No hangover in Madison

It was probably one rip-roaring party in Madison, Wis., on Saturday night.

The Wisconsin Badgers beat No. 1 Ohio State last Saturday night. It was the Badgers' first win over No. 1 since 1981. Usually in Madison, the party starts when the day ends in "y," so you can imagine it was times 10 on State Street.

The No. 10 Badgers (6-1, 2-1 Big Ten) themselves were a little more subdued. In fact, at practice Sunday morning, the team told coach Bret Bielema it wanted to skip any examination of the historic win over the Buckeyes and move on to No. 13 Iowa (5-1, 2-0).

"We moved into an hour prep on Iowa and then went to the field and just worked only on Iowa," Bielema said Monday. "There wasn't anything on corrections or anything. It's moving forward. Our players came up and wanted to do that, so it was something that showed me they're thinking right and acting right."

This is what you'd expect from a team built on a foundation of seniors.

The Badgers will have nine senior starters in the lineup Saturday, including quarterback Scott Tolzien, left offensive tackle Gabe Carimi, tight end Lance Kendricks and kick return specialist David Gilreath, whose 97-yard return for a TD on the opening kickoff sparked the Badgers.

Wisconsin also has several junior standouts and that begins with star defensive end J.J. Watt, a 6-foot-6, 292-pounder who's No. 2 in the conference with 11.5 tackles for loss.

This is a veteran Wisconsin, which also was named Monday the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl National team of the week by the Football Writers Association of America, with a Rose Bowl agenda.

"As a coach, you want to have a pulse on your guys," Bielema said. "I met with several of the seniors during fall camp one-on-one, several of the seniors talked about body maintenance. . . . They talked big picture about keeping your body ready for this run, ready for this stretch. They passed some rules that thought that way and some concepts to have their bodies ready for this stretch."

The spine of the Badgers' victory over Ohio State was built on the big bodies of UW's offensive line.

Running backs John Clay and James White were able to roll out their thunder (Clay is in the 250-pound neighborhood) and lightning act and combined for 179 rushing yards against the Buckeyes, including three touchdowns.

Bielema challenged his O-line during the week. Tackles Carimi and Ricky Wagner, guards John Moffitt and Kevin Zeitler and center Peter Konz got the push on Ohio State. Carimi, a future NFLer, came out a clear winner in his matchup with Cam Heyward, OSU's future NFLer at defensive end.

"I did challenge them," Bielema said. "I don't do that very often as a head coach. I don't want to set kids up for failure. If I do something like that, it's usually that I have a really strong belief that it's going to come through."

Carimi told UWBadgers.com that he relishes his matchups against the big defensive ends of the Big Ten. He held Heyward to four tackles and one tackle for loss.

"I always seem to play better when it's a better opponent,'' Carimi said. "I had a plan to attack hm. He's a great player. A helluva athlete. And he gave me my money's worth.''

Saturday, it'll likely be Carimi and Iowa DE Adrian Clayborn. Without trying to over-hype this, this matchup might put some sort of stamp on this game either way.

"Big, strong, opportunistic," Bielema said of Clayborn. "Having the opportunity to be around him a couple times now, you can just tell he's a very serious kid, someone who really enjoys it. I think he would've been a first rounder, but I think he buys into what they're selling there and he wanted to come back and make it a special run."

It's No. 10 against No. 13. That's more than enough logs on this fire. But there is the Heartland Trophy, the traveling trophy in this series.

Saturday's winner gets to keep it for three years. With Nebraska joining the Big Ten, the new divisional alignment will keep Iowa and Wisconsin idle for 2011 and '12.

"I know as a head coach, this is a big part of recruiting, this is a big part of where we stand in the Big Ten and the national level," Bielema said.