You want to know what gets me going? CBS Sports put out their list of five Big Ten games that will shape the playoff race and we arent even mentioned. Not once. We go into South Bend on a Thursday night in September and somehow that doesnt move the needle for the national people. That game against Notre Dame used to be the kind of measuring stick that defined a season. I remember sitting in the stands in 1998 when we went out there and punched them right in the mouth and people finally started taking us seriously as a program. That was the game that told the country Wisconsin football wasnt just a fluke running through the Big Ten basement anymore.
Now we have a Thursday night showdown with the Irish and the talking heads are too busy drooling over Oregon stacking five 5-stars or whatever Deion Sanders is doing with 43 transfers to care about real football. The Big Ten is supposed to be about toughness and line play and old school battles and instead we get treated like an afterthought in our own conference. Barry Alvarez would have used that disrespect as fuel and hung it on the bulletin board for the whole damn team to see. I hope Fickell has the same fire because going into South Bend on a short week is exactly the kind of game that separates the pretenders from the programs that belong in the conversation.
You want to know what really burns me up though? The same people who ignore us will be the first ones to act surprised when we go in there and win. Just like they were surprised when we went into Camp Randall and beat those loaded Michigan teams in the early 90s or when Ron Dayne ran through that 99 defense like they were standing stil. This program has always been about earning respect the hard way because nobody hands it to us. That Thursday night in September is gonna tell me everything I need to know about where this team is headed.