Badger Rewind: Schobert's stellar show overshadowed

MIKE LUCAS
Senior Writer

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• Varsity Magazine

BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer

MADISON, Wis. -- The Wisconsin locker room was uncommonly quiet. Normally, the speakers are vibrating with loud music. None was playing. Normally, the players are slow to shower and dress and fast to celebrate a victory. That has been the norm in 71 of the previous 78 games at Camp Randall Stadium, a span of 11 seasons. But nobody was dallying, nobody was celebrating after Saturday's 10-6 loss to Iowa.

Senior outside linebacker Joe Schobert didn't have to be told that the silence in the room and the "sour taste" in his mouth were out of character. "After a game, you want it to be kind of rowdy in here - not too rowdy," said Schobert, forcing a small smile. "But it's definitely a different feeling today."

Schobert refused to dwell on the negative, though, just like he had refused to be blocked by Iowa, to which he protested good-naturedly ("I thought they blocked me a couple of times pretty good"). Immediately after the game, Schobert addressed his position group, the linebackers.

"I told our guys that this is exactly what happened last year at Northwestern - it was the same kind of scenario," said Schobert, flashing back to a 20-14 loss in the 2014 Big Ten opener which left the Badgers with a 3-2 overall record. "Everybody's not going to have a perfect year. We still have whatever we want ahead of us if we're able to lock-in and take it week by week."

Schobert came pretty close to playing a perfect game for a linebacker based on the numbers alone: eight tackles, 3.5 TFLs, three sacks, two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery and five quarterback hurries. "Boy, I'll tell you, he's a football player," said Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz afterwards.

In 2003, linebacker Alex Lewis had 6.5 TFLs in a 26-23 loss to Purdue. In 1985, defensive end Tim Jordan had six sacks in a 17-14 loss to Northwestern. True to form, Lewis and Jordan felt the same emptiness as Schobert because their Herculean efforts didn't result in victory.

"After we watch film, we have to put it (this game) in the rearview, learn from it and it's on to the next week," insisted Schobert, already eyeing next Saturday's road trip to Nebraska. "As long as we don't let this loss simmer too much … and not let this game beat us again … we still have everything that we wanted to achieve at the beginning of the year (in play)."

Schobert's achievements Saturday did not go unnoticed by teammates.

"Phenomenal effort," said center Dan Voltz. "Joe is an amazing player."

"He has shown that all year," said fullback Derek Watt. "Great athlete, great player."

As the younger brother of J.J. Watt, he's better suited than most to recognize dominating play.

As it was, Schobert was pretty dominating in overtime against Auburn in the Outback Bowl.

Asked if he had that same feeling for four quarters against Iowa, he said, "Yeah, I guess so."

It's possible that Schobert might have even seen it coming.

"Coach Tibesar does tell us to visualize stuff the night before and the day of the game," Schobert said of UW outside linebackers coach Tim Tibesar. "He wants us to imagine plays in certain scenarios and calls that you've seen on film (study). You always imagine that you're going to have a good game. But you never know quite how good (it will be) until it happens."

Schobert was a two-time, first-team all-conference basketball player at Waukesha West. Around the football team, he has drawn raves for his hops and dunking ability. In this context, was Schobert in "the zone" against the Hawkeyes, the equivalent of being in the zone as a shooter in hoops?

"Definitely," he said. "Some games when the whole defense is playing well, you don't know exactly what they're going to do (on offense), but you have an idea and you just have to win your one-on-ones. That's the confidence that the defense is playing with, and I felt that today.

"They (the Hawkeyes) didn't really try to do any trickeration. We knew what they were going to do; they wanted to run the ball, kind of pound it. And we wanted to stop that and get them into passing situations where we could attack them, which is something that our defense is really good at.

"Coach (Dave) Aranda does a great job of getting us those one-on-one matchups," he said of the UW's defensive coordinator. "He put us in a position to make plays so when your number is called, if the availability of a play is there, you have to take the opportunity and make it."

Aranda made it a two-man game with Schobert and outside linebacker Vince Biegel.

"After the first couple of series, Coach Aranda kind of simplified the play sheet and calls and put a lot of it on me and Vince," said Schobert. "The last two sacks I had, Vince flushed the guy (quarterback C.J. Beathard) out of the pocket and I was able to run him down from behind."

On one such rush, Schobert knocked the ball out of Beathard's hand and recovered it.

"I saw him holding it loosely, so I just tried to take a swipe at it," he said. "I was running to the pile (and the loose ball) just to celebrate because I thought one of our guys had, it and the ball kind of poked out through somebody's legs so I just jumped on it."

Upon further review, Schobert said, "I could have maybe picked it up and run."

Instead, he dutifully handed the ball to the ref and alerted him, "We have it."

The Badgers took over on the Iowa 27. But that drive, like so many others, ended in bitter frustration. On second-and-goal from the 1, right guard Micah Kapoi inadvertently stepped on quarterback Joel Stave's foot as he was pulling away from center.

Stave couldn't make a clean handoff to tailback Taiwan Deal and the fumble was recovered by the Hawkeyes. "Obviously disappointing," Stave said. "We've got to come away with something."

It was a reoccurring storyline in the fourth quarter. "As an offense, I would say that's on us," Stave said. "I thought our defense played unbelievable with the number of chances that they gave us."

The UW's last four drives ended on the Iowa 33, 5, 40 and 16. None produced any points.

"We had great field position on multiple drives - everything you want as an offense," said Voltz. "The defense gave us a great opportunity to score and we just didn't convert. You have to be assignment-sound and you have to make plays to win games and we didn't do that."

Without marquee tailback Corey Clement, the Badgers are struggling to establish a consistent running attack. They averaged 2.5 yards per rush. The longest run of the day was 11. In addition, the offense lost two more players to injuries. The Badgers played without wide receiver Alex Erickson for most of the second half and lost tight end Austin Traylor in the closing minutes.

Along with the four turnovers, it was too much to overcome. "We can't play two teams - we can't play ourselves and play Iowa," Watt said. "We beat ourselves."

Schobert remained upbeat about the future. But he also put everything in perspective.

"We did a lot of good things," he said. "But, at the end of the game, nobody did enough."

The silence was deafening in the UW locker room.