Cougs oppose their opposite

PULLMAN – The difference between the Washington State Cougars and the Wisconsin Badgers is so minute as to be almost imperceptible.

Yeah, right.

Nothing could be further from the truth. UW – yes, those are the correct initials – is Washington State’s polar opposite – and we’re not talking about the weather.

We’re talking about one of the nation’s top-10 teams, a team with a new quarterback, a power running game, a new middle linebacker and enough returning starters to fill a bus – including both cornerbacks.

See what we mean?

Let’s start with quarterback. Wisconsin’s Tyler Donovan is a fifth-year senior who has two career starts. Unless this is your first WSU story this season, you know the Cougars start second-team All-Pac-10 quarterback Alex Brink, on his way to becoming the most prolific passer in WSU history.

But back to Donovan. After backing up John Stocco for two years, Donovan thought he was going to open last season as the Badgers’ quarterback when Stocco had minor knee surgery during fall camp. But Stocco recovered in time, reclaimed his spot and Donovan became a backup again, finally getting a chance in November when Stocco was hurt before the Iowa game.

Donovan stepped in, made his first college start in front of 75,585 in Iowa City and led the then-16th-ranked Badgers to a 24-21 victory. He also guided UW past Buffalo 35-3 at home the next week before yielding the starting spot back to Stocco for the Capitol One Bowl.

“Tyler has shown he is capable of winning at this level and I expect those things to continue,” second-year Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema said. “If he didn’t start those two games last year, I really believe (trying to do too much) would be a concern, because he’s waited until that fifth year and you have all that anxiety and emotion. But it’s kind of a ‘been there, done that’ now.

“He was basically put in this position a year ago on this same time frame, because he really had to prepare for Bowling Green to be possibly his first start as a college football player and (though) that (did) not come through, he learned how to do it.”

But the dissimilarities don’t end at quarterback.

Nine times in the past 11 seasons, a Badger has pounded his way past 1,000 yards rushing, including four consecutive years courtesy of Ron Dayne (two of those topped 2,000 yards). Last season, redshirt freshman P.J. Hill did his part, 1,569 yards and 16 touchdowns, in Wisconsin’s 12-1 season.

Hill, of course, is back, as is backup Lance Smith, whose status was up in the air all summer after an altercation with his girlfriend. Smith, who rushed for 345 yards in limited time last season, apologized and was reinstated before fall camp.

Last year Hill and Smith – and Donovan for that matter – operated behind an offensive line that averaged better than 300 pounds a man and included Outland Trophy winner Joe Thomas, the third pick in the NFL draft. But everyone else on the offensive line returns, with Thomas’ spot taken by highly touted redshirt freshman Gabe Carimi, who is 6-foot-8 but “only” 292 pounds.

Carimi beat out fifth-year senior Danny Kaye for the key spot protecting Donovan’s blind side.

“I think he came in with an attitude to take it,” Bielema said of Carimi. “I think all of them did but he is the one that proved it time and time again and really got better as camp came along.”

The Badgers’ defense is mostly set. They recently lost Jamal Cooper, who was penciled in as the starting left defensive end. But there are seven other starters returning, including junior cornerbacks Jack Ikegwuonu and Allan Langford, possibly the Big Ten’s best tandem.

The Cougars will start two cornerbacks, Chima Nwachukwu and Devin Giles, who were either playing high school football or none at all this time last year.

Langford led the Badgers with three interceptions last season, possibly because no one threw toward Ikegwuonu. Still, Ikegwuonu had two picks and 35 solo tackles, fourth best on the team.

The leader in that category? Middle backer Mark Zalewski, one of three guys from the heart of the defense who graduated, along with strong safety Joe Stellmacher and free safety Roderic Rogers. Three sophomores move into their spots, including two safeties, Aubrey Pleasant and Shane Carter, coming off medical redshirts.

“Well, it is,” Bielema said when asked if having two new safeties was a worry when playing an offense like WSU’s, “except we go against our offense in fall camp so you see about everything you can. … As a whole, I don’t know if there is a position that took, through the summer program, the fall camp, now game week preparation as serious as I’ve seen Shane Carter and Aubrey Pleasant take it. Those two guys, as redshirt sophomores, took huge, gigantic steps in understanding what it means to be a football player, but more important, a successful starter at this level.”

The new middle linebacker, Elijah Hodge, probably knew already. His brother, Abdul, played linebacker at Iowa and is in his second year with the Green Bay Packers.

“It’s easy to say, ‘They’ve got new safeties, let’s attack their safeties,” said WSU offensive coordinator Mike Levenseller. “Well, they’re raving about their safeties, so maybe that’s not a smart thing to do.

“It’s a constant second guess. You decide to do something, and you second guess yourself. What it really comes down to is, you have that in mind going in, you study that hard as the game progresses to see if that is the right thing to do and you make adjustments quickly.”