BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
MADISON, Wis. — It might be the single most unusual development in Wisconsin football history.
Despite having lost back-to-back games, the Badgers continue to find themselves ranked among the top 10 of the Associated Press poll.
UW is 10th even though it suffered close Big Ten Conference losses to Michigan on Oct. 1 and Ohio State on Oct. 15.
"That's pretty remarkable," redshirt freshman quarterback Alex Hornibrook said Monday.
"I was thinking we were going to drop to, like, 17," senior cornerback Sojourn Shelton said.
That didn't happen presumably because the Badgers acquitted themselves so well in the two setbacks.
Both came against unbeaten teams currently ranked in the top five — Ohio State is second; Michigan is third — and both were decided by one score.
Both were games in which Wisconsin (4-2 overall, 1-2 in the Big Ten) was a decided underdog and was tied with less than eight minutes left in regulation.
The Wolverines (6-0, 3-0) scored the go-ahead touchdown with 7 minutes, 56 seconds left at home to prevail 14-7.
The Buckeyes (6-0, 3-0) got the tying field goal with 3:57 remaining in the fourth quarter, scored on their first possession of overtime at Camp Randall Stadium and hung on for a 30-23 victory.
In all, the Badgers have played four teams ranked in the top 10 at the time of their meeting, including three in succession and two of those on the road.
They opened the season on Sept. 3 by knocking off then-fifth-rated LSU, 16-14, at the Lambeau Field College Classic in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Three weeks later they upended then-eighth-ranked Michigan State, the defending Big Ten champion, 30-6, in East Lansing, Michigan.
This is rarified air for Wisconsin players, who speak often of playing with a chip on their shoulder because they feel underappreciated by national observers.
UW is the only two-loss team in the top 10. Seventh-ranked Louisville is the only other entry with a blemish (6-1).
Losing consecutive games and staying in the top 10 is certainly rare, but it's not yet clear if this is a first for the AP poll, which has been around since 1934.
The only comparable moment in Wisconsin history was in 1954 when it dropped consecutive October games to Ohio State and Iowa, falling from second to eighth to 16th in the AP ranking.
"I would hope there's more respect to our team," junior wide receiver Jazz Peavy said Monday. "We've shown we can play some good ball against very good teams.
"I would hope that we're not looked at as underdogs anymore. I hope every time we go into a game, it's 'it could go either way,' not them favored against us."
Lo and behold, the Badgers are slightly favored Saturday when they begin a stretch of six straight Big Ten West Division games by playing at Iowa (5-2, 3-1).
That might be related to this odd trend: The road team has won the last five meetings in this series, which dates back to 1894.
Wisconsin is hoping to get an emotional boost with the return of senior outside linebacker Vince Biegel, who underwent foot surgery on Sept. 30 and has missed two games. He's included on the two-deep, but listed as questionable.
Is it possible that UW received more national respect from consecutive losses than it did from four victories to open the season?
"That probably has happened," junior inside linebacker Jack Cichy said Monday, the day he was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week for his 15-tackle outing against Ohio State.
"For us, it's no real big deal. We like it, but, yeah, it feels like there has been a little bit more national recognition now."
UW head coach Paul Chryst is a voter in the Amway coaches' poll, but said Monday he has little time for the subjective exercise outside of filling out his ballot.
Asked about the AP ranking and his team's uncommon place in it during his weekly press conference, Chryst demurred.
"All I really care about is this group," he said. "We want to be the best team that we can be. The only way to do that is to have the best day you can have. At the end of the year, they can write who we were and what we were."
A major topic of conversation pertaining to the Badgers has been their hellish schedule. In addition to the four top-10 opponents they've already faced, No. 8 Nebraska (6-0, 3-0) comes to Camp Randall on Oct. 29. It will mark the first time in UW history that Wisconsin has faced five top-10 opponents in the same season.
Shelton said he'd trade the top-10 ranking for a pair of wins against Michigan and Ohio State, but he appreciates the perspective.
"I don't like losing and it's hard for me to be around that," he said.
"People talked about the schedule. Of course, the two losses aren't something we look forward to, but we've handled this thing pretty well so far.
"We've got to keep doing the same thing. It doesn't get any easier. The next six teams we play are just as good. They present their own challenges as a team. We have to make sure we go out and handle our business."
The last time Wisconsin lost back-to-back regular-season games was in 2012.
The last time UW lost a trophy game was in 2015, ending a streak of nine consecutive wins. Iowa came to Camp Randall last season and made off with the Heartland Trophy thanks to a 10-6 triumph.
One of the challenges facing the Badgers is getting recalibrated mentally after two soul-sucking losses.
"Obviously from where we're coming from, we wanted to win, we wanted those two games to turn out differently," Hornibrook said, noting that he's watched replays of his fourth-down, game-ending sack against the Buckeyes 100 times.
But despite those losses, Wisconsin can still win the West Division and play for the Big Ten title. A rematch with Ohio State or Michigan, perhaps?
"I think it's good to see that we still have everything we want in front of us and, you know, it helps us to focus week to week because if we win these games — especially this week — it will help us down the road," Hornibrook said.
"I couldn't tell you what the rest of the country thinks of us, but I know what we think of our team and we want to be as successful as we can."
The unusual sentiment in the AP rankings is nice, but largely irrelevant, according to Shelton.
"We got bigger things to worry about," he said.
