I live in Chicago and it's common to have friends that went to one or more Big 10 schools or Notre Dame. Since Chicago is short driving distance from many of the schools, it's easy to go to a game and come back the same day. Earlier in the year I had the chance to soak in a night game at Notre Dame Stadium. Notre Dame vs MSU, before we all knew both teams weren't very good this year. All in all it was an amazing game experience. Yesterday a friend from church who is a Wisconsin alum invited a few us to the Wisconsin/Ohio State game. Below are a few random thoughts.
1) I've been to camp Randall and Madison many times before. The last game was in 2011, the year Tom Bradley coached the team. It was raining the whole game and if I recall correctly, Matt McGloin thew a TD on the opening drive and it was all Wisconsin after that. This was actually my first night game at Camp Randall and by far the best match-up I have ever seen there. (Some reason I didn't go to PSU/Wisconsin 2008, but I was a recent grad back then)Madison is much bigger than State College and they love their Beer in the whole state of Wisconsin. They drink beer and yell at people that don't drink beer. They drink a ton of New Glarus Spotted Cow there. This creates a very festive, but crazy environment. Especially a night game against #2 Ohio State. The stadium was packed and the students were crazy. The attendance was only 81,500 total, so a lot smaller than Penn State. They redid there stadium less than 10 years ago. Although its nice and in the middle of campus, I wouldn't put the stadium up there with some other cathedrals around the country.
The tailgaitng at Wisconsin is fun, but not on the same scale as PSU. Again we are lucky to have the ability to tailgate on grass and HUGE lots.
2) Going into the game I was expecting the Buckeyes to win by at least 10 points. I also assumed they didn't have a very good offense. We knew that Wisconsin was good with the way they hung with Michigan, but I was impressed with how their coaches used their by week to prepare for OSU. Wisconsin's oline and and defense are much better than ours. I think Wisconsin starts all sophomores on their Oline, so I'm not sure how in world they are so good so fast. In the first half they were getting a ton of push on OSU's dline. They had a ton of success with end arounds,/reverse/jet sweep type plays. Wisconsin's QB was nothing special, but he did real well for only being a RS Freshman and only had 1 turnover. He is unable to make any plays with his feet, so that was a huge factor.
3) Wisconsin lost that game because of three things in my opinion:
a) In the first half they settle for a couple field goals instead of Touchdowns. They had a TD right before half that was called back for holding and it cost them dearly.
b) Urban and his offensive staff made some adjustments at half and Wisconsin couldn't stop them during the 2nd half. Outside JT Barrett's lone interception, they Buckeyes scored on every offensive possession they had in the 2nd half. Credit the Wisconsin defense for holding the Buckeyes to mostly FGs as the game could have easily gotten out of hand instead of going into overtime.
c) JT Barrett. It wasn't the best passing day for Barrett, but he was the X factor. He is elusive and created many plays by escaping Wisconsin's pressure. (Though during the 4th Qtr Wisconsin wasn't getting much pressure at all) Barrett is a step above Trace right now and not sure Trace will be the runner JT is. OSU runs Barrett a TON and some of the plays aren't even read options. In those latter scenarios, they use him just like a running back.
4) More on JT Barrett and tOSU's offense......to slow them down teams need D-ends that do not lose contain and linebackers that are rarely out of place. Plus you need a front seven that is extremely sound in tackling. Wisconsin had that and they were able to slow them down to the point they had a shot to win.
5) I was impressed with Wisconsin's special teams. They are using their back-up FG kicker, but the kick off specialist has one heck of a leg and only let OSU returnthe ball a couple times. Wisconsin's punt return coverage was solid as well. Bottom line, they didn't give up any big plays on special teams and made all their FG attempts.
6) Corey Clement and the Wisconsin running backs had a good day. Their line helped and put them in situation to make big plays. I'm hopefully Saquan is put in the same situation. (Kind of like last year against OSU) A lot of their big gains were on the edge, so hopefully our tackles can hold their blocks long enough for Saquan to get to the corner.
7) OSU's skilled players are quick and explosive. They rarely made mistakes and pulled in some amazing catches. Really hoping Golden and Allen are ready to go Saturday.
8) Wisconsin fans are still doing the Jump House Pain song after the the 3rd QTR. I used to think it was just the students, but the whole stadium gets involved. The also all sing a school varsity song during the game and during their 5th QTR. (Cancelled last night due to sever weather)
Anyways, if you aren't going to all the PSU games I recommend soaking some games where you don't have a vested interest on who wins. The bigger the game the better.
1) I've been to camp Randall and Madison many times before. The last game was in 2011, the year Tom Bradley coached the team. It was raining the whole game and if I recall correctly, Matt McGloin thew a TD on the opening drive and it was all Wisconsin after that. This was actually my first night game at Camp Randall and by far the best match-up I have ever seen there. (Some reason I didn't go to PSU/Wisconsin 2008, but I was a recent grad back then)Madison is much bigger than State College and they love their Beer in the whole state of Wisconsin. They drink beer and yell at people that don't drink beer. They drink a ton of New Glarus Spotted Cow there. This creates a very festive, but crazy environment. Especially a night game against #2 Ohio State. The stadium was packed and the students were crazy. The attendance was only 81,500 total, so a lot smaller than Penn State. They redid there stadium less than 10 years ago. Although its nice and in the middle of campus, I wouldn't put the stadium up there with some other cathedrals around the country.
The tailgaitng at Wisconsin is fun, but not on the same scale as PSU. Again we are lucky to have the ability to tailgate on grass and HUGE lots.
2) Going into the game I was expecting the Buckeyes to win by at least 10 points. I also assumed they didn't have a very good offense. We knew that Wisconsin was good with the way they hung with Michigan, but I was impressed with how their coaches used their by week to prepare for OSU. Wisconsin's oline and and defense are much better than ours. I think Wisconsin starts all sophomores on their Oline, so I'm not sure how in world they are so good so fast. In the first half they were getting a ton of push on OSU's dline. They had a ton of success with end arounds,/reverse/jet sweep type plays. Wisconsin's QB was nothing special, but he did real well for only being a RS Freshman and only had 1 turnover. He is unable to make any plays with his feet, so that was a huge factor.
3) Wisconsin lost that game because of three things in my opinion:
a) In the first half they settle for a couple field goals instead of Touchdowns. They had a TD right before half that was called back for holding and it cost them dearly.
b) Urban and his offensive staff made some adjustments at half and Wisconsin couldn't stop them during the 2nd half. Outside JT Barrett's lone interception, they Buckeyes scored on every offensive possession they had in the 2nd half. Credit the Wisconsin defense for holding the Buckeyes to mostly FGs as the game could have easily gotten out of hand instead of going into overtime.
c) JT Barrett. It wasn't the best passing day for Barrett, but he was the X factor. He is elusive and created many plays by escaping Wisconsin's pressure. (Though during the 4th Qtr Wisconsin wasn't getting much pressure at all) Barrett is a step above Trace right now and not sure Trace will be the runner JT is. OSU runs Barrett a TON and some of the plays aren't even read options. In those latter scenarios, they use him just like a running back.
4) More on JT Barrett and tOSU's offense......to slow them down teams need D-ends that do not lose contain and linebackers that are rarely out of place. Plus you need a front seven that is extremely sound in tackling. Wisconsin had that and they were able to slow them down to the point they had a shot to win.
5) I was impressed with Wisconsin's special teams. They are using their back-up FG kicker, but the kick off specialist has one heck of a leg and only let OSU returnthe ball a couple times. Wisconsin's punt return coverage was solid as well. Bottom line, they didn't give up any big plays on special teams and made all their FG attempts.
6) Corey Clement and the Wisconsin running backs had a good day. Their line helped and put them in situation to make big plays. I'm hopefully Saquan is put in the same situation. (Kind of like last year against OSU) A lot of their big gains were on the edge, so hopefully our tackles can hold their blocks long enough for Saquan to get to the corner.
7) OSU's skilled players are quick and explosive. They rarely made mistakes and pulled in some amazing catches. Really hoping Golden and Allen are ready to go Saturday.
8) Wisconsin fans are still doing the Jump House Pain song after the the 3rd QTR. I used to think it was just the students, but the whole stadium gets involved. The also all sing a school varsity song during the game and during their 5th QTR. (Cancelled last night due to sever weather)
Anyways, if you aren't going to all the PSU games I recommend soaking some games where you don't have a vested interest on who wins. The bigger the game the better.
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