The collective breaths of the Wisconsin fanbase were being held on Saturday as they saw star left tackle Rick Wagner go down with an injury just before the end of the 2nd quarter. Who could blame anyone for thinking it would be devastating? It's not as if this ground attack had been going strong all season long and losing your best player wouldn't exactly help that cause, right?
But, in stepped left guard Ryan Groy and despite a bump here and there this unit kept it rolling along.
Another sign this team is gelling and working towards peaking at the right time?
Well, according to Jeff Potrykus of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel the line set a huge goal (400 yards rushing) and obtained that. The Badgers ended up with 467 yards rushing and the good sign is what is inside that number of 467.
First off the Badgers averaged a ridiculous 8.2 yards a carry on 57 rushing attempts for the game.
Wagner went down with 1:46 left in the 2nd quarter, up until his injury the Badgers had rushed for 186 yards and rushed for just 2 more on the next run after his injury for 188 yards rushing in the first half.
The Badgers took left guard Ryan Groy, moved him to left tackle, and inserted Zac Matthias at left guard. The results on the ground speak for themselves. Following Wagner's injury the Badgers rushed for 279 yards in the 2nd half and 281 yards in total minus Wagner.
That means they averaged 8 yards per carry minus Wagner . As for the 1st half? Wisconsin averaged 8.1 yards a carry.
All of that shows that this offensive line unit has found something and the chemistry is finally coming along if you ask me.
Were there times the offense looked a little one dimensional? Yes, but perhaps that's because the Badgers were up enough and trying to run some clock, not just because of Wagner's injury.
As a Badger fan you have to be impressed with what happened from the offensive line on Saturday, but it's not just all about them, at least according to head coach Bret Bielema.
"Yes, it's the driving force," Bielema said at his Monday press conference. "I also think there's a lot of good players playing well around him. I don't mean to minimize. I'm very excited the way our offensive line is playing. Give coach Miller a lot of credit and where we're going with that."
For Wisconsin to continue to be successful this is a group that needs to perform better and looking back from week to week there is no question that since the insertion of Miller as the offensive line coach things are vastly different.
Credit also needs to go to guys like Ryan Groy, who was named an offensive MVP by the team, because they are versatile enough to make a switch mid-game and keep the engine moving forward.
The most impressive part may be the fact that they had their best rushing performance to date against what many, including Delany's Dozen, think is the best defensive line (Purdue) and defensive player in the conference (Kawann Short).
Keep this type of performance up, or at least half of it, and this team is going to be very difficult to beat down the stretch no matter who's in front of them, or what the status of Rick Wagner is.
As for the status of Wagner? Bielema provided little information on Monday.
"Ricky Wagner, don't know if he'll be with us this week," he said. "I know he'll try to get back out there. It's a guy that obviously wants senior and his birthday this coming Sunday. I know it's a special time for him and trying to help us win every game we can. Don't know the status of him right now."
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