The Best Wisconsin Football Games by Week: Week Six

MADISON, Wis. – The Big Ten will be back in two weeks, but that still leaves a lot of fall Saturdays without college football in the Midwest. To fill that void, BadgerBlitz.com is turning back the clock to pick the best/most meaningful Wisconsin regular-season games each Saturday.

To make it more interesting, we’re picking the best games of a specific week: the best season openers, the best week two games, week three, etc, of the modern era (since 1947). Some weeks won’t be a fair fight, as the number of games has increased over that time (nine games until 1965, 10 games until 1971, 11 games in 1997 and mostly 12 since) with the addition of more nonconference games, but the impact these games had for Wisconsin can’t be disputed.

RELATED: WEEK 1 | WEEK 2 | WEEK 3 | WEEK 4 | WEEK 5 |

Our pick for Wisconsin’s best week six game of the modern era: October 9, 1999, at No. 25 Minnesota.

The Badgers entered the 1999 season with a head of steam. Winners of the Rose Bowl the previous season and beginning the season No. 9 in the Associated Press poll, the Badgers won their first two games by a combined score of 99-20. But the Badgers stubbed their toe at Cincinnati in the final non-conference tune-up and lost their Big Ten opener to No. 4 Michigan at Camp Randall. Suddenly, the thought of repeating as conference champions seemed fleeting.

Following that loss to Michigan, head coach Barry Alvarez told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in 2010 that the message he gave the players was straight forward.

"I wanted them to know the coaches believed in them," he said, "and we felt we were a good football team and we didn't want them to lose confidence."

UW responded to its coach by pummeling No. 12 Ohio State in Columbus, 42-17, the following week. That game is remembered in part by Alvarez making a quarterback change, inserting redshirt freshman Brooks Bollinger into the lineup and seeing his players overcome a 17-0 deficit.

As uplifting as that victory was, the following week needed even more emotion. The Badgers were heading into their annual border battle against Minnesota, which was 4-0 and ranked No. 25 in the AP poll. The Gophers had won their first four games by an average of 32 points and were anxious to wipe out a four-game losing streak to the Badgers.

To make things tougher, Wisconsin would be without its head coach. Alvarez was slated to get knee replacement surgery until doctors came across an infection in his knee. Instead of coaching from the press box, Alvarez watched the game on a 22-inch television in his hospital room at the Mayo Clinic where he was recovering, with a headset connecting him to UW’s sideline and the visiting coaches box. Assistant head coach John Palermo ran the team in Alvarez's stead.

Down 7-0, 14-7 and 17-14, Wisconsin triumphed in the first overtime game in program history when Vitaly Pisetsky's 31-yard field goal clinched the win. The victory gave Wisconsin back-to-back road wins over top 25 programs for the first time ever.

Ron Dayne has his worst game of the season, as the Gophers held the eventual Heisman winner to season lows in yards (80) and yards per carry (3.2 on 25 totes). He did score on a three-yard run in the first half, while Bollinger threw an 81-yard score to Nick Davis in the first half.

Tying the game with a 36-yard field goal with three minutes left, Pisetsky delivered after Wisconsin’s defense held the Gophers in check on the first possession of overtime, nailing the kick to parade around the field with Paul Bunyan's Axe for the fifth consecutive year.

“I spoke to coach (Alvarez) afterward and he wanted to congratulate me in Russian. It almost brings tears to my eyes knowing what he has been going through.”

- Pisetsky

Wisconsin's fifth consecutive victory over its archrival ensured that the team's seniors never lost possession of the Axe and is part of a run where the Badgers have won 22 of the last 25 meetings. More importantly, the victory over Ohio State and Minnesota were the spark the program needed. The Badgers won their final five games (four by at least 16 points) and, thanks to Michigan dropping a pair of games, won the outright Big Ten title.

Dayne became the second Badgers player to win the Heisman Trophy in 1999 and the UW went back to the Rose Bowl, beating No. 22 Stanford, 17-9, on New Year's Day 2000. Wisconsin finished the season ranked fourth in the AP poll. Sadly, that was the last win for the Badgers in Pasadena, as UW has come up empty in the Rose Bowl in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2020.