BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
MADISON, Wis. — Membership in an exclusive club is on the line when Wisconsin faces Miami in the Pinstripe Bowl Thursday at Yankee Stadium in New York City. The Badgers have won bowl games in four consecutive seasons going back to 2014. The only Big Ten Conference schools that have prevailed in five straight bowl games are Nebraska (1971 to '74) and Penn State (1979 to '83). Meanwhile, Wisconsin (7-5 overall) is trying to maintain its select standing as one of the Big Ten schools with a winning bowl record overall. Going in to their matchup with the Hurricanes (7-5), the Badgers are 15-14. Penn State is 29-17-2, Purdue is 10-8 and Rutgers 6-4.
Here are five more things to know:
JT Chasing 4,000
Wisconsin sophomore tailback Jonathan Taylor needs 34 rushing yards to reach 4,000 for his career. He can do it in just 27 games, which would be one fewer than Ron Dayne, the 1999 Heisman Trophy winner and the all-time leading rusher in Wisconsin history with 7,125. Taylor, Dayne and Herschel Walker, the 1982 Heisman winner from Georgia, are the only backs in NCAA history to surpass 3,500 rushing yards in their freshman and sophomore seasons. Walker didn't eclipse the 4,000-yard mark until his junior year, but he needed only 26 games to get there. Taylor would be the sixth tailback in Wisconsin history to reach 4,000 rushing yards for his career. For reference, it took Dayne 28 games to reach that plateau, Melvin Gordon 36, Anthony Davis 38, Montee Ball 42 and James White 52.
JT Chasing 2,000
Taylor, the newly-crowned Doak Walker Award winner as the nation's best running back, needs 11 rushing yards to reach 2,000 for the season. He's vying to become the 31st back in Football Bowl Subdivision history to reach that milestone and the second Wisconsin tailback to lead the nation in rushing, joining Melvin Gordon, who did it in 2014. Taylor has 3,996 rushing yards over the last two seasons, which is the sixth-highest two-year total in FBS history. If he reaches his per-game average of 165.8 yards vs. Miami, Taylor will crack the top three on the all-time list, which is comprised of Gordon (4,196, 2013-14), Troy Davis of Iowa State (4,195, 1995-96) and LaDainian Tomlinson of TCU (4,132, 1999-2000).
Quite the Transformation
The Badgers look vastly different now compared to their meeting with Miami last December at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. Of the 22 who started against the Hurricanes, 10 are available for Round Two, including two on defense (senior strong safety D'Cota Dixon and senior inside linebacker T.J. Edwards) and eight on offense (Taylor, senior right guard Beau Benzschawel, sophomore center Tyler Biadasz, sophomore wide receiver Danny Davis, senior left guard Michael Deiter, junior left tackle Jon Dietzen, junior tight end Kyle Penniston and junior wide receiver A.J. Taylor). Five of the absentee starters — senior inside linebacker Ryan Connelly, junior right tackle David Edwards, junior quarterback Alex Hornibrook, senior tight end Zander Neuville and senior nose tackle Olive Sagapolu — have at least 14 career starts. Of the 56 names listed on the official Orange Bowl play sheet as having seen action for the Badgers last December, 34 are available for duty.
Picking Up the Slack
Jack Coan is trying to become the 10th Wisconsin quarterback in history to win a bowl game, but the sophomore would be just the third to do so after not starting the season opener. Coan is making his fourth career start in place of junior Alex Hornibrook. Coan, from Sayville, New York, also started at Northwestern, Penn State and Purdue. Coan is in the same position as Joel Stave in 2014 and Brooks Bollinger in 1999. Tanner McEvoy was the season-opening starter in 2014, but Stave finished in that role and closed things out with a 34-31 overtime victory over Auburn in the Outback Bowl. Bollinger, meanwhile, sat behind Scott Kavanagh when the '99 season began, but was running the show when the Badgers knocked off Stanford 17-9 in the Rose Bowl.
Thanks and Goodbye
This will be the last Badgers football game for Michael Leckrone, who's retiring after 50 years with the Wisconsin Marching Band, but he's not the only game-day fixture stepping down after five decades of service. Lowell Bakken, an 83-year-old Madisonian and Wisconsin graduate, was recruited to work the scoreboard clock at Camp Randall Stadium in 1968. Bakken has outlasted four scoreboards — the first was wooden — and seen his share of drama, agony, euphoria and greatness unfold. Bakken, a former Madison La Follette teacher and coach, was so good, so reliable and so accountable that he was part of the time-keeping crew for the College Football Playoff title game in 2018. Bakken said the emotional effects of him stepping down won't be felt until next season when he and Judie, his wife of 56 years, are watching from afar. "I've had a good life,'' he said.
