First look at the 2007-08 Outback Bowl opponent: Tennessee Volunteers v. Wisconsin Badgers

by Joel Hollingsworth on Dec 10, 2007 7:33 AM EST in Tennessee Volunteer Football

Tennessee rush v. Wisconsin defense	Tennessee pass v. Wisconsin defense	Wisconsin rush v. Tennessee defense	Wisconsin pass v. Tennessee defense
70	40	68	69
49	46	19	68
			Push

Field Goals	Tennessee punting v. Wisconsin punt return	Wisconsin punting v. Tennessee punt return	Intangibles
T-13	38	51
T-13	23	62
Push

Schedules:

TENNESSEE
DATE	OPPONENT	RESULT/TIME
09/01	at #12 California	L 45-31
09/08	So Miss	W 39-19
09/15	at #5 Florida	L 59-20
09/22	Arkansas St	W 48-27
10/06	#12 Georgia	W 35-14
10/13	at Miss St	W 33-21
10/20	at Alabama	L 41-17
10/27	#16 S Carolina	W 27-24
11/03	La Lafayette	W 59-7
11/10	Arkansas	W 34-13
11/17	Vanderbilt	W 25-24
11/24	at Kentucky	W 52-50
12/01	at #7 LSU	L 21-14

WISCONSIN
DATE	OPPONENT	RESULT/TIME
09/01	Wash St	W 42-21
09/08	at UNLV	W 20-13
09/15	The Citadel	W 45-31
09/22	Iowa	W 17-13
09/29	Mich St	W 37-34
10/06	at Illinois	L 31-26
10/13	at Penn State	L 38-7
10/20	N Illinois	W 44-3
10/27	Indiana	W 33-3
11/03	at #1 Ohio St	L 38-17
11/10	#12 Michigan	W 37-21
11/17	at Minnesota	W 41-34

Hmm. Wisconsin finished fourth in the Big 10, and their biggest win is against 8-4 Michigan, while Tennessee's best win is over 10-2 Georgia. Other than that, though, the resumes look remarkably similar. Tennessee is 9-4, but one of the Vols' losses is in the SEC Championship game to one of the top two teams in the nation. Wisconsin is 9-3, but one of their losses is to the other of the top two teams in the nation.

Wiscellaneous stuff:

Uh-Oh Stat: Wisconsin's rush versus Tennessee's rushing defense.
Last year, the Badgers beat Arkansas, who had just lost the SEC Championship to Florida. Who was on their way to play for a national championship. Hmm. Consider that an uh-oh, as well.
Coached by EDSBS's 2006 Man of the Year Nominee, Bret Bielema.
MGoBlog's pre-season preview and 's in-season preview.

WARNING. This:

may induce flashbacks of this:

Tweet Comment 6 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

Yeah, but...

...THE S-E-C RULLLLEZ AND TEH SMALL-TELEVEN (haha, get it? 10, but there's really 11 teams in the conference?!) DROOOOLZXORZ!!!11!

No, seriously...look at the strength of schedule.

by Aerobab on Dec 10, 2007 9:33 AM EST reply actions

Game looks to be a good matchup

If the rankings numbers are total yards produced for or against the offense and defense of each team, then they're really not a good indicator of the relative strengths of the teams. If you look at the schedule, you can see that Wisconsin had several teams that were favorable to run against, while UT had several teams that were not favorable to defend the run against (Florida, California in the early season, Arkansas, Georgia, MSU). That makes the true quality of the units harder to figure out. Wisky has a good run game, for sure, but I don't think the matchup there is as bad as the numbers indicate.

But again, it's a great matchup, and the Outback Bowl committee must be pleased with themselves for getting it. There's no clear-cut favorite, and there's no massive imbalance in the play anywhere. Whoever wins this will probably get a significant bump in the final polls, even if the game is really close (as it probably will be).

It's also geographically advantageous for UT, as the travel is much longer from Wisconsin. UT should be able to stack the seats and keep the crowd noise in their favor. The closer we can make it feel like a home game, the better off we'll be. That pesky 2-4 in road (non-home, including Atlanta) games thingy is the most unnerving stat in the season, in my books.

All in all, this should be one of the few can't-miss bowl games to watch for the generic college football fan. Even without the UT homerism, I really like this one.

by David Hooper on Dec 10, 2007 11:18 AM EST reply actions

Meant to add

For one indicator of skew, the Colley Matrix lists UT as #11 for strength of schedule, and Wisky as #74. UT nearly breaks the Matrix method the way they won so many close game and lost in so many blowouts, so we probably shouldn't perceive that huge of a gap, but the number ought to be filtered through the effect of schedule to some degree.

by David Hooper on Dec 10, 2007 11:21 AM EST up reply actions

Bowl Games

Uh, why even bother with this. It is a bowl game, and Tennessee has no interest in winning bowl games. Simply put.

by Maynard on Dec 10, 2007 12:01 PM EST reply actions

I wouldn't worry about PJ Hill

the Milwaukee paper says that he's probably going to miss the Outback Bowl. Don't sleep on Lance Smith though- he's been suspended from away games this year but is eligible to play in the bowl game. Smith and freshman Zach Brown could still be a formidable 1-2 punch in Hill's absence.

by Bucky Brewer on Dec 10, 2007 4:00 PM EST reply actions

Wisconsin fan?

Welcome to RTT! Thanks for the link and the tip on Smith. With the media lovefest over Michigan and OSU, Wisconsin news doesn't float down here as much as it probably should. If you have any more thoughts on the game, please share and enjoy the site!

by David Hooper on Dec 10, 2007 4:23 PM EST up reply actions