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Survival of fittest Wisconsin, Stanford survive valleys to smell Rose
Posted: Thursday December 09, 1999 03:55 PM
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) -- Wisconsin and Stanford are, if not great football teams, at least great survivors. Overcoming some disappointments, the Badgers and Cardinal were the teams left standing at the end of the battles for the Big Ten and Pacific-10 titles. Wisconsin was upset 17-12 by Cincinnati and lost 21-16 the following week to drop to 2-2. Stanford was mauled 69-17 by Texas in the season opener, and later lost to San Jose State and Washington. Teams with less resolve might have thrown in the towel, but the Badgers and Cardinal kept fighting and went on to win their conferences and trips to the Rose Bowl. Their coaches' philosophies obviously had something to do with the teams' resiliency. "What we emphasize is improvement," Barry Alvarez said Wednesday from his office in Madison. "If you emphasize games, emphasize winning, I think you have a tendency when you have a bad game, for the bottom to fall out. "We had two tough games in a row that we lost, but we still thought we were a good football team, and that's the approach we took with our players. We just tried to eliminate and correct our mistakes. Even though we lost those games, we still had our goals in sight," said Alvarez, whose Badgers are ranked No. 4. Coach Tyrone Willingham, whose 22nd-ranked Cardinal is ending a 28-year Rose Bowl drought for Stanford, took a similar approach with his players. "Our focus is on the here and now," Willingham said. "We try to keep out football team always in the present, therefore whatever happened in the past week, it's not as important to us as the next opportunity. "So when we had disappointments this year, obviously we focused on our next game and what we could do to be better." Willingham spoke at the Tournament of Roses House. Alvarez, recuperating from knee replacement surgery, wasn't able to make the trip for the Rose Bowl coaches' news conference, but appeared via television on a satellite hookup from Wisconsin. One difference for Wisconsin this New Year's Day -- the Badgers (9-2, 7-1) are favored by 11 points over the Cardinal (8-3, 7-1). In their last two appearances in Pasadena, the Badgers were underdogs to UCLA, but still won, 21-16 in 1994 and 38-31 last January. "One sportscaster said last year that we were probably the worst team ever to represent the Big Ten in the Rose Bowl," Alvarez said. "We were heavy underdogs, but the players don't pay much attention to that. "It's about how you play, it's not about your opponent. But we certainly are in a different situation than we were the last two times out here." The Badgers feature Ron Dayne, who rewrote the NCAA's career rushing record this year with 6,397 yards. Willingham said Stanford won't necessarily try to stop Dayne. "I don't know if there is any method or system or any plan that could stop this caliber of football player," the Cardinal coach said. "We will try to slow him down just a little bit. "How slow is slow? We're not sure," Willingham added with a smile. "He's a great player and I don't know if anybody can stop him."
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