MADISON, Wis. – The game is still a few days away, but it’s already clear that No. 8 Wisconsin’s upcoming night game against No. 2 Ohio State is one of UW’s most anticipated home games in a long time.
Part of that stems from a lack of opportunities. The Big Ten’s most recent expansion forced the league’s best teams off of UW’s schedule in 2014 and 2015, meaning the Badgers haven’t hosted a night game against a Big Ten team at Camp Randall since 2011 when they beat then-No. 8 Nebraska 48-17 in the Cornhuskers’ inaugural conference game.
And while the Badgers have played at Camp Randall twice at night since then (last year’s 28-0 win over Hawaii and a 16-13 win over Utah State in 2012) those games were marked more by the team’s struggles than an electric atmosphere.
But that should change this weekend when Wisconsin takes on Ohio State at home, under the lights, for the first time since their 31-18 upset over the No. 1-ranked Buckeyes in 2010.
This game will be played almost exactly six years after junior outside linebacker T.J. Watt watched from the stands as his older brother J.J. helped the Badgers pull off that upset, and the younger Watt said on Monday that he’s hoping the crowd can give this year’s UW team the same advantage that it did last time.
“(The game) was incredible,” Watt said. “The opening kickoff, taking it back to the house was pretty special. A lot of people say that’s the loudest they’ve ever heard the stadium. To say that I was in the stadium on that day was pretty cool. And then just rushing the field afterwards with my family was pretty special as well.”
“That’s going to be the biggest thing this week, having the crowd on our side. It’s hard for the offense to conduct a flawless routine if you want to call it that when you have 80,000 plus people screaming in their face. It’s going to be hard for them to hear the snap count, it’s going to be a lot better for us defensively, especially getting after the passer.”
Senior cornerback Sojourn Shelton was a few years away from committing to UW in 2010, but said that he could tell from watching highlights of the 2010 game that the crowd played a large role in the game, and he’s hoping to feel that same kind of energy in the stadium this time around.
“I know the atmosphere is going to be outrageous,” Shelton said. “I think that’s going to be a tremendous help, especially being on the defensive side of the ball. If we can get the crowd to be as loud as possible, kind of mess up some of those cadences and their communication it would be a tremendous help. It’s just one of those environments that you always dream of playing in.”
And while the Badgers don’t want to get too caught-up in making this week’s game out to be more important than the others on their schedule, head coach Paul Chryst said during his weekly press conference that he wants his players to both enjoy the atmosphere of a big game like this and make sure they give the crowd a reason to be a factor in the game from beginning to end.
“I’ve always thought that games that we get to play at Camp Randall are special,” Chryst said. “Certainly the night games have been really electric. So I anticipate that, and I think it’s up to us to give the fans some energy. I think they’ll have it, but we’ve still got to go out and play and play well.”
“That’s what I want the kids to focus on, and I want them to enjoy (it). It’ll be a really good atmosphere. You want the kids to enjoy that. I think the best way to enjoy that is to have a good week of preparation so they can be confident going in to the game and go play the game.”
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John Veldhuis covers Wisconsin football, basketball and recruiting for BadgerBlitz.com on the Rivals.com network. Follow him on Twitter at @JohnVeldhuis.
