Before every game, Chase Wolf pictures Wisconsin's play calls and what he would do if given the opportunity.

The redshirt sophomore from Cincinnati entered Saturday's contest against Minnesota with a couple designed runs on UW's first offensive series in the second half. Later in the game, he found himself unexpectedly thrusted into the contest for a 3rd-and-goal late in the third quarter. Starting quarterback Graham Mertz exited the game after a shot to the head on a seven-yard scramble inside the five-yard-line.

In came Wolf, who took the snap and in off-balanced form with a defender zeroing in on him, found Jack Dunn open for a four-yard pass across the goal line to allow the Badgers to take their first lead.

Wolf finished the game 4-of-5 for only 15 yards with one touchdown and one interception each; however, he stepped into the starting role for the remainder of the game and helped steer the offense in Wisconsin's 20-17 overtime win.

“I always pictured myself as someone who will step up to the plate whenever," Wolf told reporters via Zoom after the game. "I did that in high school, and I don't think I flinched tonight.

“When I pictured it tonight for the game, I'm like, 'If I get in, just do whatever it takes to win.' At first, I thought I was just going to get a couple quarterback runs because that was the package that they had in. If I scored, I wouldn't really care if it was for me. I just wanted the team to win, especially for the seniors.”

Wolf entered Saturday's contest with only four games of experience. Just once this season -- late in the season-opening 45-7 win over Illinois -- he ran the offense during regulation with the game already in hand. Against the Gophers, he came in with 11:01 remaining in the third quarter with the game tied 7-7.

Officially in the stats book, Wolf will be credited with one carry for two yards. His second run came immediately thereafter on second down, going for nine yards before a holding call on right tackle Tyler Beach brought back the dash that initially moved the chains.

Then Wolf entered the game again with over 2:30 remaining in the third quarter and hit Dunn for the go-ahead score.

“We had a little package for him and tried to use that in the beginning of the second half," head coach Paul Chryst told reporters via Zoom. "But to come in, and where we're at, and obviously, [he] came up with a big play and showed poise on that play.

“There's a guy that has a lot of respect in the locker room. Shows up every day and competes and cares about his teammates. He was good in many ways.”

Wolf said he knew he would play "at some point" with those potential runs, so he remained loose on the Wisconsin sideline stretching and throwing the ball. Then he saw Mertz -- who completed 3-of-4 throws for 55 yards during that eventual go-ahead third-quarter drive -- take the hit inside Minnesota's five-yard line.

“First thing I thought was I hope he's alright, and then the second thing was I gotta go find [center] Cormac Sampson, get some snaps because I haven't really gotten many snaps with him this week. So I just had to make sure the ball security was intact. We got to the field, they called the play and it was good from there. I didn't feel like there's any pressure on me. I just felt like I was going to go do my job.”

Sitting in shotgun out of 12 personnel -- running back Garrett Groshek to his left in the backfield and two tight ends, one lined up on the line and one off of it, to the right side --Wolf sprinted out to his left. As a Minnesota defender honed in to the reserve signal caller, he slung it to Dunn, who was cutting to the outside and caught it as he crossed the goal line.

According to Dunn, "that just shows the confidence that we have in Chase."

"At the end of the day, I don't think anybody felt any differently with Chase in there," Dunn said after the game via Zoom. "We have full confidence in him. All you can ask out of anyone is having someone that's selfless and willing to put the team first, and that's Chase Wolf.

“It just goes to show the preparation that he puts in to be ready for that type of situation. Come in that scenario, and throw a touchdown on his first play, it's impressive. Like I said, I can't say enough good things about what he did tonight and his approach overall. Just really proud of the way that he handled himself and led us out there tonight.”

Chryst and offensive coordinator Joe Rudolph did not task Wolf with carrying the unit while in the divisional clash. During the three offensive series -- two in regulation and one in overtime -- Groshek and the ground game primarily received the bulk of the work. The redshirt senior tailback gained a career-high 154 yards on 24 carries and scored one touchdown.

The lone incompletion for Wolf was his one big mistake on the night. With the game tied at 17, UW marched 44 yards down the field to the Minnesota 40 with under 90 seconds left.

On a play-action throw, the quarterback tried to hit true freshman Devin Chandler near the end zone. However, cornerback Coney Durr came down with the interception.

“The last couple of drives before that, we ran a very similar play over and over, so we wanted to take advantage of that and do a play action with the same type of run action," Wolf said. "I just wanted to give him a shot but I under threw it. I'm still pissed off about it, but we won.

"I’ll watch the film tomorrow, but I’m not gonna beat myself up about it because I took a shot.”

From the Wisconsin sideline, Collin Larsh watched the 36-yard attempt of Anders Gelecinskyj hook wide left on Minnesota's first series in overtime. After five runs by Groshek set up the Badgers at the Gophers' 12-yard-line, it was the redshirt junior's turn to attempt to win the game.

"For me I've always said I try and take everything one kick at a time and not make it more than what it was, so for me it was really just another kick," Larsh told reporters on Zoom. "Walking out there, got to do my job and make it. Didn't really feel like anything until after I made it, and then it was time to celebrate.”

Larsh came on to the field, and with the hold of Conor Schlichting, drilled the game-winning 30-yard field goal to give UW the 20-17 win.

Before that attempt, however, Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck attempted to ice Larsh by calling a timeout. According to the kicker, that strategy did not phase him.

"Honestly, I kind of enjoyed that ice just because it gives you more time out there," Larsh said, who noted he had never before booted a game-winner as time expired. "You get a better sense out for the wind. On the sideline, you can't really get a good sense for how it is on the field. Camp Randall is a stadium where it swirls so much that you can only tell when you're on the field and in that moment. Honestly, the more time I had out, the better.”

After the kick sailed easily through the uprights, Badgers ran on to the field and swarmed Larsh. Big Ten Network cameras also showed the specialist -- who made 2-of-3 field goal opportunities overall on Saturday -- giving his own display of emotion by tapping his left forearm.

"I had to put the ice in my veins for a second," Larsh said. "But just the best part of it was just being able to turn around and seeing my teammates and celebrate with them and get in that pile and just know that we could send the seniors out with that Axe. That's the best part of all that.”