Bret Bielema continues to lose the big game for his Badgers. If I hear one more person tell me how good a head coach Bret Bielema is…I will lose my mind. Maybe I already have, because now it’s just comical. Time after time, year after year the Badgers head coach seems to make the wrong call at the wrong time in Wisconsin’s season. Since the departure of Barry Alvarez, his predecessor Bielema has squandered every opportunity he has been handed. Not to mention the extremely soft non-conference schedule Bielema arranges every season. When Alavarez was pacing the sidelines, an example of his non-conference season was a nationally ranked Oregon team led by Joey Harrington in the early 2000′s. Bielema’s toughest match-ups this non-conference season were a “fistfight” with UNLV and the “slugfest” against South Dakota State where the Badgers won by an average margin of 48 points per game.
Bret Bielema took over for Barry Alvarez in 2006. Alvarez is a wise and unselfish man, as he left Bielema with his best recruiting class since the back-to-back Rose Bowl teams of the 1998-99 and 1999-00 seasons. During his rookie year, Bielema was named the Big 10 Coach of the Year following his Badgers 12-1 season. The funny part is that Bielema couldn’t even win the Big 10 Championship that season. He lost to #6 Michigan early in the year, who also didn’t win the conference, only to watch Ohio State cruise to the Big 10 Title. The Badgers didn’t become ranked until October 21st of 2006. This was just the beginning, but the foreshadowing was so very insightful.
When a talent like Russell Wilson transfers to your school, you must take advantage of the outrageous opportunity. Bret Bielema took this gift and threw it in the garbage just seven games into the season. At the very least, make it to the Big 10 Conference Championship or BCS National Championship before blowing it all. Sadly, a player like Wilson who has all the ability in the world, will never get a chance at a title or the Heisman Trophy now. When Wilson signed with Wisconsin, he believed this team was ready to win a National Title. He just didn’t understand that his coach has no idea how to lead them there. Wilson was the fourth round pick of the Colorado Rockies at second base this season in the MLB amateur draft. This may be his last year playing football before turing his career to baseball. It would be a shame for football to lose such a talent. This move would remind me of Charlie Ward’s from Florida State in the 1990′s, when he decided to play in the NBA.
The current Badgers head coach is currently 55-17 and 2-3 in Bowl games after losing the Badgers their first Rose Bowl since before the Alavrez era. The next three seasons, 2007-2009, Bielema finished no higher then fourth place in the Big 10 Conference. He averaged eight wins per season over that three-year-span with one of the best recruiting classes in Badgers history. His best of the three seasons was in 2009 when he led his team to a 10-3 record. However, if you read between the lines as always…it comes down to non-conference games which Bielema scheduled none of any merit. Wisconsin lost all three of their games in the Big 10 Conference, garnering them no respect around the nation. The loss at Ohio State is beyond understandable, but not the Iowa or lowly Northwestern beatings. The BCS will not give Wisconsin the benefit of the doubt after a loss when they play UNLV every fall. Bielema is aware that his teams may be slightly unprepared at the start of each season, so why chance that by playing an elite program who may beat the Badgers?
The 2010 season was Bielema’s most successful until his 2011 #4 nationally ranked campaign. The Badgers went 11-2 and were 7-1 in Big 10 Conference play. A “battled-tested” Wisconsin team cruised through the non-conference season after playing the powerhouses of Austin Peay, UNLV and San Jose State. Besides playing nobody in the non-conference season, the only other reason the Badgers weren’t competing for a national championship appearance was because once again in a big game, Bielema came up well short. His Badgers lost 34-24 at East Lansing last season, just as they lost there this past weekend, proving Bielema does not deserve the ability to call plays, especially in big moments.
When the Badgers are cruising to 48 point victories in non-conference games or against Indiana, of course the head coach looks like a genius. It is when a season comes down to a few plays when a head coach earns his stripes. Bielema has yet to earn his, as he came up short once again last season in the Rose Bowl. He lost 21-19 to TCU, routinely mismanaging the final moments of the game. Notoriously one of the best running teams in the nation, the Badgers three RB’s combined to rush for 3,200 yards and over 45 touchdowns last season. However, for some reason the first 55 minutes of the Rose Bowl, Bielema tried to trick TCU by passing the ball. Finally, on the last possession of the game Wisconsin began to run the ball down TCU’s throat. In fact, Wisconsin plunged into the endzone, trailing by just a two-point conversion. Instead of running the ball again on the two-pointer, as they had done the entire drive on a gassed TCU defensive unit, they passed and lost. Bielema had no idea. He couldn’t read between the lines. He could not see how the game was unfolding right in front of him, therefore he handed over the first Rose Bowl in Texas Christian University school history.
Every season once the non-conference season concludes, Wisconsin fans know one thing….somewhere along the line Bret Bielema is going to make a decision that will inevitably cost the Badgers their season. He has done it at least once a year since he arrived in 2006, following the legendary Barry Alavrez. Bielema was a defensive coordinator but how can he keep defending his game managing mistakes and non-conference schedule? The Badgers and Bielema will never get the benefit of the doubt will their weak schedule, and there seems to be no end in sight. Every season, Badgers fans must brace themselves for something to go drastically wrong. This season Wisconsin no longer needs to hold their collective breath….Bielema already found a way to throw his national title contending team’s season away. Congrats Bret, it looks like Ron Zook has finally found a friend for his worst coaches in America inner circle.
[...] his rookie year, Bielema was named the Big 10 Coach of the Year in 2006 following his … read full news Published: Tue, 25 Oct 2011 17:01 Tags: Bret Bielema Is A Choke [...]
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