WISCONSIN Contact: Brian Lucas, Asst. Dir. of Athletic Comm. FOOTBALL Offi ce: 608-263-5052 / Cell: 608-513-3987 August 31, 2009 E-mail: [email protected] Key Notes to Consider GAME #1 Wisconsin opens its 121st sea- N. ILLINOIS AT WISCONSIN son of football on Saturday against Northern Illinois at Camp Randall Date/Time Stadium in Madison, Wis., at 6:01 Saturday, Sept. 5 at 6:01 p.m. CT p.m. UW has won 11 consecutive Location season-openers, dating back to 1996. Madison, Wis. The Badgers 103-man fall camp Stadium roster consisted of 46 freshmen, Camp Randall Stadium (80,321 / FieldTurf) 25 sophomores, 16 juniors and 16 seniors. Of the 55 players listed on Television the offensive and defensive depth BTN (Wayne Larrivee, Chris Martin and Charissa Thompson) chart, only 10 are seniors and 31 are freshmen or sophomores. Radio Junior quarterback Scott Tolzien will make his Wisconsin Radio Network (Matt Lepay and Mike Lucas) Since the start of the 2004 sea- fi rst career start this Saturday vs. Northern Illinois. son (when head coach Bret Bielema Series joined the UW coaching staff as de- Wisconsin leads 10-1 fensive coordinator) the Badgers have compiled a 30-3 record at Camp Randall Stadium. That is tied with Texas for the Rankings fourth-best home record over that span, trailing only Boise State (32-1), Oklahoma Wisconsin (0-0, 0-0 Big Ten) (30-1) and USC (29-1). USA Today/Coaches: RV Associated Press: NR Wisconsin has won 14 straight non-conference home games, dating back to Harris: NA 2003. Only one of those games has been decided by less than 10 points. BCS: NA Northern Illinois (0-0, 0-0 MAC) This is UW’s latest season-opener since beginning the 1998 campaign on Sept. 5 USA Today/Coaches: NR at San Diego State. Associated Press: NR Harris: NA UW has compiled a 47-17 record over the last fi ve seasons. That is the second- BCS: NA best record among Big Ten teams over that span, trailing only Ohio State. Last Meeting Wisconsin won, 44-3, on Oct. 20, 2007 at Camp Randall Stadium Wisconsin has played in a bowl game in seven straight seasons. That is the second-longest active streak in the Big Ten (behind Ohio State). 2009 SCHEDULE AND RESULTS (0-0, 0-0 BIG TEN) RANKINGS* DATE OPPONENT UW / OPP. TELEVISION TIME/SCORE NOTES SEPT. 5 NORTHERN ILLINOIS NR & RV / NR & NR BTN 6:01 p.m. SEPT. 12 FRESNO STATE ESPN/ESPN2 11:02 a.m. SEPT. 19 WOFFORD BTN 11:01 a.m. SEPT. 26 MICHIGAN STATE Oct. 3 at Minnesota Oct. 10 at Ohio State OCT. 17 IOWA 11 a.m. OCT. 31 PURDUE Nov. 7 at Indiana NOV. 14 MICHIGAN Nov. 21 at Northwestern Dec. 5 at Hawaii ESPN/ESPN2 HOMES GAMES IN CAPS *AP & USA Today General Notes 2009 BIG TEN STANDINGS On the opening weekend of the college football season, the University of Wis- consin and Northern Illinois University are joining the NCAA, the American Football Overall Big Ten Coaches Association and schools across the nation in celebrating the ideals of respect Team W L Pct. W L Pct. and sportsmanship in college football. Both teams will shake hands at mid-fi eld be- Illinois 0 0 .000 fore the coin toss, demonstrating respect for the opponent. Indiana 0 0 .000 Wisconsin has won 10 of the 11 meetings with Northern Illinois. All 11 previous Iowa 0 0 .000 games have been played at Camp Randall Stadium. NIU’s only win in the series came in 1988. Michigan 0 0 .000 Michigan State 0 0 .000 Wisconsin is 28-3 all-time against teams currently in the Mid-American Confer- Minnesota 0 0 .000 ence. In their last game against a MAC team, the Badgers defeated Akron, 38-17, last year at Camp Randall. Including this year, UW has faced a MAC team in seven of the Northwestern 0 0 .000 last eight seasons. Since its loss to Northern Illinois in 1988, Wisconsin has won 16 Ohio State 0 0 .000 games in a row against MAC schools. Penn State 0 0 .000 Wisconsin’s four captains were announced on Aug. 26 (by Coach Bielema via Purdue 0 0 .000 Twitter). All four are seniors: TE Garrett Graham, TE Mickey Turner, DE O’Brien Scho- Wisconsin 0 0 .000 fi eld and DB Chris Maragos. Maragos is the latest in the long line of former walk-ons at Wisconsin to be This Week’s Games (Sept. 3) named team captain. That list includes standouts such as Joe Panos, Donnel Thomp- Eastern Kentucky at Indiana son, Jason Doering, Jim Leonhard and Luke Swan. This Week’s Games (Sept. 5) Head coach Bret Bielema’s 28-11 record is second-best among the 11 head Northern Illinois at WISCONSIN coaches hired prior to the 2006 season. He trails only Chris Peterson of Boise State Towson at Northwestern (35-4). Bielema and Peterson are the only two of those 11 head coaches to have led Montana State at Michigan State their teams to three straight bowl appearances. Western Michigan at Michigan Minnesota at Syracuse For just the third time since 1982, the Badgers open the season with four straight Navy at Ohio State home games. The last two times that happened were in 1990 and 2000. Akron at Penn State Northern Iowa at Iowa Wisconsin is one of 27 schools in the country (and one of fi ve Big Ten teams) to Toledo at Purdue return its coaching staff completely intact from a year ago. Missouri at Illinois (St. Louis) Notes For The Offense BADGERS IN WEEKLY RANKINGS Quarterback Scott Tolzien will make his fi rst career start against Northern Illi- nois. Three of the last four quarterbacks to start their fi rst game at UW led the Badgers USA to victory. Allan Evridge (vs. Akron), Tyler Donovan (vs. Iowa) and John Stocco (vs. Date Today A.P. Harris BCS Central Florida) piloted UW to wins while the Badgers fell to Iowa, 38-16, last year in Preseason RV NR NA NA Dustin Sherer’s debut as a starter. Sept. 6 UW returns six of its top seven pass catchers from a year ago as well as all six Sept. 13 wide receivers who caught at least one pass last year. Badger returnees accounted for Sept. 20 82.8 percent of Wisconsin’s catches a year ago and all 11 of its TD grabs. Sept. 27 Though they have combined to start just fi ve games in their careers, running Oct. 4 backs Zach Brown and John Clay have a combined 1,757 career rushing yards and Oct. 11 fi ve 100-yard rushing games. Oct. 18 Clay’s 884 yards rushing last season were the fourth-best in UW history by a Oct. 25 freshman (trailing only Ron Dayne, Anthony Davis and P.J. Hill). He needs just 692 Nov. 1 yards to move into the top 20 on UW’s career rushing yardage list. Nov. 8 Wisconsin’s top three tight ends may form the best TE group in the Big Ten. The Nov. 15 trio has combined to play 71 games in their careers. Both Garrett Graham and Mickey Turner were voted team captains, the fi rst players at the same position to be named Nov. 22 captains since linebackers Donnel Thompson and Chris Ghidorzi captained the 1999 Nov. 29 Rose Bowl championship team. Dec. 6 Though they lost three starters on the offensive line from a years ago, the Bad- Final (Jan. 8) gers return fi ve players on the o-line with starting experience. C John Moffi tt and LT Gabe Carimi have started 42 games between them in their careers. RT Josh Oglesby and RG Bill Nagy both have three career starts while LG Jake Bscherer has one. Wisconsin’s 211.2 rushing yards per game last season were the team’s most since averaging 275.4 yards on the ground in 1999, the year Ron Dayne won the Heisman Trophy and UW won the Big Ten and the Rose Bowl. The Badgers ranked third in the Big Ten in total offense, averaging 399.2 yards per game. They just missed averaging 400.0 or more yards of total offense in consecu- tive seasons for the fi rst time since 1993-94. The last freshman quarterback to see action for Wisconsin in the fi rst half of SITUATIONAL RECORDS a season-opening game was Brooks Bollinger against Murray State in 1999. Tyler Donovan played in the fourth quarter against Central Florida in the 2004 opener, a 2009 BIELEMA 34-6 Badger victory. UW head coach Bret Bielema has indicated that redshirt fresh- UW vs. Top-25 opponents (A.P. or coaches) 0-0 4-7 man QB Curt Phillips will see action at some point vs. Northern Illinois. UW vs. Top-10 opponents (A.P. or coaches) 0-0 0-3 UW scores fi rst 0-0 20-3 Notes For The Defense Opponent scores fi rst 0-0 8-8 Wisconsin’s projected starting defensive line (DE J.J. Watt, DT Dan Moore, DT UW leads after 1st quarter 0-0 15-2 Jeff Stehle, DE O’Brien Schofi eld) has an average weight of 282 pounds. That is an increase of more than 20 pounds from last year’s starters (average weight: 258.5). Opponent leads after 1st quarter 0-0 6-6 UW leads at halftime 0-0 20-3 It is likely that fi ve players (Watt, Moore, Stehle, Mike Taylor, Devin Smith) will be making their fi rst career starts on defense for UW vs.