Polzin: Revisiting a 15-year-old Wisconsin football project sheds light on stars

While there haven’t been many disappointing seasons for the University of Wisconsin football team over the past three decades, the 2008 campaign definitely falls in that category. The Badgers began the season ranked No. 13 in the country and ended it without a signature victory. There was a 41-point drubbing against Penn State, a 29-point loss to Florida State, a 22-point defeat at Iowa and a one-point win in overtime against Cal Poly. UW finished with a 7-6 record, and some were wondering whether Bret Bielema was still the right coach for the job. (He rebounded quite well.) Why am I bringing this up now? The most memorable part of that season for me was the culmination of a project that had been over a year in the making. It all began with some buddies and I trying to name the best UW football player at each jersey number. We got through the first three numbers — Brandon Williams at No. 1, Jamar Fletcher at No. 2 and Lee Evans at No. 3 — and stopped there because No. 4 wasn’t as obvious. So I called in reinforcements at The Capital Times, my employer at the time. We plugged rosters into a database, came up with a list of candidates at each number and put together a voting panel that included UW officials and media members. By late December, just as the Badgers were about to wrap up that forgettable 2008 season, the project was unveiled. It even turned into a book, “Badgers By The Numbers,” that somehow never cracked The New York Times Best Sellers list. Must have been an accounting error. 4-star running back commits to Wisconsin football The list wasn’t supposed to die there. There would be more seasons, more great players, more chances to debate. “Each year,” I wrote in the Cap Times piece introducing the all-time list, “we’ll reassess the list and make changes if necessary.” It’s only taken 15 years for me to follow up on that promise. These are the dog days of summer, the calm before the storm of Luke Fickell’s first training camp leading the Badgers, so what better time than to revisit the all-time roster? We’ll break it up into 10 installments over the next two weeks, which pretty much takes us right into the Big Ten Football Media Days event in Indianapolis later this month. A few quick points: • Jersey numbers first appeared in the 1920s. So you won’t find Pat O’Dea, Robert Butler or any other UW greats from the program’s first couple decades of existence. • The rule back in 2008 was that only players whose eligibility had been exhausted or would be by the end of that season would be considered. I’m breaking that rule in 2023, but only in one case and only for obvious reasons. • When people grumbled about our choices 15 years ago, I had an esteemed voting panel to use as a scapegoat. That’s not the case this time. I’m a columnist now, expected to give you my opinions, so I made these changes (or non-changes) on my own and am ready for the second-guessing. The NCAA in 2020 began allowing players to wear No. 0 on their jersey, and UW’s first player to don it has been anything but a zero. Braelon Allen has rushed for 2,510 yards and 23 touchdowns in his first two seasons with the Badgers. I’d be surprised if the 2023 campaign isn’t his final one in a UW uniform, and he’ll be a hard name to knock off this list the next time it needs an update. I only have one other change to make in this chapter, and it was a no-brainer. Remember how my buddies and I ran into trouble at No. 4? That spot ended up going to Michael Jones, a wide receiver from 1981-84. Jones, who finished his career with 1,266 yards and 12 touchdowns and is one of only four players in program history with a 100-yard kickoff return, was a worthy choice. Suspended Wisconsin linebacker was driving over 100 mph, records say But he’s no Jared Abbrederis, who joined the Badgers as a walk-on quarterback and left the program as one of UW’s most decorated wide receivers. Abbrederis is tied for first in career receptions (202), second in receiving yards (3,140) and tied for second in touchdown receptions (19). He’s also UW’s all-time leader in kickoff return average (25.8) and fifth in punt return average (10.7). Stop to consider Nick Toon, who wore No. 1, is fourth all-time at UW in both receptions (171) and receiving yards (2,447). He had a really good career and, had he chosen a different jersey, perhaps we’d have a father-son duo on this list. (Spoiler alert: Al Toon is No. 87). But Brandon Williams also wore No. 1 for his final two seasons, and he’s right above Toon on the all-time yards list (2,924) in addition to sharing the all-time receptions record with Abbrederis. John Stocco is keeping the top spot at No. 7, but Aaron Henry is at least in the conversation. Henry was a starting safety when UW won the Big Ten in 2010 and 2011, earning first-team All-Big Ten honors as a senior. He’s a first-teamer on my personal list of best players to cover, too. Just a tremendous human-being who had a great story and was willing to share it with the world. While Stocco doesn’t have individual honors or championships on his resume, he played the toughest position in football and did it well. UW won 29 of his 36 starts, and Stocco’s 2,920 passing yards in 2005 stood as the program’s best single-season mark until Russell Wilson broke it six years later. Another player worth mentioning is Sojourn Shelton, who wore No. 8 while being a four-year starter at cornerback for the Badgers from 2013-16. He earned first-team All-Big Ten honors as a senior. Solid run, but not enough to displace Jason Doering. One of UW’s great walk-on stories, Doering was a two-time captain and a starting safety on the Badgers’ back-to-back Big Ten and Rose Bowl championship teams in 1998 and ’99. Food for thought Here’s an interesting what-if: Melvin Gordon wore No. 3 while redshirting as a true freshman. He switched to No. 25 the following season and left school as one of the most productive running backs in program history. (You’ll have to check back later this week to see if Gordon cracks the updated list.) Open Jim: Have Wisconsin football recruiting expectations been met? Had Gordon kept No. 3, he’d have been up against Lee Evans at that number. That’s 4,915 rushing yards and 45 rushing touchdowns vs. 3,468 receiving yards and 27 receiving touchdowns. Two all-time UW greats, head to head, and I’m kind of glad it didn’t come down to that. Speaking of jersey changes, Leo Chenal wore No. 45 for his first two seasons and No. 5 for his final season. He put together a fantastic junior season before leaving for the NFL, and Chenal’s switch brings up two factors that will come up later in this list: How much weight do you put on one great season with a particular number? Can a player land on this list at a number that he wore for the first part of his career before switching to another number? He isn’t taking Brooks Bollinger’s spot on this list, but I do consider Chenal the best player to wear No. 5 over the past 15 years. Sorry, Graham Mertz.