Featured in this week's Varsity Magazine, this article is part of a feature series examining Wisconsin's history playing Ohio State.
BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — Ohio State and Wisconsin really haven't stepped on each other's brand over the years. But dancing on midfield logos was an issue during a chippy period in their history not so long ago.
Not that Urban Meyer or Paul Chryst would remember. Meyer was coaching wide receivers at Notre Dame and Chryst was coaching tight ends with the San Diego Chargers when the hostilities flared.
Tempers were short, passions were high, accusations were made, fingers were pointed.
And, oh yes, logos were violated.
To this end, the Buckeyes and Badgers had their own version of turf wars on the Motion W and Block O, disrespectfully. It didn't last very long. And it didn't leave any lasting scars.
"We beat them there (in '99), and danced on the 'O' or stomped on it or whatever," said former UW quarterback Brooks Bollinger. "They came here the next year and did it on the 'W'."
Ohio State wide receiver Ken-Yon Rambo, the ringleader, indicated it was a payback.
"That was the start," Bollinger said, "of an interesting rivalry within the rivalry."
On Saturday night, the Buckeyes and the Badgers will finally renew their rivalry at Camp Randall Stadium — what former UW tailback Montee Ball once called, "a rivalry of respect."
Others have had a different spin. Like another former OSU wide receiver, Philly Brown.
"I don't want to go on record saying I hate Wisconsin more than Michigan," Brown told Cleveland.com in 2012. "But I hate Wisconsin just as much as Michigan.
"Every year since I've been here, they've been a nightmare. They ruined our perfect season."
That was in 2010 when the Buckeyes were ranked No. 1.
The Badgers also pulled off an upset of Ohio State in 2003 on the strength of a pass from backup quarterback Matt Schabert to Lee Evans, a touchdown play that is a part of Camp Randall Stadium lore.
All of which is still relative to the credibility and competitiveness of the series dating to an October day in 1992 when the UW defense silenced quarterback (and future ESPN analyst) Kirk Herbstreit.
Herbstreit, then a fifth-year senior under coach John Cooper, was sacked five times. Chad Yocum, a UW sophomore from Windsor, Wis., had the hat trick to go along with three hurries.
Officially that's when the Badgers, under Barry Alvarez, landed their first punch on the Buckeyes to trigger a confidence-building stretch of 11 games in which Wisconsin went 5-5-1 against Ohio State.
Few have gotten more out of a tie, a 14-14 draw, than the Badgers, who rode it all the way to Pasadena after the Buckeyes got skunked 28-0 at Michigan in their 1993 regular-season finale.
That 12-year run included three Rose Bowls for the Badgers. Mission accomplished. The Alvarez mission? Compete with the heavyweights, the big boys in the Big Ten — Ohio State and Michigan.
One can imagine it being in the back of his mind when he took over the moribund UW program. Begging to differ, he said, "No, it was not in the back of my mind … it was in the front of my mind."
Alvarez didn't need a history lesson on the one-sided nature of the series; Woody Hayes was 25-1-2 and Bo Schembechler 18-1 against Wisconsin. Ancient history, Alvarez figured. But instructive.
"If you were going to be successful here, you had to build a program to beat those guys," Alvarez recounted of the Big Two, the Buckeyes and Wolverines. "You're not going to out recruit them.
"So what we tried to do was get kids who would play physical. We coached them to be sound and we'd try to make it a fist fight whenever we played against them. We got guys who wouldn't be intimidated in the Horseshoe or the Big House or anyplace else. You'd go play them, turn it into a fight, a four-quarter game, and see who was the toughest."
That, too, has relevance today.
Since the 2005 season, the Buckeyes have 127 wins, the Badgers have 112. They have been the Big Ten's standard bearers — leading the conference in winning percentage during that span.
For three years, they had the same mailing address — the Leaders Division, appropriately enough. In 2014, with the addition of Rutgers and Maryland, the league was realigned geographically.
Ohio State is in the East, Wisconsin is in the West, the rivalry is in the balance.
"I think Urban (Meyer) has recruited and gotten even better players than they have in the past," Alvarez said. "His scheme offensively is to get a combination quarterback.
"Cardale (Jones) was a little different in that respect. Braxton Miller is usually what he's looking for. So is the kid (J.T. Barrett) that he has now. Don't be misled, though. They want to run the ball.
"Defending the option is going to be a part of their game plan. They're going to force a defense to defend the whole field and they're going with the numbers. Their speed creates problems."
With rare exception, the Badgers have not felt like they were "out of their league" on the field against Ohio State and Michigan. That wasn't always the case, pre-Alvarez.
"Programs like Ohio State are the programs that coach (Alvarez) would tell us back in the day that our entire program was designed to compete with," said Chris McIntosh, a former All-American offensive tackle for the Badgers and now a member of Alvarez's senior staff.
"I was recruited on the heels of the '93 Rose Bowl team. They had battles that year with Michigan and Ohio State and players are attracted to playing in big games like that. Coach used to say, 'The more you win, the bigger the games get and the bigger the opportunities get.'
"The first game I played against Ohio State, I was a freshman and going up against Mike Vrabel. I remember sitting in the cafeteria of the Southeast dorms, eating lunch with my teammates and watching the TV highlights of Vrabel for weeks leading up to that.
"I knew that was a big one to be circled on the calendar. And those games were absolute fist fights (with the Buckeyes). Those are the games that are still talked about today when I talk to my former teammates. Those were games that left a mark … literally."
It wasn't by chance, either, that the Badgers have sustained their brand of success.
"Sustaining was the goal from the jump, it wasn't to be a flash in the pan," said Joe Rudolph, a starting guard on the '93 team and the current offensive coordinator and O-line coach. "It wasn't to do something different or trick'em. It wasn't to find a loophole to take advantage of.
"It was about building it the right way and creating a sustainable program. It was about recruiting to it and developing guys from within your program. Over time, guys got better and they kept working (to get better). That's still what it's about. That's the sustainable nature of this place."
Rudolph has been on both sides, too. He's a former Ohio State graduate assistant.
So he does know something about Big on Big.
"Playing physical, playing smart and finishing — those were things you did every day," he said of the Alvarez influence. "It started with that type of mindset, so when you got into those big games, you knew you had an edge because you weren't going to be asked to do anything out of the ordinary."
That will be the case again Saturday night at Camp Randall.
"You know what you've got to do," Rudolph said. "And you either do it and get it done or you don't. I don't believe there should be, or is any hesitation or doubt on how you need to go about doing your job and how you need to go about the game plan to be successful."
That has been ingrained.
"Our program has stood on its own merit and has been highly successful for a long time now — 20-plus years," said McIntosh with relish and understandable pride. "We have a relatively humble brand. We're the perennial underdog and that's the place where we're really comfortable."
