The Best Wisconsin Football Games by Week: Week Three

MADISON, Wis. – The Big Ten will be back in late October, 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 non-conference games, but the impact these games had for Wisconsin can’t be disputed.

Our pick for Wisconsin’s best week three game of the modern era: October 9, 1954, against No.11 Rice.

RELATED: WEEK 1 | WEEK 2 |

Coming off a fifth consecutive winning season, the University of Wisconsin entered the 1954 season ranked in the AP Top 10 for just the second time in school history. Having hopes of returning to the Rose Bowl for the second time, the Badgers – led by All-American fullback/linebacker Alan Ameche – won their season-opener over Marquette, 52-14, and shutout Michigan State – the 1953 Big Ten co-champion and Rose Bowl champion – in East Lansing, 6-0.

Ranked No.3 in the country, Wisconsin returned home to complete its home-and-home agreement with Rice University. UW took a break from its eventual Big Ten title run to win in Houston over the Owls in 1952, but Rice was a much better opponent two years later.

Competing in the seven-team Southwest Conference, the Owls won a share of the conference title in 1953 and beat Alabama – the SEC champion – in the 1954 Cotton Bowl. Ranked sixth in the final polls of 1953, Rice outscored its first two opponents 75-34 and brought a No.11 ranking to Madison.

Ameche was getting stonewalled, a rarity during his collegiate career at the University of Wisconsin. With Rice leading 7-6 in the fourth quarter, the Owls stopped two Wisconsin drives inside the 5-yard line. The third time was not the charm.

With 55 seconds to play, the Badgers advanced the ball to Rice’s one. Giving the ball again to Ameche, Wisconsin’s senior fullback broke through line for the winning touchdown in No.3 Wisconsin’s 13-7 win over the 13th-ranked visitors in front of a capacity crowd of 52,819 at Camp Randall Stadium.

According to Sports Illustrated’s game report, Wisconsin spent most of the game working Ameche in the "belly play," dubbed such because the quarterback places the ball in the stomach of the fullback (Ameche) on a fake before pitching out to the halfback. There would be no fake with the game hanging in the balance.

Ameche scored both touchdowns for Wisconsin, capping off a 70-yard drive in the first quarter. Rice answered later in the quarter with a 15-yard touchdown pass from quarterback John Nisbet to Lamoine Holland off a play-action fake.

“Wisconsin was the better team. The Badgers used masked seven- and eight-man lines: lines that look like sevens or eights until a pass is thrown. Then a lot of men drop back and you see it's only a four or five. Rice went with a straight seven-man line for the most part but the ends went wide to cover flankers.

“For all the fans, TV and in person, the game was just perfect—clean, well played and exciting.”

- Sports Illustrated reporter Hermon Hickman

There were a number of games in consideration for this spot. In a six-season span between 1955 and 1960, Wisconsin beat Purdue teams that were ranked No.17, No.13 and No.7, the latter coming when UW was unranked. The Badgers also won at Oregon in 1977 for the program’s first road win over a Power-Five conference team since 1963. And of course, one can’t overlook quarterback Jack Coan’s two rushing touchdowns to propel No.13 Wisconsin over No.11 Michigan in last year’s season opener?

Even so, this win - watched by a national television audience - moved the Badgers to No.2 in the country the following week and registered another big victory with a 20-6 decision over No.5 Purdue in Madison. Consecutive road defeats the following two weeks at No.4 Ohio State (that season’s national champion) and Iowa cost the Badgers a shot at the Rose Bowl, but UW won its final three games, including shutting out No.10 Minnesota, 27-0, in the season finale, to finish second in the conference.

Ameche earned All-American honors, was the Big Ten Player of the Year and was the 1954 Heisman Trophy winner. Ameche received 1,068 points and gained 214 first-place votes, besting Oklahoma’s Kurt Burris by 230 points.