Badgers Drop 27-21 Heartbreaker to Iowa
November 22, 2003 | Football
The Wisconsin football team came up just short in its 27-21 regular season finale loss to Iowa Saturday at Camp Randall Stadium ' four yards short to be exact. Backup quarterback John Stocco's pass intended for Jonathan Orr in the end zone as time expired was broken up by Sean Considine, preserving the comeback win for the Hawkeyes.
With the loss, the Badgers complete their regular season with a 7-5 overall record, including a 4-4 mark in Big Ten play. Iowa improves to 9-3 and 5-3 with the win.
Wisconsin jumped out to a 21-7 first-half lead, but as the Badgers ' injuries mounted, Iowa rallied to score the final 20 points of the contest and then got the big defensive stand it needed in the waning seconds.
UW junior running back Anthony Davis saw his first playing time since Oct. 18 after having been sidelined with an ankle injury and made his presence felt in the opening half. After Iowa took a 7-0 lead early in the opening quarter on a 19-yard touchdown run by Ramon Ochoa, Davis posted scores on runs from one and four yards out to give the Badgers a 14-7 edge.
Dwayne Smith, who led the Badgers with 119 yards rushing on 29 carries, pushed the UW lead to 21-7 with a one-yard TD scamper with 10:08 remaining in the second quarter. However, Iowa rallied back before halftime. Ochoa got his second touchdown of the day on a six-yard pass from Nate Chandler and Nate Kaeding added a 50-yard field goal with 11 seconds left in the half to cut Wisconsin's lead to 21-17 heading into the intermission.
The Badger offense struggled to get anything going in the second half as Davis and starting quarterback Jim Sorgi were both forced out of the game due to injury. Iowa completed its comeback with 2:11 left in the third quarter as Fred Russell found the end zone from a yard away to help put the Hawkeyes ahead 24-21. Kaeding added a 28-yard field goal one minute into the fourth quarter to push Iowa's lead to six.
Stocco, who came on in relief of Sorgi and Matt Schabert, was able to lead the Badgers into Iowa territory twice in the fourth quarter, but without a result. UW mounted one final charge after taking over at the Iowa 48 with 3:38 remaining.
Stocco engineered the rally, driving the Badgers to a first-and-goal situation at the 10-yard line. Smith rushed for four yards and Stocco ran for one when UW burned its final time out with 21 seconds remaining. Facing 3rd-and-goal from the 5, Stocco completed a pass to Smith in the right flat for one yard, but Smith was tackled inbounds and the clock continued to run. Wisconsin barely got its fourth-down snap off before time expired, but Stocco's pass for Orr at the front middle of the end zone was tipped away and Iowa held on for the win.
Russell carried 18 times for 137 yards for Iowa to lead all rushers. Lee Evans caught four passes for 76 yards in his final home game as a Badger.
With the regular season now complete, Wisconsin has earned bowl eligibility status and in the upcoming two weeks will learn the bowl it will attend and the opponent it will face.
Notes: WR Lee Evans completed a first-quarter pass to QB Jim Sorgi. It was the third career pass completion for Evans (he completed one to QB Brooks Bollinger in both the 2000 and 2001 seasons)'With his 76 yards receiving today, Evans now has 3,417 career receiving yards and today moved past Illinois' David Williams into second place on the all-time Big Ten list behind Purdue's John Standeford. Evans has now caught at least one pass in a school-record 37 straight games 'Today's attendance was 79,931, the third-largest crowd in Camp Randall Stadium history. That marks the 69th straight game at which the Badgers have drawn a crowd of at least 70,000 fans at 76,634-seat Camp Randall Stadium. Among those 69 games, 59 have been sellouts'Wisconsin's total home attendance of 549,404 this season is the second-highest total in school history for a seven-game season. UW totaled 550,974 during the 2000 campaign. Wisconsin's per-game home attendance average of 78,486 this season is the second-highest average (regardless of number of home games played) in school history. The highest average is 78,711 from the 2000 season'Jim Leonhard registered seven yards in punt returns today. He now has 435 for the season, a new school record. Leonhard held the old record of 434, which he set last season.
Wisconsin vs. Iowa Postgame Notes ' 11/22/03
Wisconsin Head Coach Barry Alvarez
Opening Statement:
'That was a very difficult loss. I told our players going into the game I thought that turnovers would be a key in this football game. Whoever turned it over the least, whoever made plays would win the football game and we just turned it over too many times in the second half. Yet our guys really competed hard and gave us a chance to win. I thought John Stocco did a nice job coming in there and doing some good things, taking the team down the field and putting the ball where it had to be to receivers. The guys competed; the defense did a nice job. It is just really hard when you keep giving the other team the ball like that.'
On losing Jim Sorgi and his leadership during the game:
'We still had leadership; it's just hard to lose your starting quarterback. I thought Jim was very crisp in the game. I thought he really threw the ball very well, he knew where to go with the ball. I was confident he would have a good ball game. We hated to lose him.'
On the running game:
'I don't know what Dwayne [Smith] had running the ball, but I think he had some decent runs, but you're not consistently going to do it against them. You have to be able to throw the ball some against them.'
Iowa Head Coach Kirk Ferentz
Opening Statement:
'First of all we're just ecstatic to win the football game. It was a hard-fought game, both sides. As I think everyone knows, I have great respect for the Wisconsin program. Coach (Barry) Alvarez and his staff do a great job. Their players play hard. Our defense just played a super game. We put them out there in some tough positions. I think they did a great job in some adverse situations. Certainly at the end of the game'it's one of those that comes right down to the final play and all you can do is have faith in your guys. It was an interesting four plays at the end, but our guys found a way to get it done.'
Must be a relief getting that road-win in the Big Ten '
'Yeah, I read about that this week, in some of our papers and heard about that. I'm a little bit of research guy'if you go back and look, I think we're nine out of 13 on the road, last 13 times out, which is a fair percentage. I don't know what the math is, someone is probably a little smarter than me on that one. When you're 9-13 on the road, that's not a bad deal, seems like it's a bigger deal to people outside of our building than the people in the building. We've gotten what we deserve on the road this year and I think we got what we deserved today as well. So, it's never really been a factor to our football team, it may be outside, but it's never been a concern to us at all. '
Did the loss of (Jim) Sorgi allow you to do some things differently'
'We didn't change up a whole heck of a lot, but certainly, obviously, he's their starter. So I think it's'my sister could tell you, he's the best quarterback they have and we have tremendous respect for him. I think he's an excellent passer. I think we all saw, last week, how dangerous with the combination of receivers they have. So, it was a factor in the ball game, there's no question about that. Those other guys did some good things, too. They came up with some plays, that play they had on the sideline there, third and 18, or third and whatever'big, big play. So, we have great respect for their entire offensive football team.'
Wisconsin Players
Linebacker Kyle McCorison on the game:
'It is very tough having it so close. It's the last game at home and the last game at the Camp for all of the seniors. It is definitely a heartbreaking loss for sure'
McCorison on the game:
'I definitely take pride in how I played, but everyone else played really well as well. We just didn't make enough plays in the end like we needed to and we just fell short. You have to give credit to Iowa. They are a heck of a team and they did a really good job. It has been great playing with these guys. That is the hardest part, knowing that it's your last time here.'
McCorison on Senior Day:
'It is definitely emotional. A lot of goodbyes. It 's the last time here and the last time running through that tunnel. So it is definitely an emotional day and unfortunately we fell short. We just have to look forward to a bowl and get ready for that.'
Linebacker Jeff Mack on the loss:
'It is difficult. The guys played hard and we fought hard, but we just came up on the short end of the stick.'
Safety Jim Leonhard on Senior Day:
'It is real tough. This senior class has done so much since they have been here. To not have them go out on a win, it really hurts. We have a lot of guys taking this to heart and we have a long time to think about it.'
Leonhard on preparing for the bowl game:
'We can get up for anything. We have proved with the character on this team that it doesn't matter. We are going to come out fighting. '
