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Nagy to start at center
MADISON – While they all may line up together, the differences between the guard, center and tight end positions are many. That hasn’t stopped Bill Nagy from transitioning seamlessly between the three spots this season.
Nagy, a fifth year senior from Hudson, Ohio, started the first four games of the season for the Badgers at right guard with Kevin Zeitler out with an injury. When the opportunity arose for him to fill in at tight end, Nagy jumped at that opportunity as well.
Now, with Peter Konz aggravating his right ankle injury, Nagy is set to start at center for the first time in his career Saturday against Indiana. As a senior, and one who missed all but three games last year, Nagy is savoring every chance he gets to put on the Wisconsin uniform, whether it be No. 76 or No. 89.
“Yeah, that’s probably the hardest part,” Nagy joked, referring to switching jerseys depending on the position. “It’s been a lot of fun, I’m just happy that I got the opportunity to play some tight end, too. It’s unfortunate what happened with Zeit at the beginning of the season and then obviously, Pete going down with his ankle and everything with that.
“I’m just trying to play hard, practice hard, and just have a next man in mentality.”
Nagy missed much of the 2009 season as a result of the events of July 16, 2009. On that night, as he rode his moped home from Camp Randall Stadium, going east on Dayton Street, a northbound car on Park Street ran a red light, hitting Nagy.
As a result of the crash, Nagy suffered a broken right wrist and torn ligaments in the arch of his right foot. Though he was able to tough it out through three games, Nagy eventually missed much of the season and was not 100 percent through spring practice.
“That was really tough and a freak thing,” said John Moffitt, Nagy’s roommate. “I was thinking about that the other day like, ‘Bill got hit by a car.’ How many people can say that? I was going to say something to him like, ‘Man, you got hit by a car, that’s crazy.’
“But just the way that he’s recovered and fought back, it’s not been easy. I don’t think people realize that, it’s a physical battle, but it’s also a mental battle, too.”
Having fought back, both mentally and physically, from those injuries, Nagy has become one of the most important members of the 2010 Badgers.
When Konz went down against Iowa, Nagy was more than capable of stepping in. He did, and helped the Badgers escape with the one-point victory. After the injury became an issue again at Purdue, Nagy stepped in and the Wisconsin offense didn’t miss a beat.
His performance at three positions this season has been impressive to say the least.
“Bill’s just the total team player and a selfless player. He’s in his fifth year now and he just wants to get on the field,” Scott Tolzien said. “That’s what makes teams special is when you’ve got a bunch of guys that are willing to just sacrifice their roles for the good of the team. Bill’s been a great example of that, and he’s been huge for us.
“He never dwindles in his confidence or what his role is. The great thing is he doesn’t pout, he doesn’t complain, he just takes it upon himself to just keep getting better every day. I admire his patience just for the way he’s approached it and it’s great to see it kind of come full circle and pay off for him.”
While playing three positions for the Badgers is one thing, Nagy’s ability to play center serves an even greater purpose. If he were unable to do so, head coach Bret Bielema would have to move Moffitt to center, forcing someone else to fill in at left guard as well.
With Nagy at center, the Badgers can maintain a stronger sense of continuity on the line, something that is especially important with Wisconsin’s power style of football.
“Me and Bill were talking about that, because he was like, ‘Why don’t they just plug you in at center?'” Moffitt recalled. “And well, one I said, I think I’m too fat for center right now, and on top of that I said, that’s just one change. Bill’s in, and then there’s still that consistency. Whereas, like Hawaii and Miami last year – Miami was a little easier because we had the time – but Hawaii, we moved me to center, we moved [Travis] Frederick into left guard, and that’s two changes, and that kind of changes half a line.”
As long as they’ve got Nagy, who can fill in anywhere on the line, the Badgers should not have to worry about such dramatic changes this season.
Notes: Third downs critical on D
WEST LAFAYETTE – Most of the focus after the Badgers’ second half turnaround led to a 34-13 victory was on the turnovers, which seemed to spark the entire team.
Simple execution may have had something to do with it, too.
In the first half, Wisconsin ran into a familiar problem as it struggled to stop Purdue on third downs. The Boilermakers were 6 for 9 on third down conversions, as the UW defense struggled to get off the field and give its offense an opportunity to put point on the board.
“We knew the only way we were going to win this ballgame was getting off the field on third downs, and we were able to do that in the second half,” said linebacker Culmer St. Jean, who shifted the momentum with a third quarter interception.
The Boilermakers’ converting on two-thirds of their third-down attempts was even better than the 9 of 18 mark put up by Michigan State as they handed Wisconsin its only loss early last month.
If the Badgers didn’t turn things around after halftime, they were likely headed for a second road loss in Big Ten play. Fortunately, as head coach Bret Bielema said in his postgame press conference, they didn’t need anything resembling superhuman effort to turn things around.
“It was just about execution,” St. Jean said. “In the first half, we had people there and we weren’t tackling. That was one of the things that we stressed going into this game, we knew we were going to have guys in space and we had to get them down. We weren’t able to do that in the first half, and in the second half we just swarmed and kept getting the ball.”
In particular, defensive end J.J. Watt pointed to the team’s performance on first and second down defensively, which made third downs more difficult for Wisconsin and easier to convert for Purdue.
When they went out in the second half, the Badgers forced the Boilermakers to pick up more yardage on third down, averaging 3rd-and-5 on 10 attempts. Purdue went 3-for-10 on third down in the second half.
“When you’re putting them in 3rd-and-long, you’re going to give them tough situations,” Watt said. “We did that well in the second half and obviously that paid off.”
Injury updates
For safety Jay Valai, the bye week wasn’t quite as beneficial to his health as it was for most of his teammates.
After aggravating his right calf on Wednesday, the senior further injured it Thursday, partially tearing the muscle. When the game rolled around Saturday, he was noticeably limited by the injury, especially in the first half.
Eventually, the coaches were forced to sub Shelton Johnson in for Valai.
“Being a senior, you always want to be on the field, but at that point in time, I was more hurting the team than helping the team, so I think that was a smart decision,” Valai said. “It felt a little better in the second half, but it’s still something I need to work on.”
Amid the Badgers’ troubles in the first half, Watt appeared to have suffered an injury, leaving him on the Ross-Ade Stadium turf a little longer than everyone else.
He got up and walked off under his own power, but nonetheless, provided a scare to the Wisconsin players, coaches and fans. Afterward, he expressed little concern over the shoulder injury.
“I was extended out and I dove, and my shoulder kind of clicked in and out,” Watt said. “I’m feeling pretty good now. I’ve still got a little bit of adrenaline going, so we’ll see tomorrow, but I don’t see it holding me out at all.”
While there was plenty to celebrate about in the second half of the 34-13 victory, Wisconsin saw center Peter Konz go down with an injury. As he walked off the field afterward, Konz appeared to be in significant pain, while using crutches and wearing a boot on his right leg.
According to Bielema, the sophomore aggravated the right ankle he injured against Ohio State, which forced senior Bill Nagy to take over at center once again.
Quotable
St. Jean on his second-half interception
“First I went to my drops and it was an out route, so I knew I wasn’t able to get there. We had extra leverage on that side so I just dropped back and read the quarterback and he took me right to the ball.”
Watt on second-half comeback
“It says we have some good character, we have guys who understand the situation, when we get down we can’t get out. We came back in the second half and played like a first-place team plays, and that’s what we need to do from here on out.”
Watt on the team’s first-half play
“It wasn’t necessarily flat, we just didn’t tackle very well on defense and didn’t put together a very good half.”
John Moffitt on the first half struggles
“I think we came out the first half, there were a lot of looks we didn’t see [before], we weren’t executing right away, and maybe a little hangover from the two weeks off. But you don’t really want to lean on that excuse, because you’ve got to be ready to play at all times.”
Moffitt on the change after halftime
“Obviously, the second half, the execution was there, we were doing the right things, the defense looked great and that made the difference.”
Moffitt on what the comeback says about the team
“Guys didn’t quit. The guys fight to the end and that’s what we need because the game’s not over until the last second ticks off the clock and I think guys understand that.”
Mike Taylor on the team’s slow start
“Yeah, you could say we were flat. It took us a little while to kind of get warmed up I guess, but we came out excited in the second half and took care of business.”
Antonio Fenelus on the turnovers in the second half
“It was very big. In the first half we didn’t come out and do as best as we could. We got talked to after that and they just told us to go out there and just play to the best of our abilities and that’s what I went out there and did.”
Fenelus on getting two turnovers in one game
“It feels real good. I haven’t had a pick since the third game of the season, so it feels good to be just go out there and be able to make a play on the ball.”
Montee Ball on the shift in momentum
“We came in here, got our mistakes down and had a chance to talk to everybody. Coach had a chance to talk to us, and we knew we needed to come out and play Wisconsin football and we get focused because we weren’t in the first half. Once we came out and we knew our assignments, we went out and did it.
“In the first half, I had to knock the dust off a bit from the bye week and we all had to. But once we came out of the locker room, we knew ‘This is our half, and we’ve got to produce.'”
Scott Tolzien on the offense
“Offensively it was a struggle for us, and that’s going to happen at times. But I thought the defense was just tremendous, especially in the second half.”
Tolzien on the team’s slow start
“What frustrates me is, that was one of the things that we emphasized in the bye week. We wanted to start fast because that’s always a concern when you have a week off. We didn’t do that.”
Badgers roll after slow start
WEST LAFAYETTE – For two weeks, the Wisconsin football team talked about focusing on Purdue and not taking any team lightly, especially on the road.
That didn’t stop the Boilermakers from making things interesting Saturday against the Badgers at Ross-Ade Stadium. For two quarters, Purdue controlled the game, leading 10-3 at the half before Wisconsin dominated the final 30 minutes for the 34-13 victory.
Coming out in the second half, the Badgers turned the game around with something they had lacked this season entering Saturday’s game: turnovers.
“We did think at halftime, after we kind of saw their offensive plan, that we might be able to get our hands on a couple balls,” head coach Bret Bielema said. “We talked about being opportunistic, and obviously that started off the second half pretty good.”
On its opening drive of the second half, Purdue faced 3rd-and-5 on its own 25-yard line. A Sean Robinson pass was intercepted by Culmer St. Jean, who returned it 14 yards to the 18-yard line.
St. Jean’s grab set up a 7-yard touchdown reception by Jared Abbrederis in the back of the end zone, giving Wisconsin its first lead at 13-10, and setting the tone for the final two quarters of play.
“I was just trying to be opportunistic and make a play,” St. Jean said. “I was able to get that and that was able to trigger the whole team to just keep rolling.”
“When you can come out and get a turnover like that right away, it obviously sparks your whole defense and it sparks your team,” J.J. Watt said. “That was a great way to start the half for us and obviously steamrolled through the rest of the half.”
St. Jean’s interception was the second turnover of the day for the Wisconsin defense. On the Boilermakers’ first possession of the second quarter, Robinson found Antavian Edison on 2nd-and-10 at the Wisconsin 31-yard line, but Edison fumbled the ball to Antonio Fenelus, who picked it up and ran to the Purdue 27-yard line.
Fenelus’ recovery and return stopped what looked to be Purdue’s second scoring drive of the day, while also setting Wisconsin up for its first points, a 44-yard Philip Welch field goal.
“Huge,” Bielema said of the fumble. “They were going in for a score there. I was holding my breath on that challenge, because that challenge came in pretty quick. … Fortunately for us we were able to get points there.”
Following the fumble and subsequent Wisconsin field goal, the Badgers limited the Boilermakers to just twoCarson Wiggs field goals, despite falling behind 7-0 early. With a 20-13 lead early in the fourth quarter, Mike Taylor added his name to the list of those that secured turnovers for UW.
Taylor made an impressive play on a second down Robinson pass, making the interception at the Purdue 40-yard line and returning it 26 yards before he was tripped up at the 14-yard line. On the day, Taylor had six tackles, two for loss, one sack and one interception.
Following a 1-yard loss on first down, Montee Ball rushed 15 yards for an easy touchdown, giving the Badgers a 27-13 lead and all but putting the game out of reach for the Boilermakers. Ball’s touchdown run was his second of the day, as he rushed for a season-high 127 yards on 21 carries.
“The one I liked the most was one of our zone plays that we had,” Ball said of his touchdown run. “I hit the cut back and just hit it up for like 10 yards or so. That was nice. The line did a great job of giving me the hole and I just hit it.”
On the very next drive for Purdue, it was Fenelus who struck again, shutting the door on any potential Boilermaker comeback.
Robinson threw incomplete on first down, setting up 2nd-and-10 at his own 31-yard line. Fenelus jumped in front of the pass, and returned it 31 yards for the score. With the lead up to 34-13, the Badgers’ second half resurgence made the final score look as if it had been in control the entire time.
Not only that, with a fumble recovery and three interceptions, Wisconsin nearly doubled its season total of interceptions after entering with 11 through nine games.
“I said last week I think turnovers kind of come in bunches,” Taylor said. “You get one and everybody gets hyped up.”
His head coach agreed.
“As long as I’ve been in this game, it seems like the more you try to emphasize it, they don’t come, and then all of a sudden they come in a flurry,” Bielema said. “The kids really did a good job. You’ve got to catch those passes, you’ve got to get them in the end zone, and they were able to do that.”
Ball runs to 2nd straight big game
WEST LAFAYETTE – Talk about taking advantage of what is given to you.
After spending the first two months of the season seeing his playing time severely limited due to the emergence of freshman James White, third-string running back Montee Ball has never stopped working to help his team.
It paid off in a big way Saturday at Purdue.
Ball reemerged as an important part of the Wisconsin offense when White went down with an injury at Iowa, scoring the game-winning touchdown late in the fourth quarter.
His performance at Ross-Ade Stadium was even better.
“Montee knew pretty much all week it was going to be John and Montee,” head coach Bret Bielema said. “He was snapped in and just another example of great preparation by him.”
For the first time this season, Ball knew all week he would be the No. 2 option out of the backfield, a role he played well late in his freshman season.
When Saturday’s game rolled around, Ball simply went out and rushed for 127 yards on 21 carries and two big second-half touchdowns.
“I knew that the team was going to look for me to come in strong,” Ball said. “I wasn’t going to let them down.”
Early on, the Badgers went with a heavy dose of John Clay, with less than desirable results. When Clay got banged up during the course of the game, the load was all on Ball’s shoulders.
To say he responded well would be quite the understatement.
Ball finished the first half with just nine yards rushing on four carries, eight of which came on a single carry in the Badgers’ final drive of the second quarter. Over the final 25:32 of play, Ball ran for 118 yards on 17 carries, for an average of nearly seven yards per rush.
Midway through the third quarter, Ball helped the Badgers reel off a two-play, 51-yard, 38-second scoring drive. After a 20-yard pass to Nick Toon, Ball took the ball down the left sideline 31 yards for the score, diving for the pylon and giving UW some breathing room at 20-10.
“I just kept running behind the blocks, waiting for them to set up,” Ball said. “It was just there, so I just kind of leaped over them a little bit and reached the ball a little bit.”
Ball reeled off another run of 26 yards on the Badgers’ first drive of the fourth quarter before getting his second touchdown of the day when Wisconsin got the ball back for a second drive in the period.
Following Mike Taylor‘s impressive interception, Ball took the handoff twice, losing a yard on first down and finding a huge hole for his second touchdown of the day, this time from 15 yards out.
“He did a great job,” John Moffitt said of Ball. “The way he can step up, it’s so nice to have three backs that can do that. Running the football here is not easy, we put a lot of carries in your hands and it’s going to be tough, but Montee definitely stepped up.”
Ball found out just what it meant to be the Badgers’ every down back on the game’s final drive. Wisconsin ran 10 plays for 40 yards, eating up 5 minutes and 50 seconds off the clock.
Each of the 10 plays was a handoff to Ball.
“When you come here, the team’s going to put the load on your shoulders and you’ve got to be able to carry it,” Ball said. “That’s what I feel like I did. The O-line did a great job up front pushing them, and I just don’t want to let them down.”
Badgers ready for Ross-Ade
MADISON – As stadiums go, Ross-Ade Stadium is never going to be mistaken for one of the great, historic venues in college football. Even so, Purdue has won 254 games there all-time against just 149 losses, including the Boilermakers’ 3-1 home record this year.
In fact, just last year Purdue knocked off then-No. 7 Ohio State at home, 26-18, in a stunning upset. That win came on the heels of a five-game losing streak for the Boilermakers, who have lost each of their last two games, on the road, in blowout fashion.
Add the Badgers’ recent success, and Wisconsin looks to be headed into a classic trap game.
“We’re well aware of it,” quarterback Scott Tolzien said. “I think the main thing is that it’s just another Big Ten game. You just look at last year, they knocked off Ohio State.
“Every year there seems to be that game where someone gets nipped from behind. We need to approach this game like any other game. The second you take your foot off the gas pedal and start relaxing, that’s when you start to get some adversity.”
Unfortunately for the Badgers, they don’t have any past experience to lean on against Purdue. While they shutout the Boilermakers last year, 37-0, the last time Wisconsin traveled to Purdue was in 2006, when Bret Bielema was a first-year head coach and UW’s current fifth-year seniors were in their redshirt seasons.
Junior defensive end J.J. Watt will be making his second appearance at Ross-Ade, having played there once in his career at Central Michigan.
As such, they’ll need to rely on their experiences in other Big Ten stadiums, rather than recall past games as Ross-Ade.
“I think anybody can beat anybody,” said John Moffitt, who redshirted in 2006. “You have to respect teams and you have to especially respect teams at home. I think we’re doing that with our preparation and we need to continue to do that.”
Not only has the team not played in West Lafayette in four years, they’ve also not made a bus trip as long as the one scheduled for this weekend. A 271-mile drive, the drive from Camp Randall to Ross-Ade is said to take five hours and six minutes, according to Google Maps.
On a bus, that easily translates to at least a six-hour drive. And that’s assuming the buses make it through the Chicago area without significant delay.
“That’s something that I don’t like at all,” free safety Aaron Henry said. “I understand we’ve got to do it, but six hours man, I can’t sit in a classroom for 50 minutes, let alone on a bus for six hours.
“It’s something we’ve got to do, so I don’t really have a choice in that, and we’ve just got to roll with it. I’m not really a big fan of bussing for six hours, though. Hopefully, if we take care of business, we won’t be bussing back.”
Confined to seat on the bus for the length of nearly two football games, the Badgers will need to find some ways to occupy their time. Homework, music, movies and sleep are among the most popular time-wasters for bus trips.
Of course, they’re typically more like three to four hours, such as is the case with the trip to Iowa City.
“I’m going to probably be doing a ton of things,” Henry said. “Probably on the phone listening to music, going over some of my notes, writing up some of my interests on the blog that I have. There’s no telling what I could be doing, man.
“Once you focus on one thing, that thing is going to die out eventually. And me, I’m always trying to find what’s new. But hopefully sleep will be my biggest friend on that trip.”
Running back John Clay had a simple answer to what could make the bus trip better for him.
“Having my own seat,” Clay said with a laugh. “If I can sit in the back and have my own seat, I’ll just be thinking about the plays that are going to get called and thinking about making a big play every time I get a chance.”
Extra week, tackling key for ‘D’
MADISON – It was the icing on the cake of Wisconsin’s best defensive performance in more than a decade.
One of the defining moments of the Badgers’ 2009 season came in the most unlikely of circumstances, as Wisconsin led 37-0 over Purdue with just 6:44 remaining.
After turning the ball over on 3rd-and-3, the Badgers gave the Boilermakers the ball in excellent field position, needing just 39 yards to find the end zone for the first time. With backup quarterback Caleb TerBush at the helm, Purdue picked up 36 yards, giving them 2nd-and-Goal at the 3-yard line.
Three plays and a handful of impressive defensive efforts later, Wisconsin’s goal line stand was complete, sealing the Badgers’ first Big Ten shutout since 1999.
“We got after them,” said defensive end J.J. Watt, who broke up a fourth-down pass in the end zone. “We were flying around, we were having fun and we were just playing great technically-sound football.
“They put the starting defensive line back in for that goal line stand, and we were excited about that because we knew we wanted to preserve the shutout. That was a huge stand for our defense as a whole because it showed we could persevere through a tough drive and that was a big one for our team.”
Having suffered back-to-back tough losses to Ohio State and Iowa last year, the Badgers were hungry for a win, and they put together an impressively complete performance against the Boilermakers.
One key factor that may have helped was having an extra week to prepare for the spread offense of Purdue. After defeating the Buckeyes and Hawkeyes this year, the Badgers had an extra week once again, and hope to use it effectively against the Boilermakers.
“I think it helped scheme-wise, we got to know some of their plays better than we normally would,” linebacker Blake Sorensen said. “It just kind of gets us used to playing a spread team. We haven’t really played one since Arizona State, so the extra week with more practices, it definitely helps.”
After four nonconference games to begin the season, Wisconsin settled into the heart of its Big Ten schedule, facing four traditional offenses and three of the conference’s top teams. Over the final four games, the Badgers will see plenty of variations of the spread from four of the second-tier teams in the Big Ten.
While they’re a spread team, the Boilermakers utilize the run quite a bit from the spread look, creating another wrinkle to figure out as the Badgers prepare for Purdue. Last year, Wisconsin looked like it knew what was coming holding Purdue – the Big Ten’s fourth-leading offense in terms of yardage entering the contest – to only 141 total yards.
The Boilermakers gained just 60 yards on 29 rushing attempts while picking up 81 yards through the air on just nine completions. To have similar success, the Badgers will need to put together a strong team effort in terms of tackling this week, especially in the open field.
“Defensively we’ve got to tackle well, probably now more than ever because in spread offenses, they create one-on-one spacing, so that’s a big difference in this game,” head coach Bret Bielema said. “We haven’t had many missed tackles.
“But, again, now that this is a different type of offense, where there’s one-on-one tackling because of the spread formations, it’s going to be a unique challenge that we really haven’t seen to this point.”
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