To win in San Diego, QB Joel Stave needs to avoid interceptions.
Paul Chryst’s first season as head coach of the University of Wisconsin football team is wrapping up the same way the previous 13 Badgers seasons have ended: with a bowl game.
Granted, the Holiday Bowl — in which UW will meet the University of Southern California at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium on Dec. 30 — isn’t as high-profile as one of the New Year’s Day bowl games, but it’s not the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit, either.
Incidentally, the Badgers’ streak of 14 consecutive bowl games is best in the Big Ten and sixth best in the country.
Wisconsin brings a 9-3 record into the matchup with 8-5 USC. All of the Badgers’ losses this season came at the hands of nationally ranked teams (Alabama, Iowa and Northwestern), and the Hawkeyes and Wildcats won by a combined total of only 10 points.
While USC landed in the last spot of the season’s final College Football Playoff rankings at No. 25, the Trojans still will prove a formidable opponent. In fact, they’re favored (and the school’s campus is just 110 miles from Qualcomm Stadium). USC’s offense, led by senior quarterback Cody Kessler, averaged almost 450 total yards and 35 points per game this season, and twice scored more than 50 points.
The Badgers can counter that offensive attack with a defense anchored by senior outside linebacker Joe Schobert, who continues to rack up All-Big Ten and All-America honors. His season stats include 18.5 tackles for a loss (seventh in the country), 9.5 sacks (11th) and five forced fumbles (second).
If quarterback Joel Stave can throw more touchdown passes than interceptions — by no means a sure thing — and a healthy Corey Clement returns to the running back position (after sitting out much of the season with a sports hernia and a disorderly conduct charge), look for Wisconsin to embrace its underdog status and beat USC.
Fun fact: The last time UW and USC met was nearly a half-century ago, on Sept. 24, 1966, when the Trojans stomped all over the Badgers, 38-3.
UW has never before played in the Holiday Bowl, but Chryst spent three years working at Qualcomm as tight ends coach for the NFL’s San Diego Chargers, from 1999 to 2001. So he’s familiar with the environs, which otherwise shape up to be a home game for USC.
But, as always, expect to see a large contingent of fans clad in red and white in the stands, too.