Have been reading about whether this is the worst Wisconsin team in x-years. Yup. Question is which teams to judge it against.
Maybe 2008. That team underperformed its potential. It had some really good players on both sides of the ball, particularly on defense. The team was competitive against some good teams (Ohio State and Michigan State), but terrible in others (Penn State, Iowa, and in its bowl game against Florida State), and it narrowly beat Fresno State (at Fresno State, and to be fair, the Bulldogs were in the midst of their run of being decent), and needed OT to beat FCS-Cal Poly (!!!). Still, that team always felt like it could be pretty good, but just didn't gel. This team feels legitimately mediocre.
2001? Last time the Badgers missed a bowl. That team was a puzzle; it was competitive in some tough games and would turn around and lose to mediocre teams. At Oregon (which finished AP #2), the Badgers hung in and lost by a field goal. Then they turned around and lost to Fresno State (at Camp Randall) the next week. Then beat Penn State in Happy Valley, then turned around and got steamrolled by Indiana at Camp Randall (I mean Randle El was good, but come on!!). Then the Badgers beat Ohio State in Columbus (second to last time for that, to date), but lost at Illinois and at home to Michigan State, before beating Iowa, and hanging around against a decent Michigan team (in Madison) only to lose by a field goal. Then they lost to Minnesota (one of only two losses in 23 games). It was a very Jekyll and Hyde team that consistently played to the level of their competition. I would definitely pick that team to beat this team.
1997 was a bad year with a decent record built on creampuffs. Syracuse (back when Syracuse could still play) absolutely destroyed the Badgers in the opening game, then the Badgers feasted on body bag games (Boise State, before it was Boise State, San Jose State, and San Diego State). The Badgers' high point was upsetting #12 Iowa (a team that ended up 7-5), lost to Michigan and Penn State, then Georgia steamrolled the Badgers to end the season in the Outback Bowl. That team had a decent record, but it wasn't very good.
1995 is another strong option. Another beat down to start the season (at home against Colorado). Two ties (Stanford, and the most boring football game every played to finish the season: 3-3 against Illinois over Thanksgiving weekend--I remember skipping that game on purpose and feeling good about our decision). Somehow that team upset Penn State in Happy Valley (its first loss in 20 games), but other than that, it was pretty bad.
The current team reminds me most of these '95 and '97 teams. The offense has a star player, but that's it (i.e., one star player). The quarterback is better than he has been, but not good, and the offensive line is uncharacteristically weak. The defense is good--maybe with a quality offense they would be very good, but you have to be able to score to win, and this offense just isn't good.
What's noteworthy to me is who the head coach was for three of the four seasons I noted above: the King himself, Barry Alvarez. So, you know, hall of fame coaches can have bad years. And these were all post Rose Bowl--I'm not talking about the rebuild project he came into. How times have changed...
