Wisconsin Preview:
It’s Big Barry’s Farewell Tour

By Paul Smith
paul.smith@collegeblitz.com

PORTER, IND. — All-everything defensive end and general quarterback terrorizer Erasmus James -- gone.

Evasive defensive tackle Anttaj Hawthorne, who gave the Badgers' pass rush even more teeth -- gone.

Free safety Jim Leonhard, one of the Big Ten's biggest hitters -- gone, too, along with the 300-pound anchor of last year's amazing offensive line, tackle Dan Buenning -- both graduated.

So here you have the 2005 Wisconsin Badgers and a bunch of gloom-and-doomers who seem ready to pronounce "Game, set and match," envisioning a U.W. collapse and inglorious finish to coaching legend Barry Alvarez's career.

For the first time since 1996, Wisconsin is not a pre-season Top 25 pick. The balance scale is listing badly, the doomsayers say, and could topple over and create the worst Badgers season since the early 1990s.

Quick, some more knowledgeable types order, get Alvarez, who will retire as head coach after this season, to jump on the other side. And find some players pronto.

That's the approach the 15-year veteran coach takes as he assesses his team's approach to the 2005 season, a classic "That's-why-they-play-the games" approach. Anybody who'd expect any other angle doesn't know Barry Alvarez.

For sure, it doesn't help that the Badgers open, albeit at home, against a powerhouse Bowling Green team from the always-underrated Mid-American Conference, one that should have little difficulty finding its way quickly into the top 25.

Teams like Fresno State have caused early-season Camp Randall Stadium discomfort before.

Visits to North Carolina and Michigan before September closes out could write finis to the Badgers' 2005 season almost before it gets underway in earnest, the legend goes.

The challenge may be one of the biggest of his career, but Alvarez is in full bring-it-on mode. And for good reason.

"When you lose as many players as we did (13 of 22 position starters)," Alvarez told the Wisconsin State Journal's Jim Polzin, "if you're ranking people, you don't know the guys we have listed as starters, why would you rank us?"

Prof. Alvarez brings a little Logic 101 to the pre-season discussion, but it may be very instructive to know that he and, importantly, talented current defensive coordinator Brett Bielema, who will replace Alvarez in 2006, know the personnel intimately.

That could spell trouble for anyone naive enough to smugly approach a date with the Badgers this year.

Junior linebacker Mike Zalewski, a co-captain and one of the Big Ten's best run-pluggers, looked at all the swirling pessimism and, with grim determination, told Polzin, "It seems like the teams that are in the Top 25 now, a lot of them won't be at the end of the year," he said.

"Preseason honors, and all the ratings, I really don't pay attention to. It's how we do during the season and the final standings."

On the surface, a bold, defiant statement. But Alvarez has always recruited smartly, always created a self-perpetuating roster that has kept U.W. in constant contention in one of the nation's most competitive conferences.

For more than a few reasons, this year should not be all that different.

One is the return of Jonathan Orr, who has a good chance to recall that 2002 form where he caught 47 balls for 842 yards and 8 touchdowns in a lineup with gamebreakers Lee Evans, who stretched defenses from State College to the West Coast, and 1,000-yard rusher Anthony Davis.

Brandon Williams, who is just 33 catches behind Evans for the school's all-time reception record, should team with powerful tight end Owen Daniels, a converted quarterback who is often compared to former Iowa monster Dallas Clark, to give quarterback John Stocco a chance to live up to his big arm reputation.

Even without Buenning, the O-line looks strong again, with center Donovan Raiola, brother of Detroit Lions center Dominic Raiola, anchoring a rugged bunch of drive-blocking, typical Alvarez-type dominators who can help the Badgers keep the ball for long stretches.

Add 6-feet, 2-inch fullback Matt Bernstein, a 266-pound fullback from that celebrated gray-flannel-suit hotbed of Scarsdale, N.Y., and versatile tailback Brian Calhoun, who nearly rewrote the Wisconsin prep rushing record book at Oak Creek High School, and you are tempted to ask, "Problems? What problems?"

There is some inexperience, of course, but most of the 13 nonstarters from 2004 have enough key game experience to assure that few opposing coachings staffs will drown themselves in self-confidence.

Defensively, the Badgers return one of the league's better corners in Brett Bell, and tackle Justin Ostrowski, who effectively spelled Hawthorne last fall for long stretches, brings Parade All-American credentials and an impressive 6-5, 304-pound frame to a position that has been a traditional U.W. strength.

Zalewski, sophomore Andy Crooks and senior Dontez Sanders should give the Badgers major league linebacking and the secondary, while somewhat inexperienced with Bell's exception, is athletic enough to challenge most receivers.

So where does all this lead? Well, for those with short memory, there is this to consider. Wisconsin's 2004 pre-season outlook, Orr said, was very much the same.

"It's been like that other years since I've been here," he told Polzin, thinking back to the Badgers' 9-0 start that gained them major national publicity before they suffered a 49-14 shocker at Michigan State. "It really doesn't have too much of an impact."

Given their reputation as one of the Big Ten's most physical teams, a testament to Alvarez's Burgettstown, Pa. blood-and-guts roots, even the gloom-and-doomers will have a rough time envisioning a major Badger implosion.

Particularly in Barry Alvarez's final year.

"I think our program is far enough along that we're not going to sneak up on anyone any more," Alvarez said. "You know, I don't think anybody is sitting back here thinking that we're going to be a patsy."

People with such thoughts become ex-coaches before long.