Ron Dayne: First Game Is Critical
During his career at Wisconsin from 1996-99, Ron Dayne won his fair share of games, the Badgers going 37-13 in his four seasons, including 11-1 and 10-2 marks in 1998 and 1999. When he looks at this year's team, he can envision another double-digit win campaign, but admits the schedule is daunting.
"How many championship teams are opening up with an opponent like LSU?" he asked, rhetorically, when BadgerBlitz.com spoke with him for an upcoming feature on UW's running back tradition. "With our team, a young team, no proven quarterback, our first game is going to be so important."
According to ESPN's 2016 Football Power Index, the Tigers are the No. 2 team in the country -- Wisconsin is No. 32 -- and while media outlets like CBS (No. 17), USA Today (No. 10), SportingNews.com (No. 12) and even ESPN's writers (No. 6) don't have LSU that high, it's fair to say the Badgers have their work cut out on opening day.
Additionally, UW is set to square off with ESPN Power Index's No. 11 Michigan, No. 15 Ohio State, No. 28 Nebraska, No. 33 Michigan State and No. 35 Iowa, so six teams in the top 35.
Iowa, meanwhile, has to play only four teams in the ESPN Power Index Top 35: Michigan, Nebraska, No. 34 Penn State and the Badgers.
Making Wisconsin's challenge even greater, UW plays MSU, U-M and OSU back-to-back-to-back (over four weeks, with a bye after the Michigan game), and including LSU, faces those four teams in the first six games.
Dayne can relate to that, having played three ranked teams in the first six games of the 1996 and 1999 seasons, however, in those years, the Badgers opened the season with Eastern Michigan and Murray State, respectively.
In 1997, they played at No. 17 Syracuse, and were slaughtered 34-0. They bounced back to win six in a row, but in subsequent matches against ranked teams -- No. 1 Michigan, No. 6 Penn State and No. 11 Georgia -- UW lost by an aggregate score of 94-32 en route to an 8-5 season (Wisconsin also lost to Purdue).
"First games are critical because you want to get off to a good start, get that feeling like all the hard work from the winter, spring, summer will pay off, and for this year's team, which is young, it's going to be huge for our confidence one way or another," Dayne noted, acknowledging a loss could set this team back.
"A win would be huge, and that's what we all want and expect, but being right there until the final quarter - we've got to give them a game."
The Badgers have quarterback issues, with no strong favorite emerging out of the spring. More so than many years, UW will have to rely on its tried and true formula of running the ball and playing great defense.
"We're going to beat LSU if we run the ball all over them," Dayne said. "[Senior] Corey [Clement] is ready. That's my guy. He's going to have a big year and I think this is his chance to show the whole world he's healthy and he's going to have a 2,000-yard season and showcase himself to the NFL scouts.
"We just need our quarterback that first game to take care of the ball, and if he can avoid the turnovers, and we win that game, imagine the confidence he'll get out of that.
"Our defense is supposed to be good, but how good? If we shut them down ... there is a lot of opportunity for confidence in this game, and if this team gets some confidence at some key positions early in the year, all of a sudden our schedule doesn't look so big and bad."