The cumulative effect of 1,605 pounds

Their names sound as offensive lineman as names can get.

From right to left, Havenstein, Costigan, Voltz, Lewallen and Marz. You almost don't need to know what team. You hear the names and you're thinking Wisconsin offensive line. Two of the names end in 'Z.” They sound big, strong and they take up the whole alphabet.

'Tough‑minded young men, a lot of pride in what they do,” Wisconsin coach Gary Andersen said Monday. 'They come to work every single day and probably what most of us would envision in our minds is a Wisconsin offensive lineman being a tough, rugged kid, a lot of care factor, they're also very smart.

'They prepare well, all season long; they prepare well in the off‑season. That kind of gives you the idea of the character that they have. Also their care factor, not to just run the ball well, but to play well and be part of the Wisconsin offensive line tradition means an awful lot to those kids.”

No. 15 Wisconsin (8-2, 5-1 Big Ten) and Iowa (7-3, 4-2) are perhaps the two most offensive line-centric teams in the Big Ten. Saturday's game at Kinnick Stadium sets up for the zoom of UW running back Melvin Gordon and the overall effect of bigness of what the Badgers are this year.

To illustrate 'bigness,” Iowa defensive end Nate Meier (6-2, 244) will line up across from Rob Havenstein, who stands 6-8 and weighs 333 pounds.

If you go by tale of the tape, that's a clear advantage to Wisconsin. Keep in mind that Havenstein has lost 50 pounds since he reported to Wisconsin as a freshman in 2010.

There's no Gordon without Havenstein, Kyle Costigan, Dan Voltz, Dallas Lewallen and Tyler Marz. And, as you saw in the No. 15 Badgers' 59-24 thrashing of Nebraska last week, boy, is there a Melvin Gordon.

Gordon rushed for an FBS record 408 yards against the Huskers, topping LaDainian Tomlinson's 406 set against UTEP in 1999. Of course, that's a lot of Gordon, a 6-1, 213-pounder from Kenosha. Gordon is witty, glib and smart, so he wisely spread the glory around.

'It showed Melvin Gordon and 408 yards, but it should have everyone up there, all the offensive linemen, because they really made it easy for me today,” Gordon said after the show the Badgers put on at snowy Camp Randall Stadium. 'And they allowed me to have a lot of one-on-one matchups. And it's kind of been like that all season. Those guys have really been looking out for me. I couldn't thank them more.”

Wisconsin has had giant O-linemen every season since former Badgers coach and now athletics director Barry Alvarez got the ball rolling in the mid-1990s. The school is kind of over the whole 'how much do they weigh?” thing. For the record, this group checks in at 1,605 pounds.

'You look back at the [Nebraska] tape, those offensive linemen played as good of a game that the five of them have played together all year long,” Andersen said. 'Those five young men up front did an outstanding job of what I don't think, I know, is a very good defensive for the University of Nebraska.”

Tune into the 'one-on-one” portion of Gordon's compliment. That's an offense invested deeply into blocking creating situations where its star back can isolate defenders in the open and pick their bones clean.

It took some time last week. Gordon finished with 49 yards on six carries in the first quarter. Then, the cumulative effect of 1,605 pounds starts to set in. Gordon exploded for 189 yards the second quarter alone and added another 170 in the third quarter.

'It's not like we pulled out some special plays or anything,” Voltz told the Wisconsin State Journal. 'We stuck to the game plan. That's kind of been how our season's gone. We might not start out super fast, but we're going to run the plays that we have in the game plan and eventually it starts opening up and that's kind of been the story of the whole season.

'It took a quarter, but once it opened up, the rest is history.”

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com