Sparty Party

Right, back to college football. Tomorrow morning at 11 am, the University of Wisconsin men's football team travels to enticing East Lansing, Michigan to spar with the Spartans of Michigan State University. In two words, uh oh. I say this not because I think all that highly of Michigan State's team this year. (I certainly don't.) But because it appears, by all measure, that the Spartans strength-- running the football from pro formations-- matches up with what has been revealed in the past month as one of Wisconsin's glaring weaknesses-- an inability to stop a traditional power run game. Thus, it seems logical to predict that Sparty's main guy, senior running back Javon Ringer, an excellent to very good college back, should run all over the place. Then add in the facts that UW has traditionally struggled in the Eastern portion of Lansing (remember the shocking '05 beatdown?), that coach Brett Bielema has yet to win a road game against a ranked Big Ten foe (Sparty is 7-2 and currently ranked 22nd in the Coaches' Poll), and that this will be the first game an opposing team won't have to game plan to stop Travis Beckum, and this one doesn't look very good for the Badgers.

But that said, I don't know which Wisconsin team will show up. The one that limited its mistakes last week against Illinois, made several huge plays, and overcame adversity? Or the one that rolled up into a little ball so Iowa and Penn State could kick it around more easily? It should help that Wisconsin quarterback Dustin Sherer played decently against Illinois and showed some versatility by running the ball well at times. And grabbing three huge picks and giving up less than 90 yards rushing to the Illini should also seriously help the defense's confidence. But I still don't think we can know which Wisconsin team you're going to see on the field. And that's what makes college football such an adventure-- each season is a thirteen week voyage of self-discovery.