Ball with the ball gives Badgers upper hand

INDIANAPOLIS - Wisconsin, probably headed to a coronation here Saturday night as the first winner of a Big Ten football championship game, has a problem.

Its quarterback and tailback are both especially good, so they might cancel each other out of Heisman Trophy votes.

OK, “problem” isn't the most fitting description. “Wonderful situation” is more like it.

Still, it could be a mild surprise if Wisconsin is represented when the Heisman finalists gather in New York next weekend to see if the trophy goes to Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck or Alabama running back Trent Richardson.

Russell Wilson was the early-season public face of Bret Bielema's Badgers as he quarterbacked his team to a 6-0 mark. He gave the already-potent UW offense a new dimension to go with its typical trample mode, which was a deadly-accurate and extremely proficient pass game.

If Wilson doesn't go stone-cold in Saturday night's league-title game against Michigan State at Lucas Oil Stadium, he'll continue to be on pace to break the NCAA season record for pass efficiency.

But Wisconsin dropped consecutive games at Michigan State and Ohio State to chill Wilson's Heisman prospects, though neither was from lack of offense.

The first loss was decided on the game's last-play, 44-yard answered prayer, and the OSU loss came on a Buckeye 40-yard pass with: 20 left.

Not deterred, the Badgers finished the season with four straight wins against overmatched Big Ten foes, and junior running back Montee Ball amassed numbers that are getting hard for the nation to ignore.

Last Saturday, when Wisconsin demolished Penn State, 45-7, to earn its way to Indy and a rematch with MSU, Ball rushed for four touchdowns and 156 yards. The scores were his 31st, 32nd, 33rd and 34th of the year. The NCAA record is 39, set by Barry Sanders.

Trying to be helpful this week, Wisconsin's athletic communications department sent out a press release letting media people know that Ball compares favorably and then some with Richardson. At least I think it was Richardson, because the UW release only referred to the ‘Bama back as “the other guy.”

Ball has 34 TDs, the other guy 23. Ball averages 135.2 rushing yards, the other guy 131.9. Ball averages 139.5 rushing yards against FBS teams, the other guy 128.0.

Ball averages 146.2 rushing yards against five teams ranked among the top 40 in total defense. The other guy averaged 100.3 rushing yards against six top-40 defenses.

“Contain Montee Ball, key to victory,” said Michigan State Coach Mark Dantonio. “Montee Ball is an exciting player, he's a dominating player, the MVP of this league.”

Dantonio's MVP pick hasn't had a single fourth-quarter carry in six of his 12 games.

“What Montee has done against very good defenses is really incredible,” Bielema said.

“In nine of our games, he's played a minimum of plays in the fourth quarter. He's really put those stats together without playing a complete game.”

People have seen the other guy, er, Richardson, on national TV quite a bit and have been wowed. Saturday, Ball is on national prime-time TV in the Big Ten's very first title game. If he runs amok again, maybe he can keep on running to New York before joining his team on a second-straight trip to Pasadena.

Ball and Wilson were tops at their positions in the Big Ten regular-season. Wisconsin has outscored their opposition by the lopsided total of 538-182. It's a team that was a couple of opponents' long pass plays from being a win away from the BCS title game, not the Rose Bowl.

Ball has more rushing touchdowns by himself this season than all but five of the 119 other FBS teams. He would rank fourth in the Big Ten in rushing touchdowns on his last three weeks' output alone.

“I just keep telling trying to tell him how much better he'll be next year if he comes back,” Bielema said.

Michigan State was fortunate to beat the Badgers in East Lansing. Here, however, the Badgers should really be a handful.