Saturday, November 22, 2008

The Badgers Beat Cal-Poly. Boo.

I wouldn't say that I was rooting against the Badgers as they took on Division I-AA Cal Poly on Saturday, but I definitely was not rooting for them. In fact, after the Badgers 36-35 win over the Mustangs, I was kind of upset. Here's why, Bucky Five style.

5. It's embarrassing - Seriously, how excited are we as a fan base about a one point win over a Division I-AA school? Even if they are regarded as a decent team, we are in one of the BCS conferences! While it's not as bad as Michigan's loss to Applachian State a year ago, it still ranks up there as reasons why the Big Ten has turned into a joke.

4. My Madison buddies - Here's the thing. I went to school at UW-La Crosse. Many of my friends went to UW-Madison. Now, even though I enjoyed the hell out of my visits to Madison, and have been a Badger fan all my life, I used to have a pretty big chip on my shoulder when it came to my high school friends that went there.

Even though everyone turns into a douchebag when they go to college (because they are finally free to do whatever they want, and become more "cultured"), that seems to happen at a greater pace in Madison. Back me up on this. People that go to Madison think they are better than you. It's bad freshman year, but it eventually fades away, and our friends return back to being normal.

But for that reason, it would have been nice to see Bear's Badgers fall to Cal Poly.

3. The future of our coach - For the Bielema haters out there... there is no way Bielema isn't fired if the Badgers lose that game. A loss on Saturday, no matter how unfathomable it may have been, would have doomed his tenure and possibly put this program back on track.

2. Act like you've been there before - Speaking of d-bags that go to Madison, meet Andy Kemp. He's the obnoxious lineman who celebrated the win like he was in Grant Park on Election Night. Even the announcers on the Big Ten network mentioned that it had appeared as if the Badgers had just beaten Ohio State for the Big Ten title, with the way the guys were celebrating. You guys just beat a Division I-AA school on an extra point, and that's how you celebrate? I know it was the seniors' last game and all, but that might have been the most embarrassing part of the whole affair.

But Kemp is from Menasha, so that explains some of it.

1. I feel for Andrew Gardner - How could you not feel bad for the Mustangs kicker who missed three extra points, as well as a potential game winner in regulation? I'm not usually one to feel bad for the other team, but as someone who has constantly let down people in his life, I feel Gardner's pain.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting points except for that whole chip on your shoulder about the LaCrosse/Madison thing. No one really cares about your inferiority complex.

It might have been more interesting to talk about the fact that UW-Madison was scheduled to play Virginia Tech at Madison Sep. 20, but Coach Bielema decided to have a bye that week because he didn't want to play vs.VT, @ Michigan, vs. OSU, & vs. PSU consecutively.

Apparently Bucky would rather pad their record, not grind it out against top schools. Unlike states like Texas, California & Florida, the Badger State doesn't have a huge surplus of high-caliber football players to recruit. Therefore they have to be very aggressive in recruiting from out of state. Tritely put, the deck is already stacked in their favor.

Even if they strike paydirt with some good recruits, they still have to play (& beat) some good teams to reach a BCS game. It doesn't look good for your football program when your coach is taking big games versus quality opponents off your schedule.

Even Charlie Weiss & ND wouldn't do that -- they just got destroyed by Syracuse ...SYRACUSE! But they're still going to wrap up the season vs. the USC Trojans. I'm sure Weiss knew the 2008 installment of the Fighting Irish wasn't a powerhouse, but he definitely didn't try to side-step a good challenge (& yes, I know the ND-USC matchup is tradition, but you get my point).

Anonymous said...

kevin khakis = madison grad. there is definitely something to that, and im sure the same thing happens with kids that go to other d1 schools with successful athletic programs across the country.

Anonymous said...

Um, no I'm not a UW-Madison grad. I do live & work in Madison but I could care less about how students from different colleges perceive each other. It's just all that Lacrosse/Madison nonsense was distracting within the article by Winks. I thought I'd be nice & suggest a Badger football topic with a little more substance & pertinence.

I just live here because it's a nice city. I could really care less about the college or the students here. I'm a transplant from the Milwaukee area who cares about the Brewers & maybe a little Packers.

b2 obviously doesn't know a UW-Madison grad when he sees one ... they're the unconditional Badger football apologists who honestly think their team has a shot at a BCS game EVERY season.

Fact is it doesn't matter where you went to school ... if you can find work in your desired field with the economy in bad shape, then more power to you.

Also, the Badgers are WAY overrated. Try telling that to everyone around here ... LOL.

Anonymous said...

Whoa whoa....Generalizations being thrown out everywhere here.

I graduated from Madison, and only once did I believe we had a very small shot at a national title in the last 10 years.

I'm not really sure if I personally know anyone who graduated from Madison that would ever say we are BCS contenders every year.

And this inferiority complex thing is so damn lame. Honestly for every person you get from Madison that "acts like they are better" you get a person who whines and bitches about how everyone at UW-Madison thinks they are top shit.

Most of it on both sides is completely unwarrented and very petty.

Jonk said...

"People that go to Madison think they are better than you."

Actually, it's "people who go to Madison think they are better than you" -- I learned that in English class at UW-Madison. ;-)

Anonymous said...

"People that go to Madison think they are better than you."

Why shouldn't we?

- A loss does NOT equal a firing
- Cal Poly is better than a decent amount of BCS schools
- Pathetic reaction by Badger players

Winks said...

Just so you're all aware, I'm not exactly fond of UW-La Crosse either.

Anonymous said...

Weak post. Don't ever root against the badgers. Bandwagon fans like you are the real d-bag Badger fans that go from thinking theyre awesome after 5 games when theyre 5-0 and ranked in the top 10 every year to bitching like you are right now. And what is your deal against UW-Madison? Maybe you shouldn't have went to a small-ass school and tried comparing it to a big ten school.

Winks said...

What I'm saying is that with the way we won this game, it would have been just as embarrassing to lose. Did we really just cheer for the Badgers to win because of a missed extra point against a I-AA school?

I know a win is a win, but the Badgers have fallen pretty low this year, and it's been hard to watch.

As for my "grudge" against UW-Madison, all I really did was make a joke about how people get big heads when they go there. This last poster just inadvertently proved me right.

Anonymous said...

I still think you would have been better off mentioning Coach Bielema's decision to p---y out by choosing to play Cal-Poly over VT.

You might also want to consider renaming this site The Eagle Channel.

Anonymous said...

While I don't agree with the whole issue, this last statement by Khakis makes no sense. Winks very rarely talks UW Lacrosse sports if ever, why would he consider renaming the site the Eagle Channel. I'm 100% positive it was a lame attempt a joke, but if you think about it makes no sense.

Winks has already stated numerous times that he was pretty much a bandwagon badger football fan. While I am always on board, I still like to hear what the casual fan has to say in matters, its called differences of opinion.

Anonymous said...

to quote bear:

"Honestly for every person you get from Madison that "acts like they are better" you get a person who whines and bitches about how everyone at UW-Madison thinks they are top shit."

chicken or the egg, man.

honestly though, im not bitching about how everyone at uw-madison thinks theyre top shit, but like i said just like every big school theres a certain level of arrogance with a lot of people who go there. thats just my experience with some other friends, but it does fade with most. unfortunately, it doesnt fade for some anonymous posters

Anonymous said...

You're right ... "The Eagle Channel" thing wasn't that funny until you took the "advice" seriously.

The most entertaining part about this blog is the comment section. I could care less about the articles.

Anonymous said...

well, kevin khakis, it seems to me that you could also care less about wisconsin sports if you dont care about the articles, which are all about wisconsin sports.

Anonymous said...

first off khakis, you obviously cared about the articles, because you have been reading them for a while, and usually there are only a few comments on every posts, and those comments are, for the most part, not that entertaining. Definitly not as entertaining as the articles. Your at the point in this comment argument where you are making up random things about yourself to make yourself look cool so you can win an online argument.

this whole thing is dumb to begin with, as its a blog, and its his own opinion and he can share his opinion on his blog. Secondly, i dont see why you randomly got pissed over a little thing about madison grads, and why should you even care its not like you attented madison.

Anonymous said...

I care about Wisconsin sports & I care about articles covering Wisconsin sports when they actually talk about sports. His article was OK until he started his whole David-Goliath/LAX-Madison thing. I'll care about a sports article if it doesn't have distracting garbage like that in it.

You're right, it is only a blog, not a legitimate source for sports news. I totally get that. But there are plenty of sports blogs out there run by average joes that try a little harder to incorporate journalistic integrity into their hobby. Their articles are well edited & consistently interesting.

"So why don't you go check those ones out then & leave us be?" you might wonder.

I like to check back every so often & see how much you guys have improved. It's obvious that you guys like to have fun with this site, but at the same time I know you take your hobby very seriously. I know I would too.

I just like to offer criticism from time to time (mostly of the constructive variety) to help out. At the very top of this comment section is the original bit of advice I offered. It was only after everyone started trippin with their comments that I decided to mess around a bit.

Everyone have a nice Thanksgiving!!!

Let us march towards the beacon of truth hand in hand like brothers.

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