Continued Bowl Bummer for Badgers

People will say all the time to not put much stock into how college football teams do in a bowl games. It is a short-sighted comment by people whom usually have struggling teams during the bowl season. They are not meaningless despite what some might think rather they can set a tone for the upcoming season, or put an exclamation mark on the season.  For Wisconsin, there is definitely a recurring people during bowl season as they have now lost five of their last six bowls including yesterday falling to South Carolina, 34-24 in a game where Wisconsin failed to take advantage of second half opportunities.  

Wisconsin is certainly not afraid of SEC teams. Through the last decade, Wisconsin has done fairly well against SEC teams with a few losses sprinkled in. They beat Auburn and Arkansas teams who were probably high BCS quality teams at the time. South Carolina is a good team, but one who Wisconsin definitely could have beat yet a bad second half results in a Gamecocks win.

Usually in sports, we tend to remember the final quarter of the game, and not really point out some of the issues of previous quarters. If you want a spot where the Capital One Bowl changed it was middle of the third quarter. Wisconsin made a field goal to put them up 17-13 building on their halftime lead. They received the ball right away after Connor Shaw fumbled the first play from scrimmage after Badgers had a four-point lead. Wisconsin had the ability to put themselves up by double-digits and they could not capitalized whatsoever. Badgers went three and out including a holding call on tight end Sam Aronson causing to back up Wisconsin leading to a missed field goal for the Badgers. This has been a problem for Wisconsin all year and it continues during the bowl season. 

South Carolina would get a touchdown on the following drive including a fourth down conversion with Shaw finding Bruce Ellington down the field. This would be the last time South Carolina lost the lead, and much of the difference as to why they won this football game. Even if Wisconsin had a seven-point lead, it would have kept control for the Badgers even if the Gamecocks scored, the game is still tied rather than Wisconsin to try to come from behind. Although Wisconsin had a chance to reclaim the lead in the fourth quarter yet they could not do anything with South Carolina leaving the door open. 

Gamecocks took a 10 point lead after another touchdown involving Shaw throwing a short touchdown to Jerrell Adams. Wisconsin had a kickoff return from Kenzell Doe putting Wisconsin right back in this game only trailing by three points. But Badgers defense could not respond with a stop as South Carolina drove down the field leading to put the game back to a 10 point advantage at 34-24. Wisconsin had multiple opportunities to get the game back into single digits, but twice, Curt Phillips threw interceptions on short yardage downs. I have no idea what offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig is thinking there with two of the best running backs in the nation plus a backup quarterback and the decision is to throw the ball on fourth and third and one. It makes virtually no sense especially when Melvin Gordon and James White were over 100 yards a piece. 

Wisconsin will move on into what could be a promising 2014 season. They start the year off heading to Houston for a major non-conference clash with LSU before coming home to an easier than usual Big Ten schedule missing Ohio State, Michigan State and Michigan next year. The door is open for Wisconsin to be a major player in the Big Ten next year and honestly, I think most Badgers would want a win over an SEC opponent later on in 2014 despite needing to be better in January. 

Charlie.