Fresno St./Wisconsin

Fresno St. +8.5

With the loss of David Carr, Fresno St. looks to be in for a rebuilding year right? Wrong. Replacing Carr is obviously impossible, but there are still many weapons in place for the Bulldogs to contend for the WAC title in 2002. The biggest key is how quarterback Jeff Grady performs as a replacement to Carr. Grady saw some playing time in 2000 and found some success, but redshirted last year. He isn’t going to carry this offense, but his leadership and ability not to make mistakes will make the offense go. He had a great spring game and if he can carry that forward, things look bright for him. There are plenty of playmakers on this team, led by receiver Bernard Berrian, who has been projected by many as a top ten pick in next years NFL draft. Also a big-time return threat, he can break open a game with his explosiveness. Derrick Ward is back at HB after missing last year because of academic reason – he averaged 6 yards per carry as a freshman while gaining almost 900 yards. He will benefit from the return of all 5 offensive linemen, as will Grady, who should get excellent protection in the pocket. The Badgers lost 8 starters from their defense that gave up almost 29 points per game last year. So a new look might be good although it may take some time for the newcomers to gel as a team. The biggest loss is LB Nick Griesen, who led the nation in tackles last year. The secondary is pretty banged up as well which is adding a lot of inexperience to their depth. Wisconsin has been known in the past as solid defensively, and should get back to that level but when? Too many question marks.

The Badgers bring back 8 starters offensively but one of them won’t see action this week. Star WR Lee Evans is out with a bad knee and won’t be back until late September or later. It shouldn’t hurt too much as a few players have stepped up in camp and can contribute right away. Brooks Bollinger returns as the starter at QB and Anthony Davis returns as the reigning Big 10 rushing champ, along with all five offensive linemen. The offense was middle of the pack nationally last year and should remain consistent, even without Lee to start out the year. Fresno St. will try to counter with a very aggressive style defense that features a lot of blitzing packages. Seven starters return from last year and stopping the run is the main concern. The Bulldogs can afford to put seven in the box to try and stop Davis because the backfield can hold their own in the passing game and Bollinger is not known as a big play QB. Very aggressive and hard-hitting, the backs can contain the Badger receivers.

Revenge is a big possibility here, however, according to Alvarez, it isn’t part of the equation. When asked about it during his news conference – “My emphasis is on this team. It is a totally different team and every year you have a different team with a different make-up, different leadership and different strengths and different weaknesses and different question marks. So our emphasis has been on putting this football team together and we really don’t talk much about last year. It doesn’t serve much purpose other than learning and we did enough of that in the spring.” Maybe he is playing it down, but I think he is more concerned with his team coming together than any revenge.

The line at +8.5…not so sure. High because of Carr being gone, revenge? It’s within the power rankings but feeling here is that Fresno has the tools that can win this game outright. Grady needs to play steady, avoid the mistakes and not get affected by the Camp Randall crowd. Fresno has a huge advantage at the kicker position – a 4th team All-American in Asen Asparuhov. Wisconsin will have kicking problems again this year – Mike Allen missed kicks of 34,30 and 32 yards in the spring game but he has officially won the place kicking duties, which doesn’t say a whole lot about his backups.

GLTA!!