39. Wisconsin 20, UNLV 13 (2007)

UNLV generally gets big crowds when Wisconsin comes to town and this was not any different. Wisconsin was a top five team and had won its opener by three touchdowns against Washington State. Wisconsin had a new starting quarterback, Tyler Donovan, in 2007 after the departure of three-year starter John Stocco. The Rebels had the lead for much of the game, but with less than two minutes remaining, Donovan ran a bootleg around the left sideline and scampered 29 yards for what would be the game-winning score.

The Rebels struck first on a Travis Dixon pass 5-yard pass to Casey Flair late in the first quarter. It was a long 14-play drive that took up half the quarter. The biggest play of the drive was another pass to Flair on a 3rd-and-14 for 21 yards. Other than that Flair reception, there was only one play that was at least 10 yards on the long touchdown drive.

Wisconsin would come right back down the field on the strength of the ground game. Of the 67 yards on the drive, only the touchdown, a 3-yard pass from Donovan to Garrett Graham, was a pass. Hill rushed three times for 40 yards on the drive. There was a problem with the snap on the extra point and the score stayed 7-6 in favor of the Rebels.

The score stayed that way until the last seconds of the second quarter. Wisconsin used a 13-play drive to go down the field and get a Taylor Mehlhaff field goal to end the half to put the Badgers ahead 9-7 at the break.

Three field goals were all that were scored in the final nearly 28 minutes, two by UNLV and one by Wisconsin. The Badgers received the ball after a UNLV kickoff after the Rebels took a 13-12 lead. David Gilreath had a nice return out to the 39 of Wisconsin. Bucky took over with a half a quarter to play and then went on a nearly six minute drive to take the lead.

The 10-play drive went 61 yards and with the Badgers in field goal range (albeit not comfortably), Bucky faced a 1st-and-15 after a false start. That is when the new starting quarterback made his mark. He ran a bootleg to the left and got past a defender and there was nothing but green grass in front of him. Donovan received a block from wide receiver Luke Swan and dove to stretch the ball across the pylon to score the touchdown to give the Badgers the lead.

Donovan rewarded the receiver by throwing Swan the two-point conversion to give Wisconsin a 20-13 lead.

After a first down completion to Flair on first down, UNLV went backward from there, throwing an incompletion on 4th-and-15 to seal the game and let Badgers fans breathe a sigh of relief.