Capital One Bowl

Ok, If I don't take care of this now, I never will. Especially with this whole National Championship thing they've got going on tonight.

The first thing I noticed in all the coverage is the lack of respect Wisconsin was getting. Not only were we consitantly told by Herbstreit and Corso that Auburn was going to kick our ass, but we were also told that the only reason we'd even be IN the game was because of the emotion that went with it being Barry's last game.

In fact, I'd like to suggest that the College GameDay idiots get a thesauraus, because I heard the word emotion too many damn times in the pregame show. We'd play well and could maybe keep it close because of the emotion involved. Emotions were running high because of Barry. It must be an emotional time.

I wanted to shove the emotion up Lee Corso's Orange Botoxed nose.

I'll tell you what that emotion was all about.
Brian Calhoun rushed for 213 yards ... basically equivalent to the entire offensive output of the Auburn Tigers.
The 236 yards of total offense Auburn put up was well below the 425.6 yards they averaged per game this season. This against a Wisconsin defense that was so bad and so depleted that we had a guy playing Ironman because we had no one else to play at that position.
With his 213 yards, Calhoun became only the 2nd player in NCAA D1 history to record 1,500 yards rushing and 500 yards receiving.

See, what was overlooked by basically everyone this year is that the Wisconsin Badgers weren't even supposed to contend, much less spend most of the season in the Top 25. This was a rebuilding year. The Badgers lost the entire Defensive line to the NFL.

The number one reason that Brian Calhoun should have won the Heisman (or at least have been a serious option) this year is that he single handedly made his team a contender. If USC didn't have Reggie Bush, they'd still be a great team. Lendale White would just have more carries. Brian Calhoun carried an entire team to a top 20 ranking in a year they shouldn't have even been able to be in the top half of their conference.

Wisconsin posted 548 yards of total offense. Brandon Williams notched 173 yards and John Stocco threw for 301 yards. Stocco for the past two years has been mostly a punchline here instate. We've never been known for our outstanding QBs. But of course, in a year where Brooks Bollinger became not only a starter, but a viable one at that, I suppose it meant anything could happen for Wisconsin QBs.

The defense held RB Kenny Irons to 88 yards rushing and held QB Brandon Cox to 137 yards passing. That accounts for all by 11 of Auburn's offensive yards.

Every fan of an SEC team other than Auburn saw this game and gave a little middle finger action to the War Tigers. Hell, they didn't even show up.

The worst part was listening to the announcers, who, instead of crediting Wisconsin with showing up and playing one hell of a game, continuously made excuses for Auburn's lack football prowess. Just once it would have been nice to hear them say something about how Wisconsin flat-out played what was supposed to be a damn good team.