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No national title, so Badgers play for price
Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. -- There are, in the words of Wisconsin
football coach Barry Alvarez, no bad bowls.
"It's always good to get eight wins," Alvarez said. "All the
things this team had to deal with, I'm proud of how they hung in
there. They were very close to achieving an awful lot."
The Badgers (8-4) are headed to the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas,
where they'll face UCLA and play for pride rather than the national
title.
"There are no points for being home for Christmas, except maybe
from grandma and grandpa," defensive tackle Wendell Bryant said.
"This says we salvaged our season."
Bad breaks came in bunches for the Badgers, who began the season
at No. 4 after consecutive Rose Bowl victories.
They dreamed of their first national title.
But just hours before Wisconsin's opener, the NCAA announced
suspensions of more than two dozen players for receiving
unadvertised discounts at a shoe store.
In all, 27 Badgers served staggered suspensions totaling 43
games, most of them over the season's first month. Only four
starters played every game.
"You have to overcome stuff like that. I don't know if we ever
did," Bryant said.
Star receiver Chris Chambers, who broke a foot in training camp,
missed a month and star cornerback Jamar Fletcher served a
three-game sentence.
With a hodgepodge lineup, the Badgers managed to squeak past
Western Michigan, Oregon and Cincinnati.
"We went into the season with expectations of blowing teams out
and we were scraping to win games," Bryant said. "We were not
mentally prepared for that. The suspensions hurt us. We couldn't
believe it after all the things we were supposed to do this year."
The Badgers lost offensive lineman Dave Costa with a broken leg
in Week 4 against Northwestern. Their pass protection and run
blocking would never be the same.
On defense, end John Favret and free safety Jason Doering were
hurt.
Doering and quarterback Brooks Bollinger were among four players
who got concussions this season -- double the total of concussions
in Alvarez's first 10 years at Wisconsin.
Just when it looked like the Badgers would make it through their
NCAA punishment unscathed, things began to unravel against
Northwestern.
Tailback Michael Bennett gained 293 yards on 48 carries, but the
ball jammed into his rib cage on a 9-yard run, and he went out with
the score tied at 31 and the Badgers at Northwestern's 29 with a
minute left.
The Wildcats stuffed backup Eddie Faulkner and Bollinger on
consecutive rushes, and the Badgers settled for Vitaly Pisetsky's
47-yard field goal with 51 seconds left -- enough time for the
Wildcats to hit back.
"I wanted to come through in the clutch, when it really
counted," Bennett said.
But he was on the sideline watching.
Northwestern tied the game, then won it in double overtime,
ending Wisconsin's 11-game winning streak and its national
championship hopes.
Deflated, the Badgers lost the following week at Michigan, then
lost to Ohio State and Purdue to fall to 4-4.
The Badgers managed to secure their seventh bowl bid in eight
seasons, but, as Bryant said, "We never felt we really got the
chance to show our true ability."
Alvarez said any disappointment Badgers fans might have about
going to the Sun Bowl is baseless.
"We've been very fortunate through the '90s in the bowl games
we've gone to," he said. "That is very unusual. There are a lot
of people sitting home over the holidays."
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