>>> the following is aproduction of learfield sports. >>> the 123rd meeting betweenwisconsin and minnesota is now in the books.the annual battle for paul bunyan's ax, and we look at thehighlights from saturday's game from minneapolis.our senior salute continues, and we look ahead to the finalregular season game against penn state with head coach garyandersen. it's all coming up.>> three tight ends in the formation for wisconsin.stavi into the end zone, and
james white from two yards awayand the badgers regain the lead. >> we knew it coming in.it was running back weather. the ball is going to be in yourhands and the team is putting it pretty much on your back.we want to protect the football and go out there with heart.>> they fake is off david cobb and brought down by borland.he may have stripped the football.he did. he stripped it and recovers it.badger football. chris borland with a forcedfumble.
the 14th forced fumble of hiscareer. that ties the record.borland is atop that list with five others.>> they ran a power to the open side, the weak side.our defensive side did a great job stringing it out.he kind of had the ball and it all worked out.>> from my opinion from what i know and i'm biased, i thinkhe's the best linebacker in the country.i say that from a head coach' standpoint to his involve andthe way he leads of
youth in our program.he's unbelievable. i think he's the best linebackerthat i've been around, and he's an unbelievable young man and ithink he's going to play this game for a long, long time.>> touchdown wisconsin! 70 yards.picked off borland to the 40. touchdown james wright.the badgers are headed to the rose bowl for the third straightyear. down the middle.15, 10, 5, touchdown wisconsin!
>>> "the badgers sports reportwith gary andersen" is brought to you by†-->>> in motion to the right and here's the hand-off to jameswhite. white breaks the tackle to the50, angles right, to the 40, to the 30, down the sideline 20,taps the brakes and cuts inside and brought down inside the 15,down to the 11†-- to the 12 of minnesota, and johnson and jamesemanuel is there for the gophers as james white when had a bigone to start last week has a big one to start this week.has the throw and under some
pressure and got away fromborland. scooped up by borland at the 45and brought down near midfield. another turnover as the bangersknock it loose. the badgers are in business atthe minnesota 49 yard line as brendan forced it and borlandrecovered. james white, the lone runningback. motions to the right.stave, play fake, looking, set, throws right side, end zone.caught. touchdown wisconsin!3-yard connection, 19-7
wisconsin.for the tenth straight year the wisconsin badgers in possessionof paul bunyan's ax. it's over in minneapolis.the longest winning streak in this series now belongs towisconsin. 10 straight over minnesota, asthis series, which has been dominated by wisconsin, thetrophy stays in wisconsin. >> it was a great victory forus. we're happy to get out of hereand get the victory and move on to penn state next week.tough-minded group.
defense played extremely well.they did a nice job getting out of drives, being physical,taking care of their business. i was proud of them.>> they want to be a great football team.when you're at nine wins you're real, real close to being agreat football team. they set some goals of what theywanted to be this year. one was to play well in the bigten, and you know, get more wins in the big ten.they've been able to do that now.so we've got one loss, one game
left.they're 9-2. they're there playing, andthey're going to get close to a nice bowl game.we have another challenge next week with penn state.these kids understand exactly where they sit.i never, ever felt like, oh, we were never get back to the rosebowl this year or the championship game or woe is me.not one bit of it. they wanted to better theirperformance every single week and work to play hard everysingle week and work to play
with each other.now they're 9-2. right now they're a very, verygood teams and on the verge of being a great team.if the season was over, i would say they're a great team.i just don't want to tell them that yet.>> i saw him like kind of have the ball out there.i thought, i'll go as hard as i can for the ball.i didn't even think about the sack.i went for the ball. it was a another way to help thedefense.
obviously defense played today,and they did a great job in the second half and made it easy forthe defense. get out there a couple of timesbut overall it's a great win. >> i think we're a great squad.just the experience that we have and kind of the maturity leveland guys that know their role and really just kind ofsacrifice themselves for the team and that kind of thing.that stands out to me, just experience and maturity that wehave, and i think that's helped us to win a lot games.>> if they don't score
touchdowns, they're probably notgoing to win. it's vitally important, andthere's a variety of reasons we've been accomplishing it.all in all i think it's our preparation.our coach does a great job and our leaders and experiencedplayers get everybody ready. i don't think i've felt thisprepared on game day defensively my entire career.i know a lot of guys hair that sentiment.>> we played them in tough situations, so i think a goodteam win.
>> they had pretty mucheverybody in the box, so it was pretty tough to run on that.we missed some of our opportunities, and we had totake advantage of those opportunities, some of thoseopportunities that we missed. >> those are tough offensivefootball conditions, so we want to take what they're giving us.just let the game come to us, and basically i run the playscalled and execute the plays called.the coach understood the tougher conditions.>> it means a lot to me.
ten years we've had that thing.it's great to have the trophy room another year in thestadium. it's awesome.>> i think we're getting there. i always think we have room forimprovement, and we still do. we have a lot of room forimprovement, but we have a lot of guys playing together, andthat's the most important thing. >>> the minnesota game behindthem now. the badgers are ready for theregular season finale and the home finale as penn state comesto town.
coach, you talked about allyear, only x number of opportunities, and now it's one.if it didn't sink in before with player, this coming week itwill, won't it? >> it will.there's three hours left in camp randall, and they're going tovalue that last practice time. they have more practices for thebowl game or what have you, but not to play in camp randall.this is a very powerful senior class.all the kids will give a little extra this week withoutquestion.
>> i talk to players about thisevery year. when they're freshmen andsophomore, senior day, they don't give it any thought.as it approaches, it can hit them like a ton of bricks.each player is a little different, but generallyspeaking it seems like, boom, it hits them.you went through it. was it a similar experience foryou? >> it was for me.it's tough, you know. you look back, and all of asudden you're going to go play a
football game.you better think about it before you get out there.it's hard for me as a coach to walk out there and deal with it.it's emotional for me when i watch those kids and see themjog out of the tunnel for the last time.we do have a bowl game, to that helps me a little bit.>> it does. another question i ask everyyear no matter whatever sport, when you have thoseintroductions before the game, it's incumbent to gatherthemselves.
you have to get ready and hitthe guy across you. >> you have to.it's part of the deal. it's great for the parents to bethere and the families to be in the middle of thing coming inhere for the last time. there's a lot of memories.you have to say, here i go. i have a job to do.i want to represent myself at camp randall.>> you went through an entire season as the head coach of thebadgers. you heard a lot about theexperience and you were part of
it on the visiting sideline lastyear. this year to date has it beeneverything you hoped for? >> yeah, probably still a littlebit more. every single weekend you walkout there, it's unbelievable. to get through the first yearand the first cycle is crazy. it's been hectic, but the fansare unbelievable here. i can't wait for the next year,but we have one more time in there this year.>> you have been really consistent, because you've beenasked multiple times about
campaigning for the badgers, soi'm not going there with us. the conference itself, though,as you're almost through a full season of the big ten, i'mbiased as a fan of the conference.i think it's better than advertised, and i think nationalfolks are starting to get that having coached through it everyweek. would you agree?>> there's no question. if you match conferences toconferences, the big ten is right there.you see it, no matter how†--
show it to me.show me how we didn't play good in the preseason.do you win them all? no, we didn't win them all.we had teams go across the country and win and we had teamsfly as a cross the country to place us, so it's agreat one. in the conference play the trueidentity comes out. these teams who have had asuccessful year, the games are still competitive.to me, that's a well-rounded conference, there's no gimmes.>> you see the racehorse, the
fast football.at the end of it, it's still physical week after week to getthrough the grind. that says something.>> look at indiana and how they run the ball.that's a physical football team. that's a spread-to-spreadoffense, and northwestern is a spread offense and physicallyrun the ball. you get into the iowas andwisconsin and pen state, and you better put on your big boy pantsevery week. >> has the variety been aneye-opener to you?
>> yes.i didn't think it will be nearly as multiple from the outsidelooking in. when you look at the minnesotateam, even though they run the ball, now the fly sweep comesinto it. it goes and goes and goes inthis league. there's a variety of offenses.it's a little bit more settled down with the defensive side ofthe ball as far as consistency see, but still a great challengeevery week on both sides. >> home finale this saturday atcamp randall stadium.
penn state comes to town andkickoff at the camp will be at 2:30 on saturday afternoon.if you have a ticket, get here early.senior introduction is a great part of the tradition that isbadgers football. coach andersen joins us in aminute as "the badgers sports report" continues.>>> stave back to throw, steps up, down the middle, and he gotit. 10, 5, touchdown wisconsin!stave to abbrederis, 63 yards. badgers take the lead.>> i still have a long ways to
go to be where i want to be.it's been a blessing to be on the team and just compete withthese guys. >> you always set goals foryourself coming in, so for me it was just trying to first get onthe field. then once you did that, you seta new goal. you try to be a starter, andonce you do that try to be the number one receiver and try tobe the best and so on. for me, it's not reallysurprising, it's just every time i reach my goal i set a new oneand try to achieve it.
>> not only being a highschooler to maturing into, you know, a grown-up, gettingmarried. it was maturing, i think, a lotand just becoming a new person that is going to hopefully dosome big things in the real world once i'm done with collegeand done with my career. >> takes the snap, play fake,back to throw, looking, winds up, he's deep down the middle.abbrederis got it, good-bye. 10, 5, touchdown wisconsin.65 yards, joel stave to jared abbrederis.>> the leadership that everybody
brings.everybody kind of leads in a different way, so you got guys,receivers, running backs, lines on the defensive side are allover like you said. each guy kind of leads thatposition and you bring it together as a team.i think also the experience. being in these close games, somethat we won and some that we lost and just being able to havethat experience, you know, never really get down on you, i think
that's kind of shown with ourteam this year. we keep fighting them no matterwhat. if something isn't going ourway, we keep fighting through. that's the leadership of theteam, and also, the coaches kind of stress that.>> all the big ten championship games, most of them, i shouldsay, have been huge, especially this one coming after losing tothem during the regular season and then coming back andwinning. that was special, but, you know,a couple games that stand out
would be the first time weplayed nebraska when we welcomed them into the big ten.i struggled early. i caught a pass, and then ifumbled the punt return and come back from that and make a bigplay on the touchdown. that play really stands out.this year you get to ohio state, they were playing a greatcorner. it's those performances thatstick out in your mind that someday you look back on and beable to enjoy. >> stave, a play fake throw inlong for abbrederis.
got it, 10, 5, touchdownwisconsin! stave to abbrederis, 57 yards.>> i think it's a little bit more sense of urgency.you know, watching film, doing all the little extra things thatmaybe before you just didn't really focus on because youthought you have more time. i mean, i won't say it changedtoo much, because before i was doing a lot, but i think it'sjust a little bit more of everything.just trying to get to that next level and take the next step, soi think senior year you just
kind of feel that urgency, andevery game goes by and you think that's the last time i'll playthem, last time we'll be on the field, things like that.you think every time is the last, it's kind of crazy.the first game was a tough one because it's the last first gameafter a long off-season, being able to play in front of thecrowd. but, i think, you know, thegames between then and now have been not as much.as we close up the season as it comes to an end, it's startingto get a little bit more hard
to do thinking about you'llnever play with these guys again, with the coaches.being able to get out on the field in front of fans and justplay the game that you love. as the season goes on, it gets alittle bit harder. >>> time for the great danegreat question of the week.
it comes from clad in beloit.he wants to know who are some of the guys that stood out to youon the scout team either side of the ball so far?>> oh, boy, there's a lot of them, you know.i would say consistently day in and day out, alex james andcheekway have been unbelievable with their toughness and theirability to really duplicate what we're going to see on game day.connor, i've talked about him a lot.to have an athletic quarterback to get back there and take pridein his job and do a tremendous
job week in and week out.i keep going on and on. i love the tight ends.they have done a tremendous job, and all those kids are workinghard in the off-season. now i'm going to leave them outand the mom and dad are going to be mad at me.that's not true. the future is very bright withthis young crew. >> we could make it allencompassing here as much as you focus on the now, the what'snext is pretty intriguing to you guys as coaches, right?>> it is.
i'm excited about that.obviously, finishing this year and getting these seniors justlike we talked about. head held high and chest puffedout when they walk out of here for the last time and we'restill in the process. we flip gears into january.the goal is to put the pedal to the metal now and do things.it starts with the kids in the program first, and secondly isrecruiting. we do that and take care of theprogram like we preach all the time as coaches.we should be just fine.
i'm excited about getting tojanuary and finishing this off the right way first.>> absolutely. sounds like a plan.chad, thank you for your time. the next time you're up in whatwausau check out great dane as well.thanks for watching. caption solutions, llcwww.captionsolutions.com