Heisman hopeful Montee Ball and the No. 12 Wisconsin Badgers begin their 2012 campaign hosting Northern Iowa today. The game is scheduled for a 3:30 pm start time and it will be televised nationally on the Big Ten Network. The Badgers are heavy favorites in this game, if you can find a sportsbook willing to put out a number.
Ball returns for his senior season and another trip to the Rose Bowl for Wisconsin, and possibly even more. However, Bret Bielema and his gang will take it one game at a time and that begins today with Northern Iowa. Wisconsin is 10-0 all time against FCS opponents, which doesn't bode well for the Panthers in today's contest. However, UNI isn't a pushover as they went 10-3 last year and reached the quarterfinals in the playoff system. Remember, they played in-state schools Iowa State and Iowa to very close games last season.
The biggest disaster for UNI in this game is having freshman Sawyer Kollmorgen as the starter. Madison is not an easy place to play for Big 10 quarterbacks that have several starts under their belts. Kollmorgen is going to more than likely have a rough day. Wisconsin is trying to win its 17th consecutive home game here today, which ranks second in the country to only LSU for an active streak.
Russell Wilson is now a starting quarterback in the NFL, so the Badgers have replaced him with another incoming transfer in former Maryland QB Danny O'Brien. It's not tough to be a Wisconsin quarterback. Namely, hand the ball off when told to do so and don't turn the football over. Everything else pretty much takes care of itself under Bielema. Former offensive coordinator Paul Chryst took the head coach job at Pittsburgh, so Matt Canada steps in to take over that position. It seems that job is fairly simple as well — get the ball to Bell, who scored an NCAA-tying 39 touchdowns a season ago. That's not hard to figure out and we're sure that he's going to get the bulk of the load in today's contest.
UNI will probably play Wisconsin very tough, but heading into the atmosphere with a freshman quarterback isn't how you want to start the season. Wisconsin has the though and dreams of playing in the National Championship this season, so taking care of business early in this one will be critical for the remainder of their season.
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