29. Wisconsin 49, South Florida 0 (2019)

In 2018, the Wisconsin Badgers were a bit of a disappointment. They were preseason top five, but limped through the season, including losing to Minnesota for the first time since 2003 and first time in Madison since 1994. However, the Badgers ended the season on a high note with a 35-3 destruction of Miami in the Pinstripe Bowl. That helped springboard into the 2019 season, which many thought would be a tough game at South Florida.

Well, the Badgers dispatched the Bulls like they were a Division III team. Jonathan Taylor began the season with a 37-yard touchdown run and the Badgers did not let them up. Taylor not only showed his rushing ability once again, but also proved he could catch the ball a bit too. He touched the ball 18 times and gained 183 yards and scored four times. Wisconsin held USF to just 157 yards of offense and it was the first of four shutouts pitched by the Badgers defense in the first six games.

Taylor did not take long to make his presence felt in the year 2019. JT was given the ball the first four plays of the season, gaining 10 yards. His fifth carry went a bit further. After quarterback Jack Coan completed two consecutive passes, including a 3^rd-and-7 completion to Quintez Cephus, Taylor made his mark. The Heisman candidate found a crease through the left side of the line and blasted through it and strolled down the left sideline for a 37-yard touchdown to give Bucky a 7-0 lead.

It remained that way through the end of the first quarter, as the Badgers and Bulls punted on each of their next two drives.

But then the Badgers defense decided to make its mark in the 2019 season.

Early in the second quarter with the score still 7-0 and the Bulls facing a 2^nd-and-9 from their own 22, Wisconsin’s outstanding EDGE rusher Zack Baun blew past the USF left tackle and drilled Bulls quarterback Blake Barnett as he was getting ready to throw. The ball popped up in the air and landed in the arms of defensive lineman Matt Henningsen, who rumbled in for the touchdown.

Taylor took over down the stretch of the second quarter, as the Badgers led 28-0 at half. He scored his second touchdown on a screen pass with under 11 minutes to play in the half. JT received the screen pass from Coan and escaped tackle attempts at the line of scrimmage and went virtually untouched the rest of the way for the score.

With all his great plays in the game, his best one may have been his play at the end of the first half. With no timeouts and the ball on the USF 12 with nine seconds left, Coan dumped it off to Taylor at the 5. He was wrapped up at the 3, but managed to fall backward and stretch it over the goal line for the score, his third of the first half and to make it 28-0 at the half.

JT’s dominance continued into the third, as he took his second carry of the half 38 yards for the score. On the play, he nearly slipped at the line of scrimmage, but regained his balance and made a sick cut to help him escape the first two levels of the USF defense and he outraced them for his fourth touchdown of the evening.

The Badgers finished off the scoring with touchdowns by backup running backs Nakia Watson and Bradrick Shaw. The latter suffered a torn ACL in the regular season finale at Minnesota in 2017 and missed the entire 2018 season, so that felt good to score in his first game back. Backup quarterback Chase Wolf helped him reach paydirt, throwing a block on Shaw’s 15-yard touchdown run. On the play, Shaw found no room to the left, but reversed field and found green grass, blasting in for the score.

It was the start of a wonderful season for the Badgers, as they earned a spot in the Rose Bowl at the end of the season.