Wisconsin
Wisconsin at Minnesota: Four things to watch as Badgers look to get Paul Bunyan’s Axe back
Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell focuses on Minnesota, reclaiming the Axe
The Badgers football coach spoke about preparing for the Gophers, among other topics, at his weekly press conference Monday at the McClain Center.
WISCONSIN (6-5, 4-4 BIG TEN) AT MINNESOTA (5-6, 3-5)
When: 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
Where: Huntington Bank Stadium, Minneapolis.
TV: FS1 with Jeff Levering (play-by-play) and Mark Helfrich (analysis).
Radio: FM-97.3 and AM-920 in Milwaukee and a state network with Matt Lepay (play-by-play), Mark Tauscher (analysis) and Patrick Herb (sideline).
Line: UW by 2.
Series: Tied, 62-62-8. Gophers lead, 38-27-2, in Minneapolis.
Coaches: Luke Fickell (7-5, first full season; 70-30, seventh season overall) vs. Minnesota’s P.J. Fleck (49-33, seventh season; 79-55, 11th overall).
FOUR THINGS TO WATCH
Can the Gophers run the ball, control the clock and keep UW’s offense on the sideline?
The loss of tailback Darius Taylor, who has missed the last four games because of a leg injury, has hurt Minnesota’s ground game. In Big Ten play, the Gophers are averaging just 125.9 rushing yards per game and have only four rushing touchdowns in eight games. If Taylor returns this week, can he help the Gophers against a UW defense that is allowing 157.6 rushing yards per game in league play? That vulnerable run defense is UW’s greatest liability. Whether the Gophers can take advantage of that weakness is unknown.
UW’s defense must do a better job this season containing Minnesota quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis
When the teams met last season in Madison, Minnesota quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis hurt UW with his arm and his feet. Kaliakmanis passed for 319 yards and two touchdowns, including a 45-yard strike that broke a 16-16 tie with 3 minutes 40 seconds remaining. He also rushed four times for 39 yards, though he finished with only 14 yards because of three sacks. Kaliakmanis is averaging only 151.9 passing yards per game this season but has 13 touchdown passes and two rushing touchdowns. “I do think that offensively they’ve got weapons,” Fickell said. “They’ve got a receiver corps that I think is dangerous and can make some plays. … The quarterback is a good athlete. The quarterback can make every throw.”
Will Wisconsin’s depth be tested? The status of Hunter Wohler, Will Pauling and Bryson Green is TBD.
Fickell wasn’t certain early in the week whether safety Hunter Wohler, wide receiver Will Pauling and wide receiver Bryson Green would be healthy enough to play and be productive against the Gophers. Wohler left the Nebraska game in the first half and did not return. If he did suffer a concussion, he will have to pass the medical protocol to play. Pauling suffered an apparent ankle injury late in the fourth quarter against Nebraska. Green didn’t play against the Cornhuskers because of an unspecified injury suffered against Northwestern. And how effective will Braelon Allen be? Battling an ankle injury, he rushed 22 times for 62 yards and two touchdowns in the victory over Nebraska, though he clearly wasn’t at full-strength. Allen missed the Minnesota game last season because of an ankle injury and was limited to 47 yards on 17 carries in a 23-13 loss two seasons ago.
UW cannot stumble out of the gate, which has been a problem
Yes, the Badgers overcame an early 14-0 deficit last week against Nebraska. Yes, the mettle the players displayed was commendable. But the Badgers lost to Indiana and Northwestern in large part because they fell behind early. Minnesota isn’t a juggernaut, but falling behind early on the road would not be wise. Fickell noted this week that he isn’t sure UW would have been able to overcome the 14-0 deficit against Nebraska had the game been on the road. “Saturday did not start off the way we had envisioned,” he said. “And to be honest with you, had we not had the environment we had Saturday night, had we not had that student section and the fans, I’m not sure we pull through.”
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HISTORY LESSON
Ten years ago, UW’s first-year coach was Gary Andersen.
His first taste of the Border Battle came on Nov. 23 in Minneapolis.
Temperature at kickoff was 18 degrees.
The Badgers entered the day 5-1 in the Big Ten and 8-2 overall. The Gophers came in at 4-2 in the league and 8-2 overall.
Minnesota spotted the visitors a 3-0 lead on Jack Russell’s 31-yard field goal but took a 7-3 lead when Aaron Hill intercepted Joel Stave’s pass and raced 39 yards for a touchdown just 1 minute 31 seconds into the second quarter.
UW controlled the game after that.
James White scored on a 1-yard run and Russell added 20-yard field goal to help UW take a 13-7 halftime lead.
Stave found Jared Abbrederis for a 2-yard score to cap an 83-yard drive in the third quarter and the Badgers’ defense did the rest.
UW’s defense limited the Gophers to 11 first downs and 185 total yards.
White rushed 26 times for 125 yards and Melvin Gordon added 69 yards on 12 carries for UW.
DID YOU KNOW?
The Badgers have allowed a total of 730 passing yards in the second half of games this season. That is an average of 66.4 yards and the fewest in the country. UW has not allowed a touchdown in the second half of its three games in November. Indiana scored three points after halftime, Northwestern scored none and Nebraska got a field goal.
Laurel Burleson, a Dane County chef, thinks ugly apples make the best dishes.
One of her goals as a chef and restaurant owner is to save usable produce from the waste bin.
“I know how hard (Wisconsin farmers) work every day, making these products that are delicious and nutritious and for anything to get thrown away just because it’s not aesthetically perfect is just outrageous,” said Burleson, owner of Ugly Apple Cafe.
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The latest fruit monitoring report from the University of Wisconsin-Madison shows many parts of the state having great harvests, although northeastern Wisconsin orchards suffered from a cool spring. But most apple orchards are busy with the fall harvest. So what do you do with that abundance of apples?
Burleson shared some recipes and her philosophy on cooking with WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.”
This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Rob Ferrett: What do you like to do with apples apart from just eating them?
Laurel Burleson: One that I really like to do is making apple marmalade. That is shredding apples and preserving them in sugar so that they keep their structure. It’s kind of the opposite of making applesauce.
But we also make a lot of apple sauce and apple butter. That’s a good way to use a lot of apples all at once.
RF: What goes into making apple butter?
LB: Very basically you make applesauce, so just cook down your apples and blend them up. Then you take that applesauce and cook it extremely slowly, either in a slow cooker or in the oven. Cook it down until it’s dark and rich and more closely resembling a peanut butter than applesauce.
From there, you can put in whatever spices you want: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, bay leaf. You just have to be careful because whatever you start with in the big batch will get super concentrated and reduced in your end product.
RF: With applesauce or apple butter, do we have to be fussy about the type of apples? Or can we mix and match?
LB: I like to mix and match, especially because the apple season starts really early. Some years you can get the first season apples in July.
They don’t hold very long and they’re very juicy, so they break down really easily, but they are very tart. I like to get some of those early season apples and make them into applesauce and freeze them and then when I have other sweeter varieties later I mix them and then reduce that all down into butter.
RF: You shared a savory recipe with us for pork chops with apple bacon cabbage. Tell us a little bit about this recipe.
LB: It’s really fun for the fall and even into the winter. You can kind of use any kind of variety of apple that’s a little bit tart and it’s OK if it breaks down and blends in because the cabbage is going to maintain its structure.
If the onions and apples melt away into a delicious sauce it’s just fine. But also, if you end up with some apple pieces, then it’s a nice little surprise like a little sweetness.
The Ugly Apple Cafe operates cafes inside the Dane County Courthouse and the City County Building in Madison and sells its products at the Monona Farmers Market.
While the Wisconsin Badgers struggle on the football field, sitting at a disappointing 2-2 through four weeks, some of the program’s former transfers continue to find success.
One of those players is tight end Riley Nowakowski, who transferred to Indiana this offseason after five years with the Badgers. The Milwaukee, Wisconsin, native originally walked on to the program as an unranked outside linebacker. After playing sparingly during his first few seasons with the Badgers, he flipped over to fullback in 2022, then out to tight end after Phil Longo arrived in 2023. Nowakowski totaled 18 receptions for 131 yards and a touchdown from 2023-24; his two years as a primary offensive contributor.
The former Badger is already making significant progress toward those totals, now just four games into his Indiana career. He has four catches for 72 yards and a touchdown, plus one carry for a one-yard score. The versatile fullback/tight end delivered the highlight play of his career during Indiana’s blowout win over Illinois on Saturday, taking a 1st-down screen pass 43 yards to the house.
Wisconsin, meanwhile, has received solid contributions from Montana State transfer tight end Lance Mason. The veteran has 14 catches for 177 yards and two touchdowns to date, leading the team in each of those respective categories.
While Mason has been one of the Badgers’ few bright spots through four weeks, it’s hard to ignore Nowakowski’s emergence as one of Indiana’s dependable offensive playmakers.
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Get ready for an overall warmer stretch of weather as we head into this upcoming workweek. After some fog lifts this morning, we’ll have plenty of sunshine today with highs in the mid to upper 70s along the lake and low 80s inland.
Tonight will be dry with lows in the low 60s lakeside and upper 50s inland.
Monday through Wednesday should be very similar, with upper 70s to near 80 near the lake and low to mid 80s inland with plenty of sun.
We’ll start to bring in chances of showers or a T’storm starting Thursday right on into the weekend.
WATCH: Southeast Wisconsin weather: Dry Today, Warm Workweek Ahead
Southeast Wisconsin weather: Dry Today, Warm Workweek Ahead
TODAY: Any fog lifting through the morning, then becoming mostly sunny.
High: 77 lakefront… 83 inland.
Wind: E 5-10 MPH.
TONIGHT: Mostly clear.
Low: 62.
Wind: ESE 3-8 MPH.
MONDAY: Mostly sunny.
Highs: 78 lakefront… 83 inland.
Wind: ESE 5-10 MPH.
TUES: Mostly sunny and warm.
High: 80 lakefront… 84 inland.
WEDS: Mostly sunny and warm.
High: 81 lakefront… 85 inland.
THUR: Partly cloudy with a chance of a shower
or T’storm.
High: 80.
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