Reliable Bollinger Again Has Drive to Carry the Badgers to a Victory

Y2Chaos:

Wisconsin won the Rose Bowl Saturday evening largely because the tight end who hadn’t caught a pass since Sept. 25 and was the second option on the play hauled in a critical fourth-down toss from the quarterback who didn’t even break the starting lineup until the fifth game.

Which came after the tight end bobbled the throw.

Which came after the quarterback threw it behind him.

This may have been supposed to happen--Wisconsin beating Stanford in Pasadena for a second consecutive Rose Bowl--but that play was not supposed to happen. Especially with a Heisman Trophy winner on the team, and with Brooks Bollinger looking erratic at quarterback for one of the few times in a freshman season that defied the odds. And especially with John Sigmund the first to concede, as if everyone didn’t know it anyway, that the primary job for a Badger tight end is to block for Ron Dayne.

Bollinger had emerged as a hero, again. He had gone from second string to No. 1 on the depth chart earlier this season, then on the final day as a redshirt freshman recovered from a showing that was second rate.

That was the other unexpected part of his role in the 17-9 victory over Stanford. Bollinger usually wasn’t spectacular during his improbable run, 7-0 as a starter before Saturday, but he was almost always dependable, the perfect, understated complement for Dayne, the armored truck playing tailback. That he filled the role perfectly was a compliment.

And then Bollinger opened the Rose Bowl with six incomplete passes in nine attempts. He faced steady pressure from a Stanford front that, for all the focus on a unit that rated as one of the worst in the country, still finished second in the Pacific 10 Conference in sacks. He scrambled. He overthrew receivers.

He got frustrated.

“But coach talked to me,” he said. “He told me to keep my poise and things would come around. And they did in the fourth quarter.”

Some genius, that Barry Alvarez. Bollinger was still only five for 12 for 76 yards when the final period began, and every completed pass had gone to the same receiver, split end Chris Chambers. Then 6 1/2 minutes or so passed, on the game clock alone, before the first attempt.

It was only with the drive of the day on the line. That’s all. Wisconsin led, 10-9, so it’s not as if a turnover would have meant defeat. But the difference between a one-point edge and the eight-point edge that would come is immeasurable. Stanford, struggling on offense, could have won the game with a field goal in the final 8 1/2 minutes.

Dayne had carried the ball the first three plays on the drive, worth six, two and zero yards. Now it was fourth and two from the Stanford 32, great field position that came more from a 31-yard punt by the Cardinal than anything the Badgers had done. Alvarez, not wanting any part of trying a 50-yard field goal, decided to go for it.

Tension mounting, Bollinger came to the line . . . and called a timeout.

When play resumed, the unlikely series of events began. Dayne did not get the ball. Bollinger rolled left and looked for fullback Chad Kuhns, the first option. He found Sigmund over the middle instead.

Getting the ball to Sigmund was another matter. The pass arrived a little behind Sigmund. He twisted to get it, or at least get his hands on it. Sigmund, who recorded all six of his 1999 receptions in the first four games and soon missed a month because of a sprained ankle, bobbled it.

“I couldn’t be nervous,” Sigmund said. “I wouldn’t have made the catch.”

Said Bollinger: “My heart sank a little. But I thought he got it.”

He did. The seven-yard completion gave Wisconsin a first down. The next play, the two hooked up on another major blow to Stanford, this time with Sigmund as the third option, worth 22 yards and giving the Badgers first and goal at the three. On third and one, Bollinger pushed into the line for the quarterback sneak that provided the final 17-9 margin.

“To be able to get through a game like this with no turnovers, he made a lot of great decisions,” said Brian White, Wisconsin’s offensive coordinator. “And at the end, he made some great plays.”

A slow start time-warped into a big finish, much like Bollinger’s coming-out season as a whole. With the biggest saved for the very end.