#52 Wisconsin

Madison, WI

Camp Randall Stadium

October 2, 2021

Wisconsin 17 - Michigan 38 (ESPN Recap)

The annual Sloan group trip with Evan & Stephen RETURNS in 2021 and we were excited to get to Madison and Jump Around. We lined up the trip to start on a Wednesday night since we were told by alums that it was the most fun bar night (free Bacon night at Wando’s, flip a coin for 80% discount, etc). Turns out that Wednesday nights are now dead and Evan and I just continued the prior weekend’s conversation at Whiskey Jacks with their broken pop-a-shot machines and intentionally misleading shot discount menu.

Thursday, we hit Mickies Dairy Bar for breakfast, then headed over way east to Pooley’s for a full day of indoor bar games, drinking, milk tab pull tabbing, and gambling. Cornhole horse with condiments was a highlight. We grabbed some delicious dumplings for dinner at Pel Meni and turned Thursday night into our big night out as we posted up at the KK buying songs from the DJ and betting on whether they would be bangers or not.

Friday, we walked a bit and ate Plaza Burgers at The Plaza while betting on golden goal fooseball-style hockey. Riveting stuff! From there we spent a solid 6-hours by the lake at the Union Club hanging out, sipping some Spotted Cow, making up dice/card games, and getting excited about the game on Saturday. We walked through campus and ended up getting dinner at Ian’s Pizza, which is 85% of the way to an Antonio’s spot (very good). We headed to State St and found a good table at State Street Brats. Maybe it is a Big Ten thing, but for the second time, we successfully attracted random strangers to our table for casino night. It started out innocently with $5 high card through a deck, and then Greg K offered to be dealer in black jack against us all. Within 4 hands we were at $100 max bet limits and there were many venmos sent (dealer wasn't good at dealing BlackJacks to himself). Greg, Steve, and AJ are good dudes. We called it early Friday to get up for Fox Big Noon and tailgating.

Game day we made it to the set to see Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart, Brady Quinn, Charles Woodson, and Bob Stoops (former XFL coach). It’s definitely a smaller production than ESPN GameDay, but I was a big Reggie Bush fan in college so enjoyed seeing him interact with the crowd. Linked up with Nhi for tailgating where stranger Tom was not messing around with his shot gunning skills. Corn holed and ate at a Michigan tailgate hosted by John from Chicago. Super nice guy. Then rocked the Pokes Christmas sweater, overalls, and everyFBSstadium t-shirt to Camp Randall.

The game was not competitive. Wisconsin has one of the worst Power-5 offenses in the country and Michigan went for every 4th down knowing that even if they didn’t get it, they were going to be just fine Not including scrub time last series in final 2 minutes of a blowout, the Badgers had ~160 yards of total offense and -3 turnovers. It was ugly! Yet, the over still hit to kill my under 45 dreams. The jump around between Q3 and Q4 really is one of the coolest traditions in CFB.

Back to hotel to change after a drink at a bar on Regent St. Evan and Stephen continued to sleep (literally) on Des Ridder and Cincy as I thoroughly enjoyed that program-defining win at ND Stadium and a cover for me on my largest bet of the day. We rallied and went to the roof deck patio at Double U’s to watch the Pokes beat Baylor and play a lot of Killers songs. Post-Pokes game, an unexpected mentoring session broke out with 10 of Mich’s ΑΧΩ chapter who might love Taylor Swift more than Evan. They’re NGMI as hand drawers (see picture below), maybe might make it as hand light dancers (see their coach in video below), but were an awesome crew that will succeed in life and we wish them the best.

Next weekend to Tempe for ASU/Stanford with the wifey in advance of Wilson's wedding. Repeat stadium for me, but first time for a true ASU home game and the blog check mark.