BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
GREEN BAY — The past, present and future collided forcefully here on a snowy Saturday.
Members of the Wisconsin football team were definitely in the present during a unique two-hour practice, one that featured the first full-pad scrimmage of the spring.
The spirited session took place at the Don Hutson Center, the indoor facility of the Green Bay Packers located across Oneida Street from Lambeau Field.
The Badgers bussed up from Madison on Friday and stayed overnight, replicating their hotel site and planned itinerary for their Sept. 3 season-opener with LSU at one of the most famous stadiums in the world.
UW players and coaches dressed in the visitor's locker room inside Lambeau — the Tigers, by the way, will use an auxiliary gym since the Packers' digs are off-limits — and made their way to the indoor site.
That's where an important step toward the future occurred.
During a team meeting on Friday night, Wisconsin senior outside linebacker Vince Biegel told his audience that 155 days separated the group from its marquee opener with the Tigers.
He reminded them that building a strong physical, tactical and emotional foundation now will help change the minds of those who believe the Badgers will be vulnerable in 2016.
"A lot of people have already written the script for how Wisconsin's going to be this year, meaning they already assume we're going to lose a few games," Biegel said.
During the presentation, Biegel told his teammates that the next time they gather in the Hyatt hotel ballroom and sit in their current seats they will be getting amped for game time. In other words, soak in the moment.
"I think it's going to give us an edge come September," he said.
UW coach Paul Chryst picked up on the theme after the sixth practice of the spring. Eight remain before the annual spring game on April 23 at Camp Randall Stadium.
"What we do with those days is big for this group," he said.
The opportunity to stage a practice here, to get the players familiar with the rhythm of the moment, came courtesy of the Packers.
Club president Mark Murphy addressed UW players and coaches before they went about their business. He said the game with LSU, the perennial Southeastern Conference powerhouse, "is going to be something special."
Murphy explained that the only other college games held at Lambeau Field pitted NCAA Division III St. Norbert's vs. Fordham — the late, great Vince Lombardi's alma mater — in 1982 and '83.
"I think you'll have a bigger crowd," Murphy joked, mindful that it will be an extremely tough ticket.
The hour-long scrimmage was typical for the spring as players — especially the new and inexperienced — look for ways to impress. In the process they make mistakes and learn on the fly.
"How do you grow? It's getting out of your comfort zone," Chryst said. "It's our job to make every player grow."
After practice, UW players and coaches had uncommon exposure to the charming past of the Packers.
Some of the players were seen staging their own Lambeau Leaps, a post-touchdown tradition at the NFL facility since the mid-1990s. The field was covered because fresh sod had been put down, but that didn't stop a group, led by Milwaukee senior tailback Dare Ogunbowale, from carefully tip-toeing along the edges of the turf to celebrate imaginary TDs.
That gave way to a tour of the Lambeau Field facilities — including the home locker room — lunch overlooking the Atrium and access to the Packers Hall of Fame.
Amid the exhibits you would have found Biegel, a Wisconsin Rapids product who's regarded as one of the top defensive players in the nation, pausing at a display featuring Hall of Fame defensive end Reggie White.
"To be able to go through all of that is kind of a cool experience," Biegel said.
Not far away you saw senior quarterback Bart Houston, from Dublin, California, glued to an exhibit for Bart Starr, the Hall of Fame quarterback who was a two-time Super Bowl Most Valuable Player. There's a connection there.
"A lot of history around this place," Houston said. "I always like seeing the Bart Starr stuff because I'm named after him.
"It's weird because a California guy's not supposed to be a Packer fan."
During the tour Ogunbowale was seen wearing a Packers jersey in honor of quarterback Aaron Rodgers (No. 12) and senior wide receiver Robert Wheelwright was spotted wearing a green-and-gold jersey that was a visual shout-out to former Badgers wide out Jared Abbrederis (No. 84).
"Growing up in Wisconsin you maybe get spoiled with the Packers and Lambeau Field," said Chryst, who spent his formative years in Madison and Platteville. "That's what was really fun about this."
Chryst was asked about walking in places where legendary coaches and players once strolled. He responded with appreciation for the Packers and their graciousness.
"A good day and a really good trip," he said.
But there's still so much to do.
Chryst was asked if the trip heightens the anticipation for Sept. 3 when major college football comes to Lambeau Field and the eyes of a curious nation will be on the Badgers.
"It heightens it enough to know that we have to get a lot better," he said.
