BY BARRY ALVAREZ
UW Director of Athletics
MADISON, Wis. — Before our game at Michigan, I got a chance to visit with their radio announcers, Jim Brandstatter and Dan Dierdorf, who's a member of the NFL and College Football Hall of Fame.
"I've got a feeling if Bo Schembechler were here today," Dierdorf told me, "he'd really like watching this game. Just like you will, Barry."
I agreed and told him, "It's going to be a big boy game."
And that's what it was. A couple of days after the game, I watched it again. We had several chances to win. They've got a good defense. But we had our shots. Our defense got after them, too.
The bye should help and now we have another big boy game.
I loved coaching against Ohio State. I really looked forward to it. Even during their national championship year (in 2002), I felt like we should have beat them.
We had them third-and-long late in the game and their quarterback Craig Krenzel threw a big rainbow pass that should have been a pick or at least knocked down.
But we let wide receiver Michael Jenkins make a play on the ball — a 45-yard pass completion — and they went down and scored and beat us 19-14 here at Camp Randall.
I just liked coaching against their style of play. I'd always tell our kids, "We've prepared to play this game against Ohio State the whole year, not just this week." That's how we went about it.
I'm really excited about seeing us play here Saturday night. It should be a big-time atmosphere and the presence of ESPN's College GameDay will definitely add to it.
What a great selling point to originate the show again from Bascom Hill. We had alumni from around the world contact the school about how awesome it was the last time and how it sold our university.
The exposure is priceless to our campus, community and state. I can't think of a better way to attract top students to our school than to sell what we have on a national stage.
Why Wisconsin? That has been our theme. This is why Wisconsin … this is Bascom Hall, the heart of our university. And this is what we're selling … we're selling our school and our campus.
If I was going to give someone a tour of what we have to offer, I'd probably start on John Nolen Drive. What a view driving into the city. Lake Monona. The capitol. The convention center.
I'd then take them around the Square and show them how vibrant that is. And I'd make sure they made their way along Lake Mendota to Memorial Union, one of the most picturesque student union settings anywhere.
I'd also give them a feel for our athletic facilities: the Kohl Center and Camp Randall. And I'd make sure they toured our academic center — the Stephen M. Bennett Student-Athlete Performance Center.
Beyond the doors and the Bud Selig Hall of Champions, they would get a strong impression of not only our commitment to academics — but our commitment to academic excellence.
Why Wisconsin? What does it mean to me? It means doing things the right way. It's an attitude that we have here about how we support one another.
It's how we work hard and how we represent our university, our state and our alumni well. It's how we compete on the field. It's a commitment to all of those things.
It's our brand. It is the brand that we used to build the football program. It's a style of play, how we go about our business on a day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month basis.
That's the attitude we want and the culture we want within our athletic department. And that's what we have. Our brand is only getting stronger across the board.
Coming into this week, our volleyball team and our women's hockey team were both ranked No. 1 in the country. Our football team is in the Top 10. So is our men's basketball team in the preseason polls.
Saturday will be a great opportunity to showcase what we have and what we're all about.