Wisconsin Badgers @ Minnesota Golden Gophers Pre Game

The Wisconsin Badgers will, for the first time this season, take the bus to their next season game as they travel across the Mississippi River into Minnesota to battle the Golden Gophers who come into this matchup with a record of 3-1. The Badgers will be playing on the newly opened TCF Bank Stadium in Minnesota for the first time this year in the legendary battle for Paul Bunyan’s Axe. The Badgers counter Minnesota’s 3-1 record with a perfect 4-0 to start the season, therefore this game promises to be a very good test for both teams. The only blemish on Minnesota’s 2009 campaign was a 35-21 loss to number 8 ranked California Golden Bears who relied heavily on their Heisman Candidate tail back Jahvid Best who scored all 5 of Cal’s touchdowns in that game. The Gophers wins this year consist of Syracuse, Air Force, and Northwestern University to open up their Big Ten conference. This will be the first Big Ten conference showdown of the new TCF Bank.

Dating back to 1890, the Paul Bunyan Axe game between Minnesota and Wisconsin has been the longest running series battle in College Football history coming up on its 119 th game. Minnesota leads the all time series 59-51-8, although the Badgers have held the Axe in Madison the last two years. An interesting fact about Paul Bunyan’s Axe is that after Minnesota led the series 11-3 for the first 14 games of this rivalry, the trophy Axe was lost, and did not resurface back into college football until 1943. As of now, the Badgers lead the time frame of the Axe still being the trophy 34-24-3. This trophy presentation is one of the most entertaining to watch in all of college football merely because if the team who does not currently hold the axe wins, they get to sprint over to their opponents sideline and “steal” the axe. If the team that holds the axe wins, they retain the axe and run around the field holding the axe high. This game is always circled on the Badgers schedule as one of the most important games of the year. Last year the Badgers defeated the Gophers 35-32 to retain the axe.

The Golden Gophers are lead by their dynamic passing duo of quarterback Adam Weber and first team Big Ten wide receiver Eric Decker, who led the Big Ten in catches and receiving yards last year. On the year, Weber has thrown for 879 yards and 5 touchdowns. 4 of those touchdowns, going to the aforementioned Decker, who has 35 catches on the year for 499 yards. Minnesota’s rushing attack is no slouch either as their one two punch average better than 4 yards per carry on the year. Leading the way is tail back Duane Bennett, who this year has 210 yards rushing and 4 rushing touchdowns. The second half of their rushing attack is tail back DeLeon Eskridge who has 105 yards rushing with a rushing touchdown of his own. Minnesota has more than a 2 to 1 ratio of passing yards to rushing yards on average per game, giving opposing defenses fits on what to try to take away because both phases are very talented.

Wisconsin is coming into this game in a 3 way tie for the Big Ten lead and 1 of 3 teams in the Big Ten who still is undefeated, only behind the Hawkeyes of Iowa and the Wolverines of Michigan. Iowa is, of course, coming off their second straight season of upsetting Big Ten powerhouse Penn State which has really elevated Iowa’s status in the Big Ten. Ironically enough, two days after this showdown for the axe, the professional teams of these respective states will do battle with Brett Favre taking on his old team, the Green Bay Packers, also in Minnesota. But, all that aside, the Badgers are focused on retaining the prized axe for another year and keeping school pride and moral at a high no matter how well the Badgers do this season.

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