Jan. 2, 2012

Recap |  Final Stats |  Quotes |  Photo Gallery 

Wisconsin Post-Game Notes
98th Rose Bowl – Wisconsin vs. Oregon
Jan. 2, 2012 – Rose Bowl Stadium (Pasadena, Calif.)

Team Notes
•    The official game time temperature was 82 degrees today, making it the warmest bowl game in Badger history. It was 78 degrees at kickoff of the 2008 Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando.

•    Today was the highest-scoring bowl game in Wisconsin history, surpassing the 79 combined points UW and USC scored in the 1963 Rose Bowl.

•    The two teams combined for 28 points in the first quarter, 56 in the first half and 83 points for the game, marking the highest-scoring first quarter, half and game in Rose Bowl history. The 28 first-quarter points surpassed last year’s total of 24 by Wisconsin and TCU while the previous high for the first half was 45 points by Wisconsin and UCLA in 1999. The previous high for a game was 80, last recorded in 1991 by Washington (46) and Iowa (34).

•    Wisconsin’s 38 points tied a school bowl game record. UW also scored 38 in the 1996 Copper Bowl and 1999 Rose Bowl.

Individual Notes
•    Junior RB Montee Ball’s three-yard TD run in the second quarter was his 39th touchdown of the season, tying Barry Sanders’ NCAA record, set in 1988.

•    Ball finished with 32 carries for 164 yards, marking his ninth 100-yard rushing game this season and 15th of his career. He had 122 yards in the first half. He is just the fourth player to run for at least 100 yards in consecutive Rose Bowls, joining O.J. Simpson of USC (1968 and ’69), Ron Dayne of Wisconsin (1999 and 2000) and Vince Young of Texas (2005 and ’06).

•    Ball’s 42-yard run in the first quarter was his second run of at least 40 yards in the Rose Bowl (he had a 40-yarder last year vs. TCU) and was the 10th-longest run by a Badger in a bowl game.

•    Senior QB Russell Wilson extended his own NCAA record by throwing a touchdown pass in his 38th-straight game. Wilson connected on two TD passes today, giving him 33 for the season. That is second-most in a season in Big Ten history (trailing only Purdue’s Drew Brees – 39 in 1998).

•    Finishing the season at 191.78, Wilson also set an NCAA record for single-season pass efficiency rating, topping the previous mark of 186.0 set by Colt Brennan of Hawaii in 2006.

•    Wilson also scored on a four-yard TD run, his sixth rushing TD of the season and 23rd of his career.

•    With 296 passing yards today, Wilson became the first Wisconsin QB to throw for at least 3,000 yards in a season.

•    For Abbrederis it was his eighth TD reception of the season, giving UW three players with at least eight TD catches in the same season for the first time in school history. He has a TD catch in each of the last three games.

•    Abbrederis’ 60-yard kickoff return in the third quarter tied a Wisconsin bowl game record, set when David Gilreath returned a KO 60 yards against Tennessee in the 2008 Outback Bowl. Abbrederis had 201 kickoff return yards for the game, smashing the UW bowl game record of 100 set by Michael Jones in the 1984 Hall of Fame Bowl.

•    Abbrederis’ 346 all-purpose yards were the most ever for a Badger in a bowl game and the second-best performance by a UW player in school history, trailing only Ron Dayne’s 347 all-purpose yards against Hawaii on Nov. 30, 1996.

•    Senior DE Louis Nzegwu, a former high school running back, recovered the first fumble of his career in the second quarter and returned it 33 yards for a touchdown. Junior LB Mike Taylor caused the fumble on the play, sacking Oregon’s Darron Thomas. It was Taylor’s third forced fumble of the season and fourth of his career.

•    Senior K Philip Welch connected on his only field goal attempt of the game, a 29-yarder in the third quarter. He finishes his career with seven field goals in bowl games.

•    Senior WR Nick Toon’s 18-yard TD reception in the third quarter was his 10th of the season and 18th of his career. He is now alone in second on UW’s single-season TD receptions list, second only to Lee Evans’ 13 in 2003.

•    Senior FS Aaron Henry recorded his fourth interception of the season and seventh of his career, picking off Thomas in the third quarter.