Against the Spread, Week 4

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An ugly 3-7 last week, 3-7 on the season (late start) but the #2 and LOTW came in.

This weeks picks in order of confidence (#1 is most confident):

10) Oklahoma State +5.5 at Texas

9) Notre Dame at Georgia - Under 58.5

8) Oklahoma State at Texas - Under 73

7) UCLA at Washington State Over 57.5

6) Nebraska at Illinois Under 61.5

5) Michigan State at Northwestern +8.5

4) Nebraska -13.5 at Illinois

3) Tennessee at Florida Over 49

2) Michigan +3.5 at Wisconsin

1) Lock of the Week: Colorado +8.5 at Arizona State

Way Back When-sday Had A Boot of Beer with Jerry

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November 14, 2009: Standing below the ceiling full of mugs at Essen House with Coach Jerry Hanlon the night before Michigan fell to Wisconsin in Madison 45-24. More pics, recaps and box scores from that game are right here on the Wisconsin 2009 game page.

It Was A Michigan - Wisconsin Game

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Fuller / MGOBlog

Fuller / MGOBlog

You have to feel bad for the Badgers. Desperately attempting to recapture the sucess of their recent history in the face of a bunch of quick coaching changes, perhaps brought on by their version of Bo not being a fun guy to work for or follow in the footsteps of, all while still trying to convincince you that football didn't exist prior to 1993. Seriously, Wisconsin had a 40% winning percentage over the THREE DECADES of the 60's, 70's, and 80's. Dudes at the tailgate that are 50+ years old will tell you of a Wisconsin that was akin to Indiana (oh, hello Sparty), a rollover and die Big Ten team with no fanbase and no future.

When you've played a team 65 times but only managed to muster 14 victories, you'd like to take advantage of them when they are down. But while the Wolverines were vulnerable and mired in the worst years in their program history, the Legends/Leaders/East/West realignment debacles kept Wisconsin vs. Michigan on the shelf for 6 years. Prior to that, the Badgers had won 4 of the last 6 ('05-'10), their best stretch by far in the series, but nowhere near the 23 of 24 the Wolverines once took from them from 1965-1990.  Even the upstart Wisconsin teams, the ones that boasted all those Rose Bowls and got Ron Dayne the first and only longevity-based Heisman, typically had their success despite a loss at the hands of the Wolverines. And in the cases of the Badger's one-loss seasons of 1998 and 2006, their only defeats came vs. Michigan. Ouch.

But hey, these boys don't remember that. Maybe some of their fanbase does, but there was no history on the field on Saturday, it only looked that way. Wet and sloppy, lines dictating the action, straightforward offenses (minus the 11-man I-formation), strong defenses, and always less than a touchdown between us. Oh, and a patented unsuccessful Lloyd Carr double reverse. 1993, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2016...they're all pretty much the same.

Not sure how this got in here.  Whoops.  

Not sure how this got in here.  Whoops.  

There was a lot of "disappointed with a 17-point win" banter after that Colorado game. Now it seems Colorado is also part of the 90's revival tour of 2016, as they join Nebraska, Tennessee, and Washington in the top 25, (hello unranked Sparty) and you dig up your Soundgarden cassette. But there was some murmurs of disappointment on this Saturday too. There seems to be an stigma with winning and not beating the spread. There's also a national discontent with strong defensive football, which is why Louisville and Clemson are sooooo good even though they each gave up 500+ yards to their opponent.  Anyway, couple that with the field goal frustration and those goddamn punt team penalties, and we ended up coming out of the game just happy and relieved as opposed to hugging each other and spraying champagne in the air. We just beat a top-10 team. A team good enough that after we beat them, they still remained at #11, and are the 2nd highest ranked team with a loss after Louisville. And I hate to sound all Scott Frost here, but we outgained them in the air 219-88, and outgained them on the ground 130-71. No, yards are not points. But they usually translate accordingly when you don't have a kicker with the yips.

So celebrate your ass off people! Worried about kicking field goals? Well, we've got until 10/29 until we will need to kick one that has any meaning. That's 26 days to make a kicker. Any chance Harbaugh brings in a special coach to work with kickers? Yes. Any chance it will be Janikowski on his bye week and I can hang out with The Polish Cannon? I hope so.

GO BLUE!