Badger of Honor
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Wisconsin Football: Five positives to take away from the season

By Tanner Nestle

ANN ARBOR, MI - OCTOBER 13: Jonathan Taylor #23 of the Wisconsin Badgers tries to outrun the tackle of Devin Bush #10 of the Michigan Wolverines during the second half on October 13, 2018 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Michigan won the game 38-13. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
ANN ARBOR, MI - OCTOBER 13: Jonathan Taylor #23 of the Wisconsin Badgers tries to outrun the tackle of Devin Bush #10 of the Michigan Wolverines during the second half on October 13, 2018 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Michigan won the game 38-13. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /
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Wisconsin Football Pinstripe Bowl Champions
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – DECEMBER 27: The Wisconsin Badgers celebrate after the Badgers won the New Era Pinstripe Bowl 35-3 against the Miami Hurricanes at Yankee Stadium on December 27, 2018 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images) /

Finished Strong

Of course, the Badgers could have finished stronger by beating Minnesota and holding onto the Axe, but we’ll get to that later.

Speaking from personal experience, the Badgers winning their bowl game at the end of the year made up for a lot of, but not all of, the shortcomings for the season. Those readers that play pickup basketball at a park or gym know what I’m talking about (this is my experience, and the most relatable I can be to these division one athletes).

If your team loses four games, and the fifth game of the day is going to be the last one, the winner of that final game will have won the day. It’s true that you just went 1-4 on the day, but the feeling of leaving the court a winner is what sticks with you the rest of the day. Wisconsin winning the last game of the year in the fashion that it did is what will stick with the program through the offseason and kick off 2019 on a good note.

Miami wasn’t a very exciting opponent, but the Badgers still did their thing. Jonathan Taylor ran for over 200 yards and the defense shut down the Hurricanes, holding them to just three points. Very few games will be as entertaining as the Orange Bowl was. This one is certainly not one of them. But the decisiveness in which the Badgers won the game is one of the silver linings of the season. It showed they still had it in them and they were a good team. It just hadn’t always clicked for them throughout the schedule.