(All this week we’re taking a look back at the last 10 years of wins in this rivalry, reminding everyone of the decade of domination by the Badgers)
For most Badger fans, 2011 will be looked as perhaps the most special season we’ve ever seen. Offensive records were broken like crazy, the defense was amazing and just like other seven years the Badgers put it on the Gophs.
By this point we should be getting our 10 years of domination song going? No seriously, leave your best lyrics (based on the 12 days of christmas) in the comments section because this needs to happen…Anyway, time to get on to the annual ass kicking of the Gophs.
Final Score: Wisconsin 42, Gophs 13
The final score says Wisconsin kicked the crap out of the Gophs, and that was a rude introduction to the rivalry for Gophs head coach Jerry Kill indeed. However, for most Badger fans this game is all about record breaking.
Montee Ball set the conference’s single-season touchdown record, quarterback Russell Wilson had a season-high four touchdown passes, and he hit on every one of his passes in this game, minus the very last one (which Nick Toon dropped when he hit the ground hard).
Toon finished with eight catches for 100 yards and two scores, and Wilson went 16 for 17 for 178 yards.
The Badgers outgained the Gophs in total yards 461-156 and had 29 first downs to their rival’s nine on an unseasonably warm afternoon with a kickoff temperature in the low 60’s.
Then there was Ball, who found plenty of gaping holes behind that gargantuan offensive line and gained 166 yards on 23 carries.
Ball had 27 total touchdowns at this point in the 2011 season and we all remember he would go on to tie the single-season record for total touchdowns by an FBS player later in the season. The previous Big Ten mark was shared by Pete Johnson (Ohio State, 1975), Anthony Thompson (Indiana, 1988) and Ki-Jana Carter (Penn State, 1994). Ball was 12 scores behind Barry Sanders’ NCAA record following another chopping down of the Gophs.
The Gophs scored twice on special teams, a 5-yard run by kicker Jordan Wettstein on a fake field goal and a 96-yard return of the second half kickoff by Duane Bennett, but they were dominated on both sides of the ball all day.
The yardage at the end of the first quarter was 189 for Wisconsin and minus-1 for the Gophs.
Another year, another example of how these two programs were heading in opposite directions…or so we all thought.
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