Â
BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — Bart Houston was singing in the shower — singing the praises of a Rudyard Kipling observation in a shower of confetti on the floor of AT&T Stadium. It's doubtful whether anyone in Cotton Bowl history has made a postgame reference to Kipling, a literary Hall of Famer as a poet/author during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
But following Wisconsin's victory over Western Michigan, the 23-year-old Houston broke out some Kipling "smack" with or without any knowledge of its genesis. If anyone could sound in character quoting from an animated Disney movie — The Jungle Book was based on Kipling's works — it would be Houston, the California native.
Attaching a fitting postscript to an 11-win season — only the sixth in school history, but the second in the last three years — Houston proposed, "The strength of the wolf is the pack and the strength of the pack is the wolf."
Individual players meshing their strengths and weaknesses in the name of harmony is always timely and telling, especially in light of another famous quotation — or overused cliché — depending on your perspective. This one is credited to an old college football coach, the late Jess Neely, who once uttered, "If you have two quarterbacks, you don't have any."
Houston and Alex Hornibrook would beg to differ. Over the final six games of the regular season, when both played, they combined to complete 62 percent of their passes for 937 yards and six touchdowns. They were picked off just twice during this stretch and unbeaten as a tandem. They saved their best for last, the Cotton Bowl, going a combined 13-of-14 for 178 yards with one TD and no picks.
Houston was 11-of-12 for 159 yards; Hornibrook was 2-for-2 for 19 and the touchdown. It rivaled their efficiency against another Mid-American Conference opponent, Akron, in early September, a 54-10 win at Camp Randall Stadium.
Houston was 15-of-22 for 231 yards and two scores; Hornibrook was 5-of-5 for 61 and one TD. Combined: 20-of-27 for 292 yards and three touchdowns.
Houston + Hornibrook = 0?
Obviously not.
Houston + Hornibrook = 7-0.
"I thought we'd get a lot out of it," Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst said Monday of his tag-team quarterbacks. "I didn't know how they would both approach it and take it. But I feel now what I felt all along: both earned the right to play. They gave us some things and they made it work through their preparation. I didn't think we were necessarily settling when we did it."
So he's not buying Neely's math?
"It depends on who the two (quarterbacks) are," Chryst said, "more than anything."
With Houston's departure, Hornibrook, who started nine Big Ten games, is now front and (behind the) center. Only Darrell Bevell, now the Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator, passed for more yards (1,479) as a UW freshman than Hornibrook, who threw for 1,262. After being picked off five times in the first three league games, he threw just one interception his last seven appearances (85 passes).
Looking ahead to spring practice, Chryst said, "It's a tremendous time for him, he can grow in so many areas. There is truth to (the saying) 'the best learning is through experience.' That's a real thing and he has a ton of experience that he can draw upon."
Hornibrook said as much after the Western Michigan game. "There are a bunch of things that helped me out this year that I can grow from — whether it was good or bad," he admitted. "In the offseason, I'm going to watch myself (on tape) from the whole year and sit down with Coach Chryst and see what I can improve on. Playing in those big games was a little different than what I was used to."
As of now, the Badgers will have three tendered quarterbacks on their spring roster: Hornibrook; the 6-foot-4, 219-pound lefty from Malvern Prep and West Chester, Pennsylvania; Karé Lyles, a 6-foot, 214-pound freshman redshirt from Scottsdale, Arizona; and Jack Coan, a 6-3, 190-pound incoming freshman and early enrollee from Sayville High School and Long Island, New York.
Coan originally committed to Notre Dame — to play lacrosse. Once he opted to focus on football, he had to sort through offers from Miami (Florida) and six Big Ten schools, including Michigan and Nebraska. "You have to fast-track him so he gets something out of the spring," Chryst said. "Alex did a good job of that his first spring here (as an early enrollee) getting some meaningful work."
With Hornibrook, Lyles (who was unable to compete as an early enrollee last spring because he was rehabbing from an injury) and Coan, the Badgers are short on numbers and experience at quarterback. It's no secret that they would like to bolster the position group, if possible, during this recruiting cycle. Asked if depth was a concern, Chryst replied, "It's a reality."
So are the early departures of left tackle Ryan Ramczyk and outside linebacker T.J. Watt. Both are headed for the NFL draft with eligibility remaining. Neither was a surprise. As far as filling those voids in the lineup, or at least identifying potential replacements, Chryst said, "You find out where everyone is at in the spring and then you see where you've got to go with it."
Meanwhile, there is one final footnote to Houston's five-year run.
At the team's banquet, he received the Wayne Souza Coaches Appreciation award that annually goes to the offensive player who has best contributed to the program in multiple facets, on and off the field. Souza, a former UW wide receiver, was the victim of a drowning accident in Lake Monona the summer prior to his senior year, late July of 1979. He was 20.
Scott Buckley was one of Souza's closest friends in New Bedford, Massachusetts — so close that the Souza family presented him with Wayne's class ring from Wisconsin after his death. During the early stage of his prep career, Souza was a quarterback and threw passes to Buckley. The Badgers recruited Souza as a dual-threat athlete who could and did play on both sides of the ball as a defensive back and receiver.
As fate would have it, Buckley's two boys, Alex and Andrew, were utilized the same way in high school. Both attended De La Salle, an elite program in Concord, California. Both caught passes from Houston, a fact that was not lost on Scott Buckley when Bart's dad, Guy, texted him with word that his son had been recognized as this season's Souza award winner.
"Scott could not contain his emotions," Guy said.
Buckley never got a chance to say goodbye to his friend.
But this helped bring some closure.
