Remembering the Heisman: Week 8

UWBadgers.com re-lives Ron Dayne's historic 1999 season

Ron Dayne rushed for 214 yards against Michigan State.

Oct. 28, 2009

MADISON, Wis. -- It has been 10 years since Ron Dayne brought home the Heisman Trophy to the University of Wisconsin. Who could forget his historic run against Iowa in 1999 to break the NCAA rushing record? Or his performance in the 2000 Rose Bowl with 34 carries for 200 yards and a touchdown. To commemorate Dayne’s monumental 1999 season, UWBadgers.com will provide weekly updates with memories from the 1999 season. Today, we look back at Wisconsin's win over Michigan State and its top-ranked rushing defense.

No. 16 Wisconsin (5-2, 3-1) was riding high entering its matchup against Michigan State. UW had won three games in a row, including wins over No. 12 Ohio State and No. 25 Minnesota. On paper, the Spartans seemed to be a serious challenge to the Badgers, though, as they were ranked 11th and were leading the NCAA in rushing defense, giving up just 39.9 yards per game.

Michigan State never mounted much of a challenge and Wisconsin prevailed with a 40-10 win over the Spartans in front of a crowd of 78,469 at Camp Randall Stadium.

Head coach Barry Alvarez played coy with the media before the game, telling ESPN’s Bill Curry that running was not going to be much of an option.

“We’ll probe it a little bit, but no one can run the ball against Michigan State,” he said prior to the game.

In retrospect, Alvarez had a different take on what the team was going to do.

“All along in our game plan, we had planned on pounding them (with the run),” Alvarez said after the fact.

After using a 15-yard pass to Mark Anelli to open the game, the ground game began as Ron Dayne carried the ball for gains of 18 and 3 yards. He followed that up with a 51-yard touchdown run that set the tone for the game.

Dayne totaled 152 rushing yards in the first half alone, including another touchdown run of 15 yards early in the second quarter.

The Badgers used those two scoring runs by Dayne and three field goals by Vitaly Pisetsky to hold a 23-3 lead over the Spartans at halftime.

Although the game was in hand, the Badgers’ first drive of the second half likely demoralized the Spartans even further.

Covering 6:47, Wisconsin rattled off a 14-play, 65-yard scoring drive that ended with a one-yard touchdown run by Brooks Bollinger. UW ran the ball on 13 of the 14 plays, including the first 12 of the drive, the first six of which belong to Dayne.

All told, the Badgers held the ball for 13:48 in the quarter and held a 30-3 lead entering the fourth.

Dayne got just one carry in the fourth quarter and finished the day with 214 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 34 carries.

His performance against Michigan State left Dayne just 483 yards away from the NCAA record with four games left to play, an average of 121.8 yards per game. It also helped put him back into the Heisman race after some early-season struggles.

“I think he had dropped out of the (Heisman) race,” Alvarez said. “They kept showing him fumbling against Cincinnati. And then I think he had about 80 yards in the first half against Michigan but he didn’t carry the ball much in the second half so now he has under 100 yards against them and he drops off the charts.

“I think the MSU game put him back in the running. Not that he was back up high in the race, but it put him back in the running. But we still had a lot of really good teams to play.”

Wisconsin vs. Michigan State Boxscore