Axe-cellent!

The title of this post is silly, I admit. In my partial defense, I just watched a decent portion of Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey on HBO, so that line has been ingrained a bit. That movie is seriously underrated, by the way. Where else can you see Keanu give Death get a "Melvin"?
So, the Wisconsin Football Badgers seriously stomped the 'Sota yesterday. A wonderful result, especially after seeing the Angel Moroni (Larry Moroney, current New England Patriot), work us like a rib last year, before the miracles ensued. (An aside, Jim Leonhard (UW '05) is just about to return a punt for the Buffalo Bills--totally awesome...12 yards, downed via a hard tackle by the ancient Marcus Pollard) .
In re the game, several things bear mentioning.
First, I was initially worried at the ease with which Minnesota was moving the ball. Yes, I know it only took three plays for Jackie I. to take a Chapman forced fumble to the house. But before that the Gophs were gashing big runs, and on the next possession they moved the ball into our half. And on their third possession, Pinnix had several big runs, and may have scored on one of them if he hadn't run into his own player. But then we forced a field goal, largely thanks to the continued brillance of Jackie I., and after that they never really threatened until they scored in garbage time. 'Sota had 200 total yards, and got 124 of them on those first three drives, and only 76 the rest of the game. This speaks to me of excellent in-game adjustments by the defensive coaching staff. Perhaps Minnesota surprised us with some different plays at the beginning. (Stellmacher mentioned this). But whatever it was, we figured it out, adjusted and flooded out the gopher holes for the rest of the afternoon. With Northwestern, it seemed like the same thing (although their offensive ineptitude was also fueled by a bunch of drops)-- opposing team has a decent start offensively, we figure something out, the beat down ensues. Well done Coaches Hankwitz, Doeren, Cooks, McCray, and Bielema. Whatever it is you're doing, keep it up.
(Ummm, Barry is now on FOX talking about the BCS. Now they're showing him being confronted with his statue yesterday. What do people think about that? Barry says OSU/Michigan winner and Louisville/West Virginia(???) winner will meet in the BCS title game).
Second, Travis Beckum is really good. Keep Posh Spice away from him. I guess the recruiting services-- having ranked him as a mythical "five star" talent-- know something after all. He and Stocco seem to be getting on the same page, which was a concern at the beginning of the year given his inexperience on offense, and Stocco's lack of camp time due to getting his trick knee 'scoped. Beckum has publicly made mention of wanting to be as dominant as (Sergeant) Kellen Winslow, and at some point in the season I'll have to do a comparison between their respective numbers. I bet they compare pretty well so far. Some random guy at the Blue Moon said that pro scouts were watching Thomas primarily, and Beckum was a close second. You'd think if he fills out a bit, doesn't lose any speed or agility, and becomes at least decent at blocking, he could be a first day, if not first round, draft pick, like Winslow. But for now, I'll be happy if he stays healthy and helps us beat Purdon't next week. And avoids motorcycles.
Third, ESPN sucks. All of you who watched the game at home are with me, I hope. For those of you who missed it, for the second time in three weeks, the worldwide leader in sports cut away in the third quarter of our game, because we were up by so (apparently, too) many points. The problem is, I love it when UW (or the Packers, for that matter) is up huge; a good stomping is no stress, just pure enjoyment and relaxation. And in college you get to see all the back-ups that you have high hopes for, like Elijah Hodge, run around and try to impress the crowd. But ESPN thinks that people are more interested in seeing West Virginia give Syracuse a decent beating. Bizarre. I can understand doing that when it's close to the end of another game, and one team is on the verge of pulling an upset, but that didn't happen in either case. It just went to other, crappier, slightly more in doubt contests. That seems silly, especially when they know we're going to be waving the axe around at the end of the game-- clearly a picturesque moment. Anyway, with the Indiana and Minnesota switch-aways, and the NU game being only on the internet, it seems like the worldwide leader hates Bucky. Maybe they're mad that Barry signed on with Fox. Whatever the reason, I object. But at least the bastards are showing UW/Marquette this year, unless they cut away in the middle of that one.
That is all. I'm going to fall asleep to the Steelers/Chefs game, while intermittently waking up to check whether my fantasy football opponent has caught up with me. It looks bad: Phillip Rivers is on fire, and he has T. Bell running against the Raiders tonight. Maybe in the great tradition of Denver professional athletes, he'll have some sort of animal related injury. You know, falling down stairs while carrying deer meat, tripping over a dog. That sort of thing.