Bucky Looks to Avoid Trend in Iowa City

It seems to happen pretty much everytime a team beats a highly ranked opponent the week before. That's right we're talking about the "letdown game." Something that the Badgers hope to avoid against the Hawkeyes.

Two weeks ago South Carolina shocked the world by being the first SEC team to beat Alabama in the regular season in over two years. Never mind being the first team to knock them off since Utah did it in the Sugar Bowl in 2009. Then the Gamecocks hit the road to Lexington to take on Kentucky.

What should have seemed like an easy win for the Gamecocks quickly became a nightmare. After holding a 28-10 lead haeding into halftime the Gamecocks gave up 21 unanswered points. Then late in the game while driving for what could have been at least a game tieing score South Carolina quarterback Stephen Garcia threw an interception that locked up the game for the Wildcats.

There you have it...the hangover. No we're not talking about the more; we're talking about the big upset hangover. A plague that seems to find almost every team that upsets a major team in college sports. Well most of the time.

Every once and a while you will find the exception. And the team that Wisconsin plays this week has been exactly that exception. In 2008 the Hawkeyes looked like an average football team. Nothing special, but nothing bad at the same time. That was until Penn State rolled into Kinnick Stadium.

The Nittany Lions came into that game undefeated, ranked third in the nation, and holding on to national championship dreams. Dreams that would be shattered by the Hawkeyes before the night was over.

Iowa would end up winning the game late on a winning field goal by Daniel Murray, and then would go on to win thier next two regular season games, and their bowl game against South Carolina. The following season Iowa would run off their first nine wins until Northwestern would finally end the winning streak at 13 games. A winning streak that started against Penn State.

So there is only two reactions you can have when beating a team with national championship aspirations. You can either get the hangover, or you can build from it. Which one the Badgers will take starts on Saturday against the very Hawkeys they would love to replicate.