Better Off Red: The Beginning of What’s Next

Normally I’d lead a column kicking off Badger football season with some conveyance of pent-up emotion and excitement, something like “Here we go!”, but I’m hesitant to do so for two reasons. First, even that simple sentence has been forever tainted by its use as one of the worst advertising slogans of all time. More importantly though, there’s a bit of solemnity in this particular occasion. Tonight marks the first time in four years that Wisconsin will kick off the season without me in the stands at Camp Randall. Obviously that doesn’t imply any significant loss on the team’s part, nor should it give pause to anybody else as they celebrate the start of what could be a brilliant campaign. But it offers a surprising demarcation to my mind, as so much of my college experience was shaped by a few Saturdays each year when I would scream myself hoarse and wave keys in the air. That time is now over, and when tonight’s game kicks off, I expect I’ll finally feel like a different kind of spectator.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited for the season. Really excited, maybe even more so than last year. But the student-to-stadium connection is a powerful one. The home viewing experience is aided by big screen HDTVs, comfortable temperatures, and a much larger supply of food and drink, but it’s not a rush. Freezing your butt off balancing on a skinny bleacher seat is a rush. It’s ridiculous, to be sure, but it’s an experience–one I’ll never really have again.

I’m in a particularly disadvantageous situation, as my new job happens to be a second-shift position, meaning tonight’s excitement will pass by unheeded as I go about my duties in a white coat and safety glasses. Not to suggest a job is a burden; I consider myself lucky to have found a job within my interests, in line with my college degree, with an exciting company that will almost certainly send me to bigger things in the future. It’s just one game, and every other game will be in its usual Saturday slot, but you’re crazy if you think my brain won’t be held hostage most of tonight by the very idea that Badger football history is unfolding outside my piercing gaze.

But blah blah blah woe is me, my inability to watch the Badgers wipe the turf with the Runnin’ Rebels shouldn’t diminish the event’s power or significance. What sucks isn’t just missing a game, it’s missing the symbolism. Wisconsin will begin the season with a primetime game on a national network and is the presumptive favorite in the Division That Shall Not Be Named. Consistent past and projected success allowed the program to grab a high-profile transfer from the clutches of a recruiting powerhouse. As Bret Bielema often reminds us, of every school in the nation, Wisconsin placed the highest number of rookies in NFL training camps to start this season. You talk about a program on the rise–behold, it lies between Randall and Breese.

Much as I hate to define a team by a single player, or a program by a single event, the Russell Wilson “acquisition” casts a shadow over everything else. There are still questions of who will replace J.J. Watt on the defensive line, or whether the receiving corps can finally reach that fabled “next level”, but Wisconsin’s fate is tied more tightly to Wilson than anyone else. He’s here for one year only–it’s do-or-die starting tonight. I don’t think it’s crazy to consider the next 13 games an extension of last season. Some key players are gone, and Wilson will obviously bring a different style to the quarterback position than his predecessor. He’s what the Badgers were missing, though. To steal a metaphor from Bill Simmons, Wilson is the mercenary driver in an otherwise exceedingly well-built car, with aspirations approaching expectations of the Rose Bowl or better. Behind that ever-present “1-0” mentality is a less-sane-but-more-enticing “13-0” dream.  It reminds me a bit of the Brewers’ 2008 playoff run behind mid-season pickup C.C. Sabathia. Exciting, huh?

Of course this all happens the year following my matriculation, leaving only the memory of missed field goals and deflected passes to commemorate my personal penultimate year. No level of success this year or next will erase those memories. The what-ifs will endure. Because sports aren’t just about the next game–otherwise, why would we pay attention to history or legacy? Maybe it’s appropriate, then, that I begin the next phase of Badger fandom after taking such a punch to the gut. That’s something I’ll share with those lucky folks who got to stay. We’re all looking for vindication. We’re all putting our faith in Wilson and White and Ball, Nzegwu and Borland and Henry. We’re counting on them to carry us to glory that should’ve been ours nine months ago. Defeat is shared same as victory–often times at a few select establishments dotting University Avenue or State Street.

In the first edition of this column I talked about how sports bring people together. Every passing day as we approach a new semester at the University of Wisconsin sends me farther from campus. It makes the 20 minute drive into town seem so much longer. Every tweet from a UW account I gloss over, every Welcome Week Facebook event I have to ignore, they all serve as tiny reminders that I’m no longer truly a part of that incredible community. I’m counting on Badger football to bring me back.