​​Johnny Raider – @johnnyraider29

Photo by Maggie Spinney, The Daily Cardinal

Nebraska had not beaten Wisconsin since the 2012 season going into Saturday's battle for the freedom trophy. That impressive streak was snapped in dominating fashion for the Nebraska Cornhuskers. A 44-25 win led to a field storm and, more importantly, guaranteed bowl eligibility. The Badgers fall to 5-6 on the year with just one game remaining to claim their bowl eligibility. Who stands in the way? The archrival Minnesota Gophers in another edition of the Battle for the Axe. 

Here is the state of the program and why this rivalry matchup against Minnesota… may be the biggest one in Wisconsin's school history. 

The Badgers have now dropped games to teams they were very capable of beating in embarrassing fashion. Those were games against ‘middle of the pack' conference matchups with USC and also two trophy games with Nebraska and Iowa. You expect a program as storied as Wisconsin to at least be competitive against teams on a similar level, but we've seen heartbreakers to top 10 teams like Penn State and Oregon. So we know they CAN ride with the big dogs, but yet fail to beat the teams Wisconsin traditionally beats. JJ Watt worded it pretty well in his tweet … 

@JJWatt on X (2024)

It sums up what the program has been missing. Physicality, the sheer mentality of running the football down the opponents A-gaps with no remorse, along with a great physical and opportunistic defense. All of those things disappeared against Nebraska and Iowa. 

With that being said, this all can be forgotten with a win against the 6-5 Minnesota Gophers. A team one game ahead of you in the standings, at your home stadium, with bowl eligibility on the line. Narratives about how the badgers football program doesn't miss bowl games, they never lose all three rival games in a season and they never have a weak team in terms of physicality. These notions are all in the hands of the Badgers players on friday.

Not to mention… THE AXE is at stake. Beating Minnesota is one of the biggest goals circled on the calendar for every single Badger football team. This is what the team lifts for, trains for, practices for, and hungers for. They will have one last chance to set the standard for the incoming Top-25 recruiting class and the trajectory of the future for Badger Football.