The Badgers had won a dozen consecutive games in the rivalry, but in the last meeting at Camp Randall Stadium, Wisconsin needed a second half rally to win and earn a berth in the Big Ten Championship game against Ohio State. This meeting followed a similar script. Wisconsin didn’t need to win against Minnesota to earn a berth in Indianapolis the following week, as Iowa annihilated Nebraska 40-10 the previous day to secure the trip to Indy for the Badgers. However, Bucky wanted more. Wisconsin needed a victory to win the Big Ten West division outright, and let’s face it, they wanted to make it 13 straight over their rivals directly to the West. The Badgers also had an outside chance with a win against Minnesota and a win in Indianapolis to reach the College Football Playoff. After a sluggish first half, Wisconsin rallied to beat Minnesota 31-17 to win the axe once again.
Although Minnesota was mathematically eliminated from playing in the Big Ten Championship, nothing would make its season sweeter than to destroy any hopes Wisconsin had of playing in the College Football Playoff. The Gophers weren’t a bad team at 8-3, but only beat two teams that would play in a bowl game, and one of those was Colorado State, which played in the Idaho Potato Bowl. Goldy had a two-headed monster at tailback with Rodney Smith and Shannon Brooks. In the 2015 meeting (a Wisconsin 31-21 win in Minnapolis), the Gophers only rushed for 53 yards on 18 carries. Prior to the year, ESPN’s Todd McShay predicted Mitch Leidner as a first round pick in the 2017 NFL Draft. In the 2015 meeting, he would complete just 16 of 37 passes for 223 yards with one touchdown and three interceptions. The Minnesota offense was out to prove that was a fluke.
On the first drive, the Gophers were proving just that, motoring down the field 72 yards in 12 plays. However, the Badgers defense rose up in the red zone and forced a field goal. Leidner, who is a run-first quarterback, only had 10 rushing yards in the previous meeting. He rushed for 50 yards on four carries on the opening drive, including a 32-yard scamper to move inside Bucky’s 30-yard line. It would remain 3-0 Gophers after one quarter.
Following a Minnesota punt early in the second quarter, Wisconsin traveled 80 yards in 10 plays to take the lead. Bart Houston would lead the team down the field, completing all three passes to three different receivers on the drive for 48 yards. Even though Houston did most of the work driving the Badgers down the field, fullback Alec Ingold got the glory, as he punched it in from a yard out to put Bucky in front 7-3.
That lead was short-lived, however. Minnesota’s KiAnte Hardin returned the ensuing kickoff 69 yards down to the Wisconsin 13. One play later, Goldy was back on top, as Leidner found senior wide receiver Drew Wolitarsky over the middle for the score. Minnesota would add another score with less than a minute left in the first half. Wolitarsky once again had a big hand in giving the Gophers a 10-point halftime lead, as he caught a 35-yard pass to move to the Wisconsin 22. Five plays later, Leidner ran in from three yards out to give the Gophers the 17-7 halftime lead.
Two years prior, as I mentioned, Wisconsin was in a similar position. The Badgers were down 17-13, but rallied to outscore the Gophers 21-7 in the second half and 31-7 dating back to the first half to win 34-24. In 2016, Bucky was down by 10 points and seemingly nothing was working. Wisconsin was being dominated on both offense and defense and starting quarterback Alex Hornibrook was knocked out of the game in the second quarter due to a concussion. As good as Wisconsin’s defense was, the Badgers surrendered 226 yards en route to being outgained by 82 yards in the first half. But the defense would take over in the second half.
On the opening possession of the second half, Wisconsin dinked and dunked its way down field on its way to a field goal to cut the deficit to seven. Houston was 3-of-4 for 35 yards, but none longer than a 13-yard completion. Minnesota had an answer, driving down the field on the strength of an iffy third down pass interference penalty and an incredible 25-yard catch by Smith to move the Gophers down to the Badgers 15. Wisconsin was still struggling a bit on offense, so going down by 10 once again would have been problematic. The defense needed to make a stand.
Enter Leo Musso. I mentioned in the countdown earlier in the Michigan State game that Musso had more than one game-changing play during the season. The first was that fumble return touchdown in East Lansing. This would be the second. Leidner had a great first half, but the Wisconsin defense knew he would give them chances to make plays in the second half. The first chance in the second half came in the red zone, and Musso would take full advantage. On 3rd-and-9 from the Badgers 14, Leidner went back to pass. Wisconsin put the heat on and the Minnesota quarterback was unable to step up into the pocket to throw. Gophers wide receiver Rashad Still was open for a split second, but Musso jumped in front of Still in the end zone to pick it off and the game remained 17-10. That would be the score at the end of the third, but the Gophers had the ball in great field position.
Following a sack on third down, the Badgers were forced to punt from their own 10. If that wasn’t bad enough, Anthony Lotti had a short punt and Minnesota started in Wisconsin territory at the 47. This was when the Badgers defense took over the game. T.J. Watt sacked Leidner on second down, forcing a 3rd-and-15. And then Sojourn Shelton made one of the plays of the game. Leidner went back to pass and threw a route short of the first down intended for wide receiver Eric Carter, but they were not on the same page. Leidner expected him to run a shorter route and Carter ran deep. What resulted was a Shelton interception, and he slanted across the field, eluding tacklers before finally being thrown out of bounds by Leidner at the Gophers 19.
The Shelton interception set the tone for the rest of the game. It took Bucky three plays to tie the score. Robert Wheelwright, the brother of former Minnesota wide receiver Ernie Wheelwright, hauled in a 16-yard pass over the middle to set up a Clement 2-yard score to even the score.
Corey Clement fumbled in Minnesota territory on the next Badgers drive, but they did not come up empty on their next one. While the defense was putting clamps on the Gophers offensive attack, the Badgers offense finally felt like it had life. After being bottled up all day, wide receiver Jazz Peavy finally gave the offense the spark it needed. An enchroachment penalty moved the ball to the Badgers 18 before Peavy made his mark. Prior to the play, color commentator Mark Tauscher on the radio broadcast said to look for the jet sweep with Peavy. What a call by the former Badger, as Peavy raced down the right sideline for 76 yards all the way down to the Gophers 11. A Minnesota penalty moved the ball closer, and the running backs did the rest. Two plays later, Clement carried the ball across for his second 2-yard score of the day, and Wisconsin had the lead for the first time since the second quarter.
This time, the lead lasted longer than 14 seconds. I mentioned earlier that Leidner would give the Badgers defense chances for plays in the second half. In that regard, he is to the Badgers what Jay Cutler was to the Packers. In his three games against Wisconsin, Leidner completed 37 percent of his passes (30-for-81), throwing two touchdowns and seven interceptions. That includes the four he threw in this game. The last two came on the following two possessions. With Minnesota still firmly in the game, only down seven, Leidner threw the back breaker. On 3rd-and-10 from his own 25, Leidner threw an ill-advised pass into traffic that was picked off by Wisconsin linebacker Leon Jacobs, who rumbled down to the Minnesota 8.
Dare Ogunbowale would insert the dagger, as Wayne Larrivee would say, on the following play. The Wisconsin running back blasted threw the hole in the middle of the line and was not touched until he was close to the end zone. The touchdown gave Bucky a 31-17 lead and effectively ended the game.
Shelton made his second interception of the game on the following drive for the Gophers, which ended any chances of a Gophers comeback, and the Badgers came away with a 31-17 comeback win to earn their 13th consecutive win over their arch rivals.
In addition to the four second half interceptions, the Wisconsin defense held Minnesota to a remarkable minus-7 yards of offense in the fourth quarter and just 60 yards for the entire second half. That is one way to erase a second half deficit.
Unfortunately, the chances of a berth in the College Football Playoff would end the following week in Indianapolis, as Wisconsin blew a 28-7 second quarter lead and would lose the Big Ten Championship 38-31 to Penn State. The Badgers did rebound, though, as Bucky took down previously undefeated Western Michigan 24-16 to win the Cotton Bowl to finish a successful 2016 season at 11-3.
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