Varsity - The Official Digital Magazine of Wisconsin Athletics

Varsity - September 19, 2013

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P BEHIND THE DESK BY BARRY ALVAREZ // UW DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS Fair shake or not, Badgers moving forward 14 eople make mistakes, I understand that. But you have a chance to make it right with instant replay. You have a chance when you know something has gone wrong to slow things down and have the people upstairs take a look at it. That was disappointing to me about our game at Arizona State. The officials were more anxious to get off the field and run away from the situation than they were to answer the question, "Did we get it right?" Our game two years ago at Michigan State was a prime example. The officials made a call on the field. They reviewed the play upstairs to make sure they got it right. And then they revised the call based on what they saw from replay. We weren't happy with the decision. But you could live with it because it was the right call. Last Saturday night, the officials had no sense of urgency throughout the final 18 seconds. Their only sense of urgency was to sprint off the field together. It's just not fair to the kids. They only get so many opportunities to play this game. I thought Gary handled it as well as you could possibly handle it with the players. He explained to them that it wasn't right what happened, but sometimes things aren't fair. You're going to have situations throughout your life like that and you have to accept it and move forward. That's the important thing ― that Arizona State doesn't beat us twice. // VARSITY September 19, 2013 I really liked the way our players competed Saturday. I know Arizona State threw for a lot of yards and we had a number of pass interference calls, but I thought most of the throws were contested, and we reacted and tackled well in the open field. Offensively, I know Joel Stave can play better, but he answered and made some plays. Two weeks in a row, he took us down the field on the two-minute drill. Saturday, he put us in position to win. Melvin Gordon once again had some special runs. One time, the corner comes clean, he's untouched, and Melvin runs right through him. Another time, a DB takes an angle on Melvin and he just outruns him. On his 80-yard touchdown run on that Jet Sweep, all I could think about was hearing everybody talk about how it was going to be a matchup of Big Ten power versus Pac-12 speed. They were also talking about how the heat was going to affect us. It was their guys cramping up, not ours. I'm just glad that we're going into the Big Ten season. These games really count. I always felt there was a different physicality to our league. I think it has changed a little bit because of the brand of football some people are now playing. But it's still physical. The kids understand that there's a little more importance to these games. Almost every week you're playing in big venues in front of big crowds and there's more at stake. It's fun for a lot of guys because they're playing against former high school rivals or former teammates. You've played all these Big Ten teams before, so you get to know them and their style. I know we always put an emphasis on conference play and how things pick up now. The kids realized it, too, because our goal never changed. It's the same today. It's to win the league title.

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