News Article: Badgers Confident About Chances in Opener vs. Bama

RTR91

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Wisconsin running back Corey Clement is not a math major. So maybe his formula could use some work.

But the way Clement sees it, the Badgers beat Auburn in the Outback Bowl on New Year's Day; Auburn has gone toe to toe with its main rival, Alabama; and, of course, reigning Big Ten and national champion Ohio State beat the Crimson Tide in the Sugar Bowl.

So add it all up, Clement says, and Wisconsin should have a great shot at pulling the upset over Alabama in the season opener Sept. 5 in Arlington, Texas.

"It's Pythagorean Theorem, right?" he asked an assembled media crowd at Big Ten media days in Chicago on Thursday.

Pythagoras could not be reached for comment. But it is clear that the Badgers aren't going to be intimidated by the powerful Crimson Tide, who were ranked No. 3 in the initial coaches' poll earlier on Thursday.

"There's no better way to start a season than to beat a team like Alabama, though it won't be easy," senior quarterback Joel Stave said. "We have a lot of confidence in ourselves, based on what we did the past calendar year."
 
Read about this yesterday. They look at OSU beating Bama as inspiration. They aren't looking at how OSU beat Bama though. If they are to beat Bama it will not be running the football. They are going to have to throw it all over the field. They are playing into Bama's strength when they run.

Like Morgan Freeman said in The Dark Knight, "Good luck!"


Sent from my iPhone 6 Plus RTR
 

dvldog

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Maybe he could compare the Bama game against OSU to the Wisconsin game against OSU if he want to look at last years scores.
 

TideEngineer08

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I admire the confidence, but he's discounting so many factors. Which is why, as 92tide pointed out, the transitive property doesn't work for sports.

Auburn is our big rival, their game against them and our game against OSU were bowl games (although certainly ours meant more).

While I believe Wisconsin is going to be a tough team, I would bet on this game being like the 2012 Michigan game before I would bet on Wisconsin beating us.
 

81usaf92

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5 things...

1) they had Melvin Gordon against Auburn

2)Barry Alvarez doesnt get emotionally lost like Gus

3) Many teams took advantage against Auburn's defense. So Wisconsin isnt special

4) Bama was weak only to teams commited to throwing the ball. Auburn wasnt effective with CAP running until Gus decided to let Nick Marshall throw. Wisconsin isnt as good at throwing as tOSU either

5) Cryst will be coaching his first game against Alabama

I can see the game being closer than the experts think, but I still see us winning comfortable.
 

tide96

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They should feel confident. There are 9 different teams that we play this year that we could lose to if we don't play our A game.

Doesn't mean any of them will win.
 

mrusso

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If you're not confident going into every game then maybe you should not be playing.
 

BigEasyTider

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I am sure they are confident, and they have good reason to be. Aside from the successes of Ohio State, they beat Auburn last January and had LSU dead-to-rights in September (how they let that one go I will never know), and won 10 games in between. By any measure they are a fine football team, and while some people will discount them because of the loss of Melvin Gordon, Wisconsin always has a bevy of great tailbacks and they will inevitably get great tailback play this season from Clement and Ogunbawale (who together, I might add, combined to rush for 1,000+ yards and 10 TDs last year). So give them their due, can't blame them for being confident.

That said, as a 'Bama partisan, I love the match-up, just because their style plays directly into our defensive strength, particularly on the DL and in the front seven in general. The ground-and-pound teams don't worry me, it's the ones who can throw it all over the field that keep me up at night, because we haven't been able to defend the pass particularly well in years now. I would honestly be much more concerned playing a team that could really throw it around, such as Arizona State.
 
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Tidewater

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If I was a coach one of my main players, told the media, "Man, we really don't have much of a chance against Bama," I'd have a new starter at his position pretty quickly.
An athlete has to have faith.

I just think it is more advisable to say something along the lines of "It is going to take our best games to win against Alabama." And leave it at that.
 

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