Five Things to Know: Wisconsin vs. LSU
September 01, 2016 | Football, Andy Baggot
Facts and figures on the Badgers' season opener
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BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
A COUPLE MEASURING STICKS
Wisconsin and LSU have both won 70 games since the start of the 2009 season. They are among 11 teams from the Power Five conferences — Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and Southeastern — to average 10 victories a season during that period. The list includes Alabama with 86 wins, Ohio State and Oregon with 79, Florida State with 75, Stanford with 74, Clemson and Michigan State with 71, and Oklahoma and TCU with 70. Since 2005, LSU has an overall winning percentage of .778 (112-32) and the Badgers are at .739 (107-38). They're among 13 Power Five programs to win at least 100 games during that span.
WATT DO YOU MAKE OF THIS?
The Badgers have had instances where two homegrown brothers cracked the starting lineup. Marcus and Michael Trotter, linebackers from Racine who played at Milwaukee Marquette and who graduated in 2014, are the most recent twosome. Before them there was Donnel and Bryson Thompson, linebackers from Madison (West) who played in the late 1990s and early 2000s. But with redshirt junior outside linebacker T.J. Watt poised to make his first career start vs. LSU, an amazing Badgers family legacy will add a third limb. He'll join brothers Derek, a fullback who had 24 career starts from 2012 to '15, and J.J., a defensive end who had 26 starts from 2009 to '10.
ATOP THE TO-DO LIST
According to NCAA statistics, this will be the third time since 1970 that the Badgers have faced the nation's top rusher from the previous season. LSU junior running back Leonard Fournette is coming off a year in which he averaged 162.8 yards per game and became the first Southeastern Conference back to lead the nation in per-game rushing ratio since 1949. Wisconsin previously faced LaMichael James of Oregon, who had 159 yards on 25 carries and a touchdown to lead the Ducks to 45-38 victory in the 2012 Rose Bowl, and a hobbled Lorenzo White of Michigan State, who was limited to 5 yards on two carries during a 23-13 Big Ten Conference win over the Badgers in 1986.
ALL OVER THE MAP
Fifth-year senior Bart Houston, the pride of Dublin, California, and the only UW letterwinner in history to have that first name, is scheduled to make his initial career start vs. LSU. The last time the Badgers had a starting quarterback from California it was 1991 and Jay Macias, from Montebello, was at the controls. He wound up starting six games as a true freshman and went into the 1992 preseason camp as the No. 1 guy. He struggled in the opener vs. second-ranked Washington and was replaced by Darrell Bevell, freshman transfer from Scottsdale, Arizona, who wound up setting all sorts of program records, including one for career starts with 43. Since then UW has had starting QBs from Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin.
IN MEMORIUM
Two UW veterans have changed uniform numbers to honor fallen friends. Senior wide receiver Reggie Love has changed from 16 to 1 to memorialize fellow Boynton Beach, Florida, resident Daniel Wallace as well as former Notre Dame and Alabama-Birmingham running back Greg Bryant. Both were shot and killed. Meanwhile, junior kicker Rafael Gaglianone has changed from 10 to 27 in tribute to former Nebraska punter Sam Foltz, who died in a car accident.
