Building A Rivalry: Wisconsin Football vs. Illinois

“They better get season tickets right now because, before long, they probably won’t be able to.”

Barry Alvarez’s statement during his introductory 1990 press conference announcing him as the head football coach of the University of Wisconsin was viewed as either bold visionary or complete buffoonery. After all, UW was coming off five consecutive losing seasons, was a combined 6-27 in the three seasons under previous head coach Don Morton and was a program that had its fans giving away tickets to the 1989 season opener against No.3 Miami (spoiler, UW lost 51-3).

It’s likely that many fans thought Alvarez was in over his head when the Badgers went 1-10 his first season, but the groundwork was being laid that season for what has been – for the most part – 30 years of success.

Starting with Alvarez’s 16 seasons (1990-2005) and extending to Bret Bielema’s seven years (‘06-‘12), Gary Andersen’s brief tenure (‘13-‘14) and, now, Paul Chryst (‘15-present), Wisconsin has been one of the more successful programs in the Big Ten. The program has won six conference championships, been to seven Rose Bowls and won 15 bowl games. Most importantly, the Badgers have either swung momentum in Big Ten series, completely dominating conference teams or closed the gap against some of the league’s heavyweights.

To understand how impressive Wisconsin’s run of success has been in the Big Ten, BadgerBlitz will examine UW’s series against 11 Big Ten opponents, looking at where it was and how it has evolved over four different Badgers coaches (Note: for this exercise, we are not including UW’s conference games against Maryland and Rutgers. The Badgers are 3-0 against each school and have outscored them a combined 137-71 in those six games).

Today, we examine UW’s series against the Illinois Fighting Illini.

The series started in 1895 with a 10-10 tie and served as a good indicator of the competitiveness between the two schools. From 1895 to 1978, no team had a winning streak longer than four games. The 1950s had the best games between the schools, as one team was ranked in the top 16 in nine of the 10 meetings. That included No.8 UW’s 20-6 home victory over No.2 Illinois that helped the Badgers jump to No.1 in the country the following week (UW won the Big Ten title that season and advance to its first Rose Bowl).

But after a 20-20 tie in Champaign in 1978, Wisconsin entered a long swoon against the Illini. In the 80s, Wisconsin went 1-8 in the series. It wasn’t as if Illinois was a juggernaut either. The Illini were ranked only twice against Wisconsin in the 80s, the ’83 season when the Illini won the Big Ten and the ’89 season when they went 10-2. Other than that season, Illinois never won more than seven games. When Alvarez took the job, Illinois had won eight of the previous nine meetings, the previous two years by a combined score of 66-15.

Illinois was able to run its winning streak to six before Wisconsin broke through in 1993 and has kept the peddle pushed down virtually ever since. Wisconsin is 18-7-1 against Illinois since Alvarez took over with the following three coaches having a winning percentage of .800 or better against the Big Ten West rivals. Since 2004, Wisconsin has been ranked in 10 of the previous 14 meetings in the series, including four meetings in the top 10. On the flip side, Wisconsin hasn’t played a ranked Illinois team since 1990.

Alvarez’s first two squads were no match against Illinois, getting outscored 43-9, but the tables were finally turned in ’93. After going 1-11 against the Illini in the previous 12 meetings, not to mention failing to score more than 14 points in any of the previous six losses, Wisconsin won 35-10 in Champaign that put the Badgers on the doorstep of a Big Ten championship.

“Before they took the field, I told them they controlled their own destiny,” Alvarez said.

Wisconsin quarterback Darrell Bevell threw three touchdown passes and accounted for 523 yards of offense, including 301 yards rushing. Terrell Fletcher gained 139 yards and scored a touchdown, and Brent Moss rushed for 124 and a touchdown. Entering the game, Illinois was fourth nationally against the rush, giving up just 96 yards per contest.

“This game was won by Wisconsin by what was done in the trenches,” Illinois Coach Lou Tepper said. “When they’re just assaulting you inside, it really wears at you.”

Sparked by that ’93 win, Wisconsin has gone 18-4-1 against Illinois. The Badgers have been even better since Bielema was hired, going 10-2 against their southern neighbors. That included a nine-game winning streak and outscoring Illinois, 145-46, in the first four games of the Chryst era.

Despite the one-sided nature of the series, Illinois has proven it can still be a thorn for UW. The Illini’s two most recent victories against Wisconsin came in Champaign when the Badgers were ranked in the top six, both came by one position (five points in ’07, one point last year) and both were played a week before UW played a tough road game the following week (at Penn State in ’07, at Ohio State last year). The only difference was the 2007 Illinois team went to the Rose Bowl, while last year’s Illinois team was a 31-point underdog having lost four consecutive games (giving up a combined 158 points in those losses).

Despite Illinois’ victory last year, the momentum of the rivalry doesn’t appear to be changing. While the Badgers have recorded 18 straight winning seasons, Illinois has eight consecutive seasons finishing below .500.

Wisconsin’s overall record vs Illini pre-Alvarez: 24-30-6

Wisconsin’s record vs. Illinois since 1990: 18-7-1

The Alvarez Years: 8-5-1

The Bielema Years: 4-1

The Andersen Years: 2-0

The Chryst Years: 4-1