You could make it in the big leagues someday, kid. You got talent I tells ya, and moxie too, kid.
Those two old timey borscht beltisms could apply to both the Northwestern Wildcats and Wisconsin Badgers in 2016. By beating the Nebraska Cornhuskers last Saturday night, the Badgers have established themselves as the de facto best team in the B1G West and the third best side in the league.
However, they are not in pole position for Indianapolis, yet. Nebraska is pretty much this year’s Iowa as they have won ugly against weaker competition and padded their record with a softer schedule. While this Wisconsin football team has had a murderer’s row of opponents to deal with during the front half of the season.
Maybe the Wisconsin Badgers 2016 season will be a mullet like experience- “business in front, party in the back.”
On the flip side, Northwestern is simply not the team they were in at the beginning of the season. What NU Coach Pat Fitzgerald said in the postgame presser at Michigan State, and then again the following Monday at his weekly presser is entirely true- that team, which started 1-4 and lost to a FCS team, is dead.
The fact that they were hanging with Ohio State, and angry Buckeyes team nonetheless, in the fourth quarter tells you that they have it figured out now.
Spread: Wisconsin Badgers -7
TV/Radio: 11 a.m. — Northwestern vs. No. 8 Wisconsin, Ryan Field (ABC, WGN Radio AM-720)
This is why we feel both teams have sort of arrived this season- they’re on ABC! That’s the top of the pecking order, above all the ESPNs and BTN. Granted it’s the 11 am window, the least desirable of the three windows on any given Saturday, but hey, it’s still ABC.
Northwestern Preview:
NU broke in some really nice new looking uniforms at Michigan State a couple weeks ago. You got to dig the extreme close-up, over-sized logo on the helmet. That motif is back for the new unis you’ll see the Wildcats in Saturday.
Have a look:
See our NEW Graphite @UnderArmour unis in person Nov. 5 vs No. 8 Wisconsin! #B1GCats Tickets https://t.co/LaDhCbnv7F https://t.co/CX1xAIxVjV
— Northwestern Athletics (@NU_Sports) November 2, 2016
Austin Carr for B1G offensive player of the year? Hey, why not! The league’s leading receiver means more to his team than any other individual player, on that side of the ball, in the B1G. He’s the NU playmaker who gets things done. Of course, he wouldn’t be who he is (and vice versa) without quarterback Clayton Thorson, who’s really developed now in the midst of his second season.
For those who kept the faith in him despite so many poor outings, your allegiance has been rewarded.
And of course it all starts with the bread-and-butter, Justin Jackson. NU is in great position to go bowling now. Hard to imagine that being the case given their 1-4 start, in which offense was only a rumor, but here we are, 4-4 with two games left (at Purdue, hosting Illinois) in which they’ll be heavily favored.
So that should be the six they need right there, plus there’s a pick’em game, a trip to Minnesota later this month. Northwestern are significant underdogs here though and rightfully so.
#8 Wisconsin Badgers preview:
It’s a shame that these two don’t have much more of a rivalry, given that no two B1G schools are closer in proximity. NU won last year’s meeting, which was tight, but also the ugliest game you’ll ever see. It was boring rubbish that you would normally see only in days before football was actually on television.
The last time these two met at Ryan Field, Northwestern won comfortably. So although the Badgers are much more talented, and having a much better season, Saturday is anything but a given for them.
UW has now replaced Michigan State as the B1G’s “who’s got it better than us” athletic department. Sure, they’ve been up there, in both sports for awhile, but it wasn’t until now that MSU football fell. The Golden Age in Sparta ended, and it ended with authority.
You couldn’t ask for a worse league title defense than what you’re seeing from the Spartans right now. Meanwhile in Madison, Wisconsin football is #8 nationally and everybody, and I mean everybody, is picking the Badgers to win the league in basketball.
Like we said before, UW have already been up on the pedestal. The Wisconsin Badgers have three Big Ten titles since 2010 and 10 seasons of nine or more wins since 2004.
Our under the radar player to watch in this one is B1G defensive player of the week, Linebacker Ryan Connelly. He tallied a career-high 11 tackles, including seven solo stops, in Wisconsin’s overtime victory over Nebraska.
He also recorded 2.5 tackles for loss, including one on Nebraska’s lone possession in overtime.
There is a Wisconsin Badgers football story that is much important than just the gridiron though. The school did everything correct to the letter of the law regarding the disgusting racist fan who attended last night’s game dressed as President Barack Obama with a noose around his neck.
The first amendment protects your freedom of speech even when it’s hate speech. Yes, even when it’s bigoted and threatening and implying the advocacy of violence against the leader of the free world, it’s still constitutionally protected.
This fan, a basket of deplorables all by himself, has a right to show his racist, repugnant true self out in public. However, I don’t think he should have had a right to stay in the venue. They did the right thing is making the disgusting idiot remove his mask, but they just didn’t go far enough. Perhaps they were worried about getting sued by the fan for calling for his removal?
I can’t think of any other justification for why he was allowed to remain at the game, simply because he “complied” with removing the noose and mask.
We’ve seen this kind of racist behavior at SEC schools in recent years, and it usually comes out on Halloween. While still extremely disturbing and horribly offensive, you actually have come to expect this kind of thing in The South. I still can’t believe I saw this egregiously racist disrespect to the Commander-in-Chief at a Wisconsin Badgers football game.
Madison, Wisconsin has a reputation for enlightened, forward thinking. Here’s a link to much on what happened, and how and why UW should have been tougher on this bigoted nimrod.
Prediction time: Wisconsin Badgers 21, Northwestern 17
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.