UW Opens Season With 34-6 Rout of UCF
September 04, 2004 | Football
Sophomore quarterback John Stocco threw two touchdowns and ran for another as head coach Barry Alvarez notched his 100th career win in the University of Wisconsin football team's 34-6 victory over the University of Central Florida Saturday at Camp Randall Stadium.
Alvarez, whose record improved to 100-67-4 in 15 seasons at UW, is the 10th coach in Big Ten Conference history to earn 100 wins at the same institution.
'I'm pleased with the victory,' Alvarez said. 'We had certain things we wanted to accomplish today, and I thought we accomplished many of them. I thought our guys really competed hard and did a lot of very good things today.'
Also reaching a milestone was tailback Anthony Davis, who on Wisconsin's second offensive play from scrimmage, churned out an 18-yard run to move past Billy Marek (1972-75) and into second place on UW's career rushing list.
Davis ended up rushing 13 times for 78 yards and a touchdown in his return from ankle injuries that caused him to miss five games last season.
In his first collegiate start, Stocco led 21st/22nd-ranked Wisconsin to its ninth straight home-opening win, using drives of 50, 66 and 80 yards to distance the Badgers (1-0) from the Golden Knights (0-1).
'I thought he managed the game well and got stronger as it went on,' Alvarez said. 'I did think that he did play much better as the game went on and that's what's going to happen. I was pleased (with his performance) and (I know) John will continue to improve.'
Wide receiver Jonathan Orr scored the second touchdown of the day, hauling in a 16-yard pass from Stocco late in the second quarter. Orr finished with three catches for 42 yards.
Tight end Owen Daniels caught the other touchdown pass, making a defender fall for a fake as he ran 52 yards to put the Badgers up by 24.
UCF quarterback Steven Moffett was 13-of-24 for 177 yards but could not find the end zone. Kicker Matt Prater scored the Golden Knights' only points; he made a 51-yard field goal in the first quarter and a 33-yard shot in the third to prevent the shutout.
Davis rushed for 40 yards and had a 12-yard reception in the opening drive before scoring from eight-yards out on first-and-goal with 9:27 left on the clock. UCF answered three minutes later, missing on a pass on third-and-eight and settling for the long field goal.
The Badgers made it 10-3 after Mike Allen knocked in a three-pointer from 40 yards out. Both Orr and Allen scored in the final two minutes of the first half to put UW up 20-3 heading into the locker room.
On the opening drive of the third quarter, a roughing-the-passer penalty by UCF led to a first down on the 50-yard line for UW. From there, the Badgers made nine consecutive running plays for the score, capped off by Stocco's two-yard quarterback-sneak on fourth-and-one.
With just seven seconds remaining in the third quarter, UCF got its last points on the board, as the team was unable to get a touchdown on first-and-goal from eight yards out.
Daniels' only catch of the day early in the fourth was the icing on the cake for the Badgers, who amassed 400 yards of total offense, including 230 yards in passing. The Golden Knights, meanwhile, had just 230 total.
Wisconsin will remain home for its next game, playing host to UNLV at 11 a.m. Saturday at Camp Randall.
Notes: Today's victory is the 100th in Head Coach Barry Alvarez 's career at Wisconsin. He is now 100-67-4 in 15 seasons at UW. Alvarez is the 10th coach in Big Ten history to earn 100 wins at the same institution ' the Badgers improve to 88-25-3 all-time in season-openers with the victory. Wisconsin is now 11-4 in season openers under Alvarez, and has won seven in a row ' Wisconsin is now 13-2 all-time in home-openers during the Alvarez era, including nine wins in a row. UW 's last loss in a home-opener came on Sept. 2, 1995 when it fell to No. 13 Colorado 43-7 ' this was the first meeting between the Badgers and the Golden Knights on the gridiron ' Wisconsin is 21-2 in its last 23 non-conference home games and 31-5 overall vs. non-league opponents during the Alvarez era ' the win improves the Badgers' all-time record against Mid-American Conference opponents to 23-2. The last MAC opponent to defeat the Badgers was Western Michigan in the 1988 season-opener. UCF dropped to 0-4 all-time vs. Big Ten opponents ' the Badgers are 34-6-1 in its last 41 meetings with unranked opponents at Camp Randall Stadium. UCF is now 0-14 all-time vs. AP-ranked opponents with its loss ' with an 18-yard run on Wisconsin's second offensive play from scrimmage, senior running back Anthony Davis moved past Billy Marek (1972-75) and into second place on UW's career rushing list. Davis finished the game with 78 yards rushing on 13 carries before leaving with an injury late in the second quarter. He now has 3,781 career rushing yards, trailing only Ron Dayne in school history ' today's attendance of 82,116 is the largest in Camp Randall Stadium history. The previous record of 80,024 was set on Oct. 21, 1978 for a game with Michigan. It is the 70th straight game that Wisconsin has drawn a crowd of at least 70,000 ' today's game marked the first time Wisconsin did not allow a touchdown in a game since Sept. 29, 2001 when it posted a 24-6 home win over Western Kentucky. It is the fewest points allowed by a Badger team in a season-opener since Sept. 7, 1996 when it downed Eastern Michigan 24-3 ' the second-quarter interception by UW defensive tackle Anttaj Hawthorne was the first of his career ' defensive end Jamal Cooper's second-quarter sack and forced fumble were each the first of his career. Dontez Sanders recovered the ball for his first career fumble recovery and returned it 50 yards for a touchdown. However, the play was reviewed and it was determined that Sanders' knee was on the ground when he recovered the fumble, negating the touchdown ' quarterback John Stocco threw his first career touchdown pass late in the second quarter when he connected with Jonathan Orr on a 16-yard strike. It was Orr 's first touchdown reception since the 2002 season when he caught eight and tied a UW freshman record ' Stocco's two-yard touchdown run in the third quarter was the first rushing TD of his career ' the 52-yard touchdown pass from Stocco to Owen Daniels in the fourth quarter marked the longest reception of Daniels' career and the longest completion of Stocco's career. Daniels' previous best was a 27-yard catch for a score at Minnesota on Nov. 8, 2003. Stocco completed a 49-yard pass to Lee Evans against Iowa on Nov. 22, 2003 ' junior kicker Matt Prater drilled a 51-yard field goal for UCF's first points of the game. The field goal was the second-longest of his career. He is 2-for-3 from 50-59 yards in his career. He is second in school history with the two, 50-yard-plus field goals. Scott Ryerson (1980-83) is UCF 's all-time leader with seven field goals from that distance ' Prater drilled his seventh straight field goal over the last two seasons in the third quarter from 33 yards out. He is now tied for fifth in school history with seven straight field goals.
Wisconsin vs. UCF Post-game Quotations ' 9/4/04
Wisconsin head coach Barry Alvarez
On his 100th win at Wisconsin: I certainly appreciate that, Mendota (Gridiron)'s been very good, very supportive the 15 years we've been here. That's very meaningful. Referring to the 100 victories, when you reminisce, the only thing I can think of is all the people that were involved in it, how many people since 1990, where the program was and how far it has come and what we 've accomplished. I would be remiss if I didn't start with (former Athletic Director) Pat (Richter), talking about him giving me an opportunity and then supporting our football program, every step of the way for 14 years. Then former coaches and players and anyone who has something to do with the program, and there have been so many. They all have a piece of this. I'm very proud of it; it's really meaningful to me.
For today, I'm pleased with the victory. We had certain things we wanted to accomplish today and I thought we accomplished many of them. I thought our guys really competed hard and did a lot of very good things today. I don't think there is one mistake that we made that we cannot correct and obviously the first game is going to have a number of those. In the kicking game, the kickers, the new quarterback and our (running) backs stepping up, people making plays when they had to, and a defense that played very, very well that allowed us to do some things. I was overall pleased with the effort. I thought the Central Florida kids really competed and played very hard. I know they have a tough situation, a tough week with Coach O'Leary not being here and probably what's going on back home [Hurricane Frances]. But I thought they competed very hard. There are outstanding athletes on the field, you can see that.
On Anthony Davis: Anthony had a finger in his eye. They are evaluating it right now. It was sore, kind of like a headache and so they didn 't feel like he should go and I thought that was the best (course of action). I thought he was having a very good day'I thought he was just getting warmed up.
On John Stocco: I thought as the game went on ... first of all, he protected the ball in the game. He had a couple of mis-snaps. I thought one just came out wrong, while the other didn't get up to him, but he protected it in the passing game. I thought he managed well the game and got stronger as it went on. I did think that he did play much better as the game went on and that's what 's going to happen. I was pleased and John will continue to improve.
On the instant replay: Well, when they call a touchdown back on you, you're not crazy about instant replay on that particular play. If his knee was down, and obviously it was if they saw it, then that's the correct thing. The only thing that bothers me is we had all the momentum in the world on two consecutive plays and I don't think the intent of that rule is to stop the game for five minutes to see if he stepped out five yards prior to the spot'I don 't think that was the intent of the rule. You could stop the game, probably, all the way along to get the correct spots. On long runs it really doesn't make that much difference. That was the only thing that upset me; it took the momentum away from us.
University of Central Florida acting head coach Dave Huxtable
Opening Statement: 'I thought the kids went out and they played hard today. We made some mistakes in the first half, put the ball on the ground a couple times, struggled offensively. We weren't really able to get a drive going, had some mishaps with the ball, but overall I thought the kids played hard. I thought they gave good effort, which is what we're shooting for. Of course we want to win the football game, but it was our first time going into the battle as a family, minus one, our head football coach. I think we learned a little bit more about each other and what we have to do from here. And as a coaching staff we'll look at the film, make the corrections, show them to the players and work to get better from there. '
On talking with head coach George O'Leary: I talked with George this morning. I had a meeting this morning with the staff at 7:00 and George called me about 7:15, wished us good luck, and about halftime when I came off the field, he called me.
On what O'Leary said at halftime: He said at halftime that he was proud of the kids and how hard they were playing. He said to hang in there, stay positive, keep the kids up, and to do the best we can. And he said he was looking forward to getting here and seeing us tonight.
On the last two minutes of the first half: I thought we were really hanging in there pretty good, and that last couple minutes right there, things started to unravel a little bit and we made some mistakes, which cost us going into the locker room at halftime. We're a young football team. We've got a lot of things to learn yet, and those are the things that we've got to get back with these kids now and show it to them on film and make those corrections, and we need to look at small wins. Small wins before we look for the big ones. And there were some small wins today. There will be some things that we look at on film that some players will have played well today'that will be a small win for us. We've just got to regroup, rally back, get our head football coach back here and go back to the practice field and work to get better.
Wisconsin Players
Defensive Tackle Anttaj Hawthorne
How would you rate the defensive performance today ' I'd give it a 10. We did a great job'I don't know how many first downs they had, but we did a good job of just holding them.
How satisfying was it to be a big part of Barry's 100th win' It's a great thing, you know' He did a lot of great things for the program here and to give him his 100th win, it's a great feeling.
How much does it mean to get pressure with you four guys upfront' It's a great feeling, I can recall one of the linebackers telling coach Bret Bielema that we needed more blitzes, but he told them that we only needed one blitz if we are getting back to our regular spot.
Do you take that on your guys' shoulders so that they don't have to' Yeah, definitely, whenever we can get pressure from four guys, it's a great thing. It lets us hold a couple of things back and not show the other teams what we can do.
Can you say a couple of things about Jason Jefferson being an overlooked guy in that line' Jason Jefferson is a great player; he does great things. Today he had a big play in the first period with a sack, and I think there will be a lot more to come from him this year.
How much does he allow you to do what you do'because you're beside him'does he help you' Yes, he's a big part of my success, personally. Jason is always there whether it be on double teams to leave me one-on-one or doing stunts, all kinds of things, different things that go on on-field.
