BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — As part of their offseason homework assignment, and preparation for spring practice, Bart Houston and Alex Hornibrook went to the movies with a distinguished group of former Wisconsin quarterbacks: Scott Tolzien, Russell Wilson and Joel Stave.
Houston and Hornibrook were the viewers. Tolzien, Wilson and Stave were the doers. The offense, then and now, was produced and directed by Paul Chryst as a coordinator and head coach.
"We've spent a lot of time up on the eighth floor in the film room," Houston said with a sigh.
The UW football offices and meeting rooms are on the eighth floor of Camp Randall Stadium.
"It's starting from scratch," Houston said of the orientation, "going back to the basics of our plays and fundamentals and mastering our core eight plays that we're going into every game with."
The process has been integral to Chryst's development of quarterbacks.
"Since a lot of the plays have been in the playbook for so long," Hornibrook said, "we'll watch the history of the play, Coach (Chryst) kind of says. We'll go back and watch how they ran it when Russell or Scotty or Joel were here, so we can see what they were thinking. Some things change, but it's pretty much the same core plays.
"That helps," he said of the film sessions, "just to see the great players who have run this to see what they do and try to pick up some of those things and apply it to what we're doing."
The application is the most critical step to the process.
"You watch it," Houston said, "and then you have to translate it back on the field."
Houston and Hornibrook took that step Saturday with the opening of spring ball. Both are vying to be the starting quarterback when the Badgers open the 2016 season against LSU.
"It's good to be back playing football again," said Houston, No. 13, a 6-foot-4, 232-pound fifth-year senior from Dublin, California. "It has been a long offseason."
"It feels good to finally get out here throwing passes," added Hornibrook, No. 12, a 6-4, 216-pound redshirt freshman from West Chester, Pennsylvania, "instead of sitting in a film room."
Since Houston and Hornibrook are the only scholarship quarterbacks practicing this spring — freshman Karé Lyles is sidelined after hip surgery — they split the reps with the No. 1 and No. 2 units.
Bobby Dunn, a 5-9, 197-pound redshirt sophomore walk-on from Madison Edgewood, is the only other active QB on the roster. Last fall, he helped coach his brother, Jack, at Edgewood.
Neither Houston nor Hornibrook was complaining Saturday about the extensive workload.
"I probably threw 120 balls today, including warmups," Houston estimated. "Our strength staff will be keeping the pitch count. My arm is going to be tired no matter what. But it's good to be tired."
"It's good that we've got a couple of days off so we're not doing every day," said Hornibrook in reference to the spring practice schedule of Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
"You'd obviously rather have this than if there were a lot of quarterbacks and you weren't getting enough reps, so you can't be complaining. It's awesome."
How do Houston and Hornibrook look at their competition for playing time?
"We're not supposed to compete with each other," Houston said. "We're supposed to compete with ourselves, and that's how I'm going about it this spring. How can I be a better Bart every day?
"Tomorrow, I will be competing against myself today."
Houston made sense of it. So did Hornibrook, who said of Chryst's decision to not name a starter this spring, "That's definitely fair. We're focusing on ourselves, focusing on getting better."
Houston and Hornibrook represent different regions of the country. Are they as different as the West Coast and East Coast? Cali and P-A? Or are there more similarities than meet the eye with H & H?
"I've got the long hair now and he's got the short hair," Houston said. "We're both tall. He's a lefty. Personalities are about the same. I might be a little more outgoing on the field. He's a little more stern."
"We're both a little goofy off the field, so that's kind of similar," suggested Hornibrook. "He's not really a West Coast kind of guy. Bart would tell you the same thing.
"He doesn't come off as a Cali guy. He's more blue-collar … Midwest … East Coast maybe."
It's an easy trap to fall into — perpetuating a "surfer" stereotype with Houston. "But I've never surfed in my life," he protested. "I'm all about the boogie board and laying on your belly."
Houston is 23, the second oldest player on the team behind Eric Steffes. Hornibrook is 19.
"I've been here a long time, right?" Houston posed rhetorically. "It seems like yesterday I was a freshman. At the same time, like I said, I've been here for a long time. It has been long and quick.
"Coach Chryst brought me here on a couple of (recruiting) visits and I fell in love with the place. I've been a Badger since Day One, I guess."
Houston is a product of the fabled De La Salle High School program which had a 151-game winning streak between 1991 and 2004 and has claimed six mythical national championships.
In May of 2011, he verbally committed to the Badgers, whose principle recruiter was Chryst. In December, Chryst was named the head coach at Pitt but Houston still honored his UW commitment.
Before he got to Madison for his freshman season, he had a setback: shoulder surgery. Houston, who was 38-1 as a starter at De La Salle while picking up three state titles, got buried on the depth chart.
"But I've had my niche on every team," Houston said.
In 2014, when Stave was fighting a case of the throwing yips, Houston moved up to No. 2 behind starter Tanner McEvoy. After Stave returned, Houston was employed as a rugby-style punter.
Last season, Stave was injured against Illinois and Houston came off the bench to lead the Badgers to a victory. He completed 22 of 33 passes for 232 yards with two TDs and two picks.
"It just gives me confidence that I can perform at a high level — even though mistakes happen — I can perform on the big stage," said Houston, whose younger brother, Sumner, is a 6-2, 280-pound redshirt freshman defensive end for Gary Andersen at Oregon State.
"It really changed my thinking on the game," he said of the Illinois win. "You go in with confidence the first couple (of seasons) but then after that it's, 'Well, they're going with this guy.' But you stay true to yourself and try to be a better person and quarterback each and every day.
"I'm going into the spring with (the mindset), 'I can do this. I will be this guy.'"
And this guy, this Bart, seems to process "it" better than that guy, that Bart, from a few years ago.
"Now, I can actually take apart the film and evaluate myself," Houston said. "It's not like I'm just watching TV, it's not like watching cartoons anymore. That's what it was like when I was a freshman. I didn't know what you were supposed to be looking at."
Not only have Houston and Hornibrook studied old film of Tolzien, they've been able to take advantage of his words of encouragement and instruction whenever he has been back in town.
Tolzien just signed a free agent contract to be Andrew Luck's backup with the Indianapolis Colts, following a path taken by former UW quarterback Jim Sorgi, who was once Peyton Manning's backup.
What did Houston and Hornibrook take away from Tolzien?
"Control the controllable," Houston said. "Do what you can to better yourself every day."
"Throwing is all timing and anticipation," said Hornibrook. "He's usually preaching footwork."
Tolzien excelled in the film room and classroom. To this end, Houston has already earned his undergraduate degree in kinesiology and he's working towards a master's on a non-thesis kinesiology track, along with a couple of his teammates, Dan Voltz and Steffes.
Hornibrook is planning on applying to the business school. His goal is to graduate in four years and one semester. He was a mid-term spring enrollee. "Coming in early helped me with the playbook and getting a whole year under my belt (academically)," he said.
Besides going to school on how Tolzien, Wilson and Stave handled the position by making the correct reads and decisions, Houston and Hornibrook will learn from each other during practices.
"That's through watching each other through our successes and failures on the field," Houston said. "That will help seeing myself making the reads that Scotty, Russell and Joel made back in the day."
But he knows there's nothing like putting yourself on tape. And there will be no shortage on Houston or Hornibrook by the time the spring game takes place on April 23.
