Badgers Outlast Akron 48-31 in Home Opener
September 06, 2003 | Football
Leading 31-10 at halftime, the University of Wisconsin football team seemingly had their 2003 home opener against Akron firmly in control Saturday afternoon at Camp Randall Stadium. However, the Zips's quick-strike offense got them right back into the game and nearly took the lead midway through the fourth quarter. But big plays by the offense and defense helped the Badgers hold on for 48-31 shootout win.
Wisconsin improves to 2-0 overall with the victory, while Akron falls to 0-2.
The two teams combined to amass over 1,100 yards of offense. Badger junior running back Anthony Davis and senior wide receiver Lee Evans took their turns punishing the Akron defense. Davis recorded 252 yards rushing on 29 carries with three touchdowns, while Evans hauled in nine catches for 214 yards and two scores.
Davis' rushing total was the second-highest of his career, trailing only a 301-yard effort against Minnesota last season. It was the ninth-most yards by a UW running back in school history. Meanwhile, Evans' 214 marked the second-best total of his career and the third-highest mark in Badger history. Evans previously recorded 228 yards in a 2001 game versus Michigan State. Al Toon holds the UW single-game record with 252 receiving yards set in 1983.
It marked the first time in UW history that the team had a running back and a receiver each record over 200 yards in the same game.
Wisconsin fumbled away the game's opening kickoff, leading to an Akron field goal. Once the Badger offense got control of the ball, the Zips had little success holding UW back. The Badgers put points on the board in each of their first four offensive series on their way to a 21-point halftime lead. Davis helped the cause with a 16-carry, 149-yard, three-touchdown effort in the opening half.
Akron refused to go away following the intermission, though, using the strong right arm of quarterback Charlie Frye in making a spirited comeback. Frye led the Zips on touchdown scoring drives of 84, 76 and 91 yards to trim UW's lead to 34-31 with 11:13 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Following a Wisconsin punt, Akron marched its way down to the Wisconsin one yard line and appeared primed to take the lead. But on fourth down, running back Bobby Hendry was hit high by Jeff Mack and low by Ryan Aiello as the Badgers made a key goalline stand.
If that play didn't suck all of the momentum out of Akron, the next play certainly did. Backed up in the shadow of their own end zone, the Badgers went up top for the home run ball. Quarterback Jim Sorgi hooked up with Evans on a 99-yard touchdown pass, the longest in Badger history, giving the hosts a 41-31 lead.
With six and a half minutes still remaining, Akron still had plenty of time to make another comeback, but Wisconsin decided otherwise. Three plays later, Jim Leonhard intercepted Frye at the Badger four yard line.
UW then put the ball in the hands of their Heisman hopeful, as Davis recorded runs of 14, 3 and 45 yards. That set up a game-sealing 34-yard touchdown run by Dwayne Smith with 4:08 remaining.
Wisconsin recorded 591 yards of offense on 69 plays for an impressive 8.6-yards-per-play average. Akron racked up 534 yards on a whopping 92 plays from scrimmage.
Sorgi completed 14 of 25 passes for 281 yards and two touchdowns, while Frye went 31-of-49 for 372 yards.
Wisconsin returns to action at 11 a.m. next Saturday when it plays host to UNLV.
Notes: Evans' 99-yard touchdown reception tied a Big Ten record. John Paci hooked up with Thomas Lewis for Indiana against Penn State on 11/6/93 and Purdue's Drew Brees completed one to Vinny Sutherland against Northwestern 9/25/99. The previous UW record was an 89 yard hook-up from Tony Lowery to Lee DeRamus against Eastern Michigan in 1991 ' UW improved to 12-2 in home openers under Barry Alvarez ' Sorgi's 281 yards passing are a career high. It's UW 's highest passing total since Brooks Bollinger threw for 292 yards against Iowa 10/28/00 ' Wisconsin has won 19 of its last 20 non-conference home games ' Evans has now caught a pass in a school-record 27 straight games ' Davis' three touchdowns moved him into fourth place on the UW career rushing touchdown list with 28 ' Davis also moved into third place on Wisconsin's career rushing yards list with 3,435 yards. He passed former Badger greats Alan Ameche, Terrell Fletcher and Brent Moss today.
Wisconsin Head Coach Barry Alvarez
Post-game Quotes - Wisconsin vs. Akron
Sept. 6, 2003
Opening statement:
'First of all, I'm pleased with the win. We really did a lot of good things on offense and had some magnificent performances particularly from Lee (Evans) and Anthony (Davis). Made a lot of mistakes, obviously, particularly on defense and thought we shot ourselves in the foot on offense at times, but our guys showed resilience. They did what they had to do down the stretch to swing the momentum again. I was very impressed with Akron's offensive scheme and particularly their quarterback. He is a fierce competitor. I said going in, I knew he was an accurate thrower. I don't even know if he even had an incompletion for the first half of last week 's game. They created a lot of problems for you with their flood zones and that. Paul Winters has really done a nice job with their offense and they executed very well and they created a lot of problems for us. It's hard for some of our guys in space to execute, especially when you're as accurate as he is. I take my hat off to them. They really competed hard and particularly after last week when they lost a very tough game. I knew that they would come back and play hard. You could see the way that they responded a year ago when they lost a number of games, they had their winning stretch down at the end. I knew that they would bounce back and play well. Obviously, we have got a lot of things to improve on and we will. It will be nice to get a little more depth back in that defensive line next week. I'm happy with the win.'
On stopping Akron on fourth and goal followed by UW 's 99-yard touchdown play:
'I talk about the pendulum swinging and it swung pretty fast, but that was a huge play for us obviously and then for us to turn around and make that play, just swinging everything back our way. You know our guys gutted it out. I have to give them credit for that. We had been slapped and they had all of the momentum and they have a chance to take the lead or if they choose to tie the game. Yet our guys responded and made a great defensive play and then we come back and hit the home run on offense, which is huge.'
On the defensive rationale of sometimes using the nickel:
'We really hadn't practiced ' we probably could've just lined up and just played nickel. That's probably what we should've done all day. We didn't spend enough time working on the run when we lined up on the practice nickel. That was just a defensive choice to do those things. It's according to personnel match-ups. That's what we do. We match up our personnel with their personnel.'
Is there anybody positive you can single out on the defense ' It seemed like Jonathan Welsh was in a lot of plays.
'Jonathan had the toughest job because he has to tackle the chips in the back that are going to come out and chop him. He's got to contain the quarterback and try to get pressure on the quarterback. That's a very difficult thing to do. You have to be very athletic. You're getting wrapped a couple of times, every snap, every roll and about every one of their plays was that semi-roll and I thought for the most part, when it was at Jonathan, he did a pretty good job. I have to watch films. I can't say if anyone played particularly well right now, but I 'm sure somebody did.'
Akron Head Coach Lee Owens
Opening statement:
'The game has changed since Woody Hayes' days. We 'll never see those days again. It's a wide open game; a lot of skilled players, both sides of the ball. I think this is as skilled of a Wisconsin team as I 've watched through the years, following Big Ten football--great wide receivers, great, great tailback and a really efficient quarterback. You've got to like what you see on that side of the ball. I hope they're real good, or we're real, real bad on defense; one or the other.'
On the decision to not kick the field goal to tie:
'I didn't think overtime was a good idea, to be honest with you. We needed the momentum. We really felt, players and coaches alike, we 're going to go for the win. We came here playing to win, coaching to win, and we were going for the win right then. We thought we had a chance to deliver the knock-out blow with a touchdown and that was the decision we made. I think we had all the momentum on our side. I really felt good about it. The worst thing that could happen is, even to kick the field goal, you're going to get the ball back with good field position with a lot of time. We weren't covering kick-offs very well. Worst case scenario, we don 't make it. You're going to get the ball back in good field position again and we were moving it pretty good. We didn't expect to happen what happened. '
On quarterback Charlie Frye:
'We got a lot of heart. If Charlie Frye doesn't inspire you, you'll never be inspired. I mean, he inspires me. If the guys on our team can't pick up with his heart and his courage and his character, we 're in trouble. He won't quit. He just keeps getting back up off, back up off the deck, back up off the ground. He just keeps fighting, I can't keep him out. He won't let me. We need to surround him. There are other guys like that, but it's not everyone yet. Until it's everyone we don't beat a Wisconsin and we just weren't there today.'
Wisconsin Players
Offensive lineman Morgan Davis on the 99-yard touchdown reception:
'We knew we just had to go out and do our jobs. Whatever the play was, we just had to go out and block and it turned out to be a great pass. '
Morgan Davis on the running game:
'He (Anthony Davis) is just seeing the holes we are opening up and he is gaining a lot of yards. That is what we like to see from the standpoint of an offensive lineman.'
Morgan Davis on the attitude to start the second half:
'We knew that we had to go out there and finish out the game. Whatever happens, happens and things happen that we didn't exactly plan on. But, a win is a win.'
Ryan Aiello on the fourth and one goal-line stand:
'Before the play even happened we told ourselves that this is the game right here. This game is on us (the defense). We have to turn this game around. Fortunately we were able to do that.'
Ryan Aiello on Akron quarterback Charlie Frye:
'He is a good quarterback. We knew that going into the game. He is going to have a good season and I wish him the best.'
Ryan Aiello on stopping the rhythm of Akron's offense:
'They had us on our heels and they had the no huddle offense going. It is really tough to turn around. Fortunately we were able to make a couple of plays at the end.'
Scott Starks on the Akron offense:
'We thought he was going to be a good quarterback and he was all that we expected him to be. They ran a couple of different things than we thought, but we still should have reacted better than we did.'
Scott Starks on goal-line stand and the following touchdown:
'That was a great job by the defensive line and the offense came back and kept the momentum going. Lee Evans connected with (Jim) Sorgi for a great play. That swung the momentum our way and we kept it the rest of the game.'
