Hoosiers bowl hopes blown away by Wisconsin

Ben Chappell saw daylight and sprinted toward the end zone. Preparing to slide at the Wisconsin 4-yard line, he hoped to put IU in position to take a 27-21 halftime lead.

For a brief moment, it seemed as if the collective fan base thought maybe, just maybe, this Hoosier team could pull out a win and keep its bowl hopes alive. Only Wisconsin defensive back Jay Valai popped Chappell near the neck, sending the sophomore quarterback out of the game, the ball tumbling into the Badgers’ possession and effectively starting the rout that resulted in a 55-20 Wisconsin win.

“We lost our players,” said IU coach Bill Lynch. “I think the turning point of the game was it’s 21-20, we recover a fumble and our quarterback, who’s playing awfully well, runs the ball, gets hit and loses the ball. We lost our quarterback, we lost the ball.”

After the medical staff took Chappell to the locker room, Lynch called on junior quarterback Kellen Lewis to take the snaps. But Lewis was still hurt from a high-ankle sprain that has plagued him most of the season. Lewis only threw five passes, completing none, and ran once for four yards.

With his first two quarterbacks out, Lynch turned to IU’s everything man – sophomore quarterback/wide receiver/safety Mitchell Evans.

Evans, who injured his sciatic nerve last week, had not prepared to play a snap against Wisconsin. But Lynch needed a quarterback, and Evans was best suited for the job.

“For him to go out and do what he did, shoot, it’s unbelievable,” Lynch said. “We’ve got guys up and down that offensive line – we lost two more today. Shoot, I know what the score is, but I know the guys in the locker room and I know what they’ve gone through.”

While Evans was ill-prepared and hobbled under center, the Badgers shortened IU’s possessions and kept pounding the defense with a superior running game.

Three Badgers rushed for more than 100 yards – David Gilreath (168), P.J. Hill (126) and John Clay (112) – and six touchdowns. Wisconsin averaged 7.2 yards per carry.

“The reality is you’re probably not going to get it from a lot of guys,” said senior defensive end Jammie Kirlew. “Especially with the season we’ve had. We needed confidence throughout the game.”

At the start of the second half, on Wisconsin’s first play from scrimmage, Gilreath took a reverse 90 yards for his second touchdown.

It was the straw that broke the Hoosiers’ back, as their next six possessions resulted in three-and-outs, while the Badgers kept adding to their scoreboard – in all, 34 straight points – meaning no more dreams of a bowl game in 2008 for Bloomington.

“It’s tough, because that was definitely another one of our team goals,” Evans said. “We can’t look at that now, we just have to try and finish up the year with two good performances by us. Hopefully we can get some more ‘W’s,’ because the losing is getting pretty hard.”