yards, 3 touchdowns

South Carolina rode its freshman running back to the Southeastern Conference East Division championship Saturday with a 36-14 win over Florida.

Lattimore tallied career highs in carries, yards and touchdowns and averaged 5.3 yards per run. After falling behind the Gators (6-4, 4-4 SEC) on the opening kickoff, the Gamecocks (7-3, 5-3) scored 29 straight points, 13 of them on Lattimore touchdowns.

The freshman gave his team its first lead of the game with a 7-yard run late in the first quarter. He then scored from 21 yards out on the first drive of the second half to extend South Carolina’s lead to 15. His last score, with 2:43 remaining, all but ended any chance of a comeback for Florida.

Lattimore entered this year as one of the most highly touted players in the freshman class and has not disappointed. With three games left in the season, he has run for 964 yards and 14 touchdowns and added 281 yards receiving with two touchdown catches.

zjbrown@syr.edu

 

Published on November 16, 2010 at 12:00 pm