Polzin: How Wisconsin vs. Alabama compares to other top nonconference games at Camp Randall

When No. 4 Alabama visits Camp Randall Stadium on Saturday, it will be a rare chance for the University of Wisconsin football program and its fans to welcome a powerhouse from outside the Big Ten Conference.

This is the Badgers’ first nonconference home game against a ranked opponent since a 32-30 loss to No. 19 Fresno State in 2001.

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It’s the first top-5 nonconference team to play at Camp Randall Stadium since Miami (Fla.) put a 51-3 beatdown on the Badgers to open the 1989 season.

That game didn’t exactly have a lot of hype leading up to it: In fact, only 38,645 fans showed up to watch it, Wisconsin’s second-smallest home attendance in 21 years.

So where does Wisconsin-Alabama rank in terms of hype? That list, using the past 4½ decades or so as a cutoff point, is pretty small.

Here are three other nonconference home games that are comparable. If you’re the optimistic type, the good news is the Badgers won two of these games.

Wisconsin vs. No. 16 Penn State in 1970

The backdrop: There would have been more buzz around this game if Penn State hadn’t been on the wrong end of a 41-13 whipping the previous week at Colorado. That loss ended the Nittany Lions’ 23-game winning streak and their 31-game unbeaten streak (30-0-1).

Still, this was a program that was coming off back-to-back 11-0 seasons. It had a 44-year-old coach who was in the early stages of a legendary career at Penn State.

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What did Joe Paterno remember from that 1970 game when it was brought up to him 26 years later when the Nittany Lions next returned to Camp Randall Stadium?

“We then went out to Wisconsin and, me being a young coach, I had the kids so fired up with so much blood in their eyes they couldn’t see anything,” Paterno said. “Wisconsin ran over us, around us and by us, the whole bit. They gave us a real good licking.”

The game: The Badgers’ 29-16 victory over the Nittany Lions was the first win of the John Jardine era. It didn’t go down as Jardine’s biggest win, as we’ll find out later, but this one thrilled — and shocked — the home crowd of 55,204.

Paterno’s memory of the game clearly had faded 2½ decades later. The Badgers hadn’t run over the Nittany Lions; in fact, Penn State, which had Franco Harris at running back and Jack Ham at linebacker, outgained Wisconsin 392-215 in total yards.

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How many quarterbacks in college football history — heck, at any level — can say they were sacked 14 times for 99 yards and still won the game? Wisconsin’s Neil Graff can.

Graff completed only eight passes against the Nittany Lions, but they accounted for 220 yards. He threw three touchdown passes, including strikes of 68 and 52 yards to tight end Larry Mialik on crossing patterns.

Wisconsin’s defense came to play, too, intercepting four passes and collecting two fumbles.

“Wisconsin played better, hit better, defensed better and had great hustle and pursuit,” Paterno said afterward. “We came to play and wanted to win very much. Now we'll find out what we're made of.”

Penn State ended up starting the season 2-3 before winning its final five games. Wisconsin won just one of its next five games after beating Penn State and finished Jardine’s debut season with a 4-5-1 record.

Wisconsin vs. No. 4 Nebraska in 1974

The backdrop: Tom Osborne was early in his second season with the Cornhuskers after taking over for the legendary Bob Devaney, who had led the program to back-to-back national titles in 1970 and 1971. Nebraska had opened that 1974 campaign with a convincing 61-7 win over Oregon.

The Badgers, meanwhile, had won four games in each of Jardine’s first three seasons. But they were coming off a 28-14 road win over Purdue to open the season and had hung with Nebraska the previous season in Lincoln, losing 20-16.

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ABC was in town to televise the game to a regional audience, a rare television appearance for the Badgers.

Some Wisconsin players hung around Camp Randall Stadium the day before the 1974 game to watch Nebraska arrive at practice.

"I just remember that they had this sort of arrogance, like, 'OK, we're going to come up here, spend a little time and go back home,'" Terry Buss, a safety on that Wisconsin team, said in 2011 when Nebraska joined the Big Ten and returned to Madison for the first time in 37 years. “I think that rubbed some people the wrong way.”

The game: The Badgers, a heavy underdog, rallied in the second half to record a stunning 21-20 win over the Cornhuskers.

The Wisconsin defense allowed 258 yards rushing but also inflicted plenty of pain. A hit by Buss broke the jaw of Nebraska fullback John O’Leary, and Cornhuskers quarterback David Humm was knocked out of the game late in the first half with a hip pointer.

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Nebraska led 17-7 in the third quarter, but Billy Marek scored a touchdown to trim that deficit. After Osborne opted to kick a field goal inside the Wisconsin 5-yard line to stretch the lead to 20-7, Gregg Bohlig and Jeff Mack teamed up for one of the iconic plays in program history.

On a second-and-16 play, Bohlig rolled to his right and found Mack at midfield. Mack, despite getting interfered with on the play, came down with the pass and raced to the end zone for a 77-yard score that would prove to be the game winner.

Nebraska had a chance to tie the game but had to do it without Humm, who had engineered a game-winning drive over the Badgers the previous season. The Cornhuskers’ final drive ended with Steve Wagner intercepting a pass that sealed the win for the Badgers.

The defeat was one of only 49 for Osborne during his 25 years at Nebraska. He won 255 games and three national titles during that run.

Wisconsin dropped a 24-21 decision at Colorado the next week but finished the season 7-4, its first winning record in 11 years and the only winning campaign in Jardine’s eight seasons in charge of the Badgers.

Wisconsin vs. No. 13 Colorado in 1995

The backdrop: This game was supposed to be a 1 p.m. kickoff Sept. 9. Barry Alvarez instead jumped at the opportunity to move the game up a week and play under the lights and on national television.

It was the first night game of the Alvarez era and, in fact, only the second night game at Camp Randall Stadium in the program’s modern era. The only other was a 34-17 loss to Michigan in 1986.

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Colorado had beaten the Badgers 55-17 in Boulder the previous season, but Wisconsin had ended that campaign with three consecutive wins and was entering this one ranked No. 21 in the country.

“I think a night game here could give us an advantage,'' Alvarez told The Capital Times.

The game: The only thing worse than the way the Badgers played was how they looked: They wore retro red jerseys with white sleeves, with one fan telling the State Journal after the game that “those must be the ugliest uniforms they’ve ever had.”

Fans had a reason to be grumpy. Colorado rolled to a 43-7 win, leading Alvarez struggling to find many positives.

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The Badgers had a punt blocked and missed two field goals, and that was just in the first half.

They finished with 298 yards in total offense, were sacked five times and committed two turnovers that led to 10 points.

And Wisconsin allowed more than 500 yards to the Buffaloes, whose quarterback, Koy Detmer, went 17 of 24 for 267 yards and three touchdowns.

It was the first career coaching win for Rick Neuheisel, who was born in Madison.

“I didn't know what was going to happen in this game,” Alvarez said. “I didn't know what they were going to do. But I didn't anticipate this.”

The loss to Fresno State six years later dropped the Badgers to 4-16 all-time in nonconference home games against ranked opponents.

Alabama now rolls into town. The wait is nearly over to find out if this will be another Nebraska miracle, another Colorado debacle or something in between.