Varsity - The Official Digital Magazine of Wisconsin Athletics

Ending just one chapter of a special story THE VOICE MATT LEPAY • VOICE OF THE BADGERS 5 a.m. Tuesday, Mike Lucas sug- gested that, with the way things are going in the Badgers' world, Michigan State will win that night's basketball game on a buzzer-beater. It was worse. It went to a re- W play review. Are you kidding me? Another (expletive deleted) replay review? And yes, the officials got it right. Ryan Evans' desperation 3-point attempt — a Hail Mary if you will — was just a tad too late, leaving Badger Nation with yet another shot to the solar plexus. This follows Monday's gut- wrenching setback in Pasadena, where the Badgers went toe-to-toe with lightning-fast Oregon only to fall one play short of at least having a chance to force overtime. In yet another sign of how things have changed in these parts, a sto- ryline coming out of the Rose Bowl is how Badgers coach Bret Bielema is in search of winning the big one. Or is it The Big One? It is the same question Chip Kelly had to hear after his group lost back-to-back BCS games. I understand how it works, but let's be honest — you have to win some big games to get to The Big One, don't you? The Badgers turned in a dominating perfor- mance against Penn State to win the Leaders Division. They followed that effort with the Big Ten champi- onship game thriller with Michigan 58 » VARSITY JANUARY 5, 2012 hen our red-eye flight from Los Angeles to Madison landed at about State. Those were pretty big games. Following a legend is never easy, and fans, as well as some in the me- dia, are wondering why Bielema's Badgers are 0-2 in Rose Bowls, while Barry Alvarez and the boys went 3-0 in the 1990s. I suppose it is a natural question, but at the same time, perhaps it just points out how hard it is to win these BCS games, and it serves as a reminder of how special those 1993, The 2011 Wisconsin Badgers embraced the lofty expectations. They fell a little short of meeting all of them, and that will hurt for awhile. But, man, what a ride it was. 1998 and '99 teams were to have so much success at the Rose Bowl. One could argue that the two most famous coaches in Big Ten history are Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler. Schembechler's Rose Bowl re- cord was 2-8. In his book, written with Mitch Albom in the late 1980s, there is a chapter called "Why My Bowl Record Stinks, and Other Thoughts." Hayes' OSU teams dropped four of its last five Rose Bowls, and went 4-4 overall. I am talking about two dominant programs that generally ruled the day in the Big Ten. In more current events, Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer now has a 1-5 record in the big boy bowl games of the BCS era. My point is not to sound like a Badgers apologist, but rather to suggest that the final step to be- coming an elite team is extraordi- narily difficult. Wisconsin has turned in some tremendous work to reach its cur- rent level, which is that of a nation- ally-respected program. In the BCS era, only USC has made more Rose Bowl appearances. The 2011 Wisconsin Badgers em- braced the lofty expectations. They fell a little short of meeting all of them, and that will hurt for awhile. But, man, what a ride it was. Monday concluded my 24th year of covering Badger football. This offense was the most exciting I have seen, led by a quarterback who al- ways gave his team a chance, right up to the final second. I have been around this program long enough to remember when big stage games were few and far between. I also understand the disappoint- ment of losing a second straight Rose Bowl, but I hope most fans will look back and recall how much fun it was to watch this team. The last chapter might have had the wrong ending, but in my book, this team will forever be special. It certainly gave fans plenty to shout about.

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