Bloodthirsty Badgers burst into Bloomington

Last year, the Hoosiers walked into Camp Randall Stadium and handed Wisconsin the beating of a lifetime. The Badgers allowed a school-record 63 points to IU, and surrendered 631 yards of total offense in the process.\nCertainly coach Barry Alvarez's team could not forget a loss like that. They would have to be coming into Memorial Stadium with a Sheboygan-sized chip on their shoulder, right?\n"I haven't even thought about last year's game," Alvarez said. "You shouldn't have to bring it up to motivate players for a conference game."\nInstead, Alvarez and the No. 22 Badgers (5-1, 0-1 Big Ten) will be looking to get their first win of the Big Ten campaign at the expense of IU (2-3, 0-1 Big Ten).\nThe Hoosiers don't plan on complying.\n"From the standpoint of the team I feel that we are extremely excited, and I think that you are going to see a great game this Saturday," said senior quarterback Gibran Hamdan.\nFor the game to be close, coach Gerry DiNardo will be looking for a vast improvement on both sides of the ball over the Hoosiers' last performance, a 45-17 loss to then-No. 6 Ohio State.\nOne challenge will be containing the Wisconsin offense, which is led by senior quarterback Brooks Bollinger. Bollinger needs a win over IU to become the winningest quarterback in Wisconsin history.\nLike IU graduate Antwaan Randle El, Bollinger has hurt teams on the ground and through the air. Bollinger has seven touchdowns passing and four rushing.\n"Anytime you have a quarterback who can run like Bollinger does, it puts tremendous pressure on the defense," DiNardo said. "His athletic ability really makes it difficult to contain him. He's good."\nComing off of a bye week, the IU defense had some extra time to prepare for Bollinger. They did so by using junior transfer Matt LoVecchio to simulate Bollinger on the scout team.\n"Matt LoVecchio can duplicate him for us and give us a better picture," said freshman cornerback Damien Jones.\nThe Hoosiers are well prepared for Bollinger's appearance at Memorial Stadium, but it is still unclear whether he will have two of his most lethal weapons at his disposal. Both junior running back Anthony Davis and senior wide receiver Lee Evans are questionable this week due to injury.\nDavis sprained his ankle last week against Penn State, missing the end of the game. If Davis does play, he may be splitting time with freshman Dwayne Smith, who had six carries for 42 yards last week.\nEvans, on the other hand, has yet to play a down this season. Expected to go in the early second round of last year's NFL Draft, Davis instead elected to stay in school. He tore the ACL in his left knee during Wisconsin's spring game -- which was on the same day as the draft.\nWhile he is unsure of Evans' status for the game, Jones would relish an opportunity to defend him.\n"That's just a dream for me as a freshman," Jones said. "Let me hold someone like him. Let me know where I stand." \nOffensively, Hamdan will have all of his favorite weapons at his disposal. However, he will have to move the ball against a defense that is allowing 18.3 points per game. In the Big Ten, only Ohio State has a stingier defense. \nConversely, IU is averaging 22.2 points a game, which is the worst in the Big Ten.\nHamdan said the offense has shown flashes of putting together an explosive performance, though.\n"The good thing about our offense is that we have shown that we can do a variety of things that it takes to be successful," Hamdan said. "It is just a matter of everyone deciding and understanding that we need to do those things all the time to score more points."\nThe game kicks off at 11 a.m. Saturday.