This Week in Badgers: An Ode to Media Guides
This Week in Badgers: Season 1, Episode 31
Welcome to This Week in Badgers, where we do a quick look at news around college football and end with a deep dive on Media Guides.
Housekeeping:
Future Issues?
As you'll see below, we're struggling with content. The only thing going on this time of year is recruiting, which I enjoy but also don't add anything to the Rivals/247/AllBadgers coverage already out there. Barring some huge news hitting the football program, these Newsletters may be a bit more sporadic until Spring Practice starts.
As always, thanks for sticking with me so far and feel free to send any feedback my way at the above links.
Actual Badger News: Nothing
Recruiting:
Not much in terms of actual news out there this week. The Badgers are hosting a bunch of top prospects on March 1st, so perhaps something comes out of that. Top target TJ Bollers received an Alabama offer last week, which you might think takes the Badgers out of the running but Jon from Rivals brought up a good point in his latest mailbag that Alabama has a habit of offering Midwest kids and then sort of fading away when they later fill out their class with 4/5 star guys from the South, so it might not mean much at this point.
Other Stuff:
The Camp Randall South End Zone project is a go. I'm not super excited about this one, but fewer and more expensive seats are the way sports are moving so it is what it is. My one aesthetic wish is they do their best to better incorporate the Field House in the design, something the 2004 renovations struggled with.
The Bret Bielema Drive to Find a Job continues this week with Colorado his latest target
Taking Marcus Randle El off the Remember Some Guys list. Yeesh.
The Mel Tucker PR campaign is out in full force. I love all former Badgers that don't commit double murders in Janesville, but I hope this ends with Tucker fleecing Michigan State out of a bunch of money after a few bad seasons, followed by a return to Wisconsin as a Defensive assistant.
Bruce Feldman also had a big thing about the 2013 QB class which I thought was sort of weak despite the good premise. It was a lot longer than it needed to be and didn't really reach a satisfying conclusion as to why these guys actually failed. I also enjoyed the recruiting guys acting like video didn't exist in 2013 to explain their misevaluations.
Details for the Lambeau game have emerged. This seems like it will be a tougher ticket than LSU based on early numbers.
Speaking of the Schedule, 2020 S&P Projections are out!
Bill Connelly has early projections out with Wisconsin #9 (!!!!) and of course it wouldn't be an off-season without Nebraska ranked in the top 25 following a sub .500 season.
Early look at the schedule:
Indiana: 27
Southern Illinois: NR
Appalachian St: 39
at Michigan: 16
vs Notre Dame: 12
Minnesota: 20
at Maryland: 66
Illinois: 61
at Northwestern: 50
at Purdue: 46
Nebraska: 25
at Iowa: 29
Indiana being borderline top 25 was the only real surprise for me. You know Appalachian State will be fired up for a big opponent so not your typical buy game fodder there.
If they can navigate the Michigan-Notre Dame-Minnesota stretch, the rest of the schedule has a bunch of winnable games on it
Let's Remember Some Guys
This weeks guy is Darrin Charles, a WR from 2001-2004. Charles finished his career with 84 receptions and 9 TDs, primary as a 2nd or 3rd option to Lee Evans and/or Brandon Williams on those teams. Charles had a great Alamo Bowl in 2002 with 67 yards and a touchdown in a legitimately thrilling game after a down season.
Charles was a 6'7" with speed that seemed like he could be a #1 WR but never quite got there, though he had really good moments. His highlight video is still pretty impressive to watch today.
Post-career he moved to Hollywood to become an actor which is definitely better than moving to Janesville to commit murders.
Darrin Charles, remembered.
Lets Remember Some Media Guides
I spend more time than I'd like to admit looking at old media guides. In addition to providing invaluable content for Remembering Some Guys, its a great time capsule for Badger football at any particular moment. They're awesome.
Before the Internet existed, the Media Guide provided all sorts of great information. In one book you would have Dave McClain's phone number, directions to Camp Randall, a guess at the depth chart, Al Toon's hobbies and outlooks and stats for every upcoming opponent. There were photos, information on recruits and campus information. It had everything you needed.
Of course once the Internet came along, the need to print a giant book with this information went away. The current version is called a "fact book" and basically just has a list of historical statistics. Still useful, but a shell of its former self.
Today I want to celebrate the best part of the Media Guides, the covers. These really were products of the time both graphically and content wise, showcasing the era in which they were from.
Not all media guide covers are good. For most of the 60s and 70s it was just head shots of the top players. For most of the 1990s it was just an action shot of a single player, 3 times that player being Ron Dayne. For most of the 2000s it was just a few action shots of top guys. Every few years there'd be a photo of the coach. All fine, but nothing exciting.
But in between the boring ones, there have been some classics. Today we'll go through the top Top 15 Media Guide Covers in Wisconsin Football history.
#15: 1992
This was the first year of the Motion W, and instead of recognizing any players they opted to just show their arms and hands lifting the new logo.
#14: 2001
I'm only including this one because Wendell Bryant looks enormous and they made it look like he could fit a Bollinger-sized person inside his body.
#13: 2007
Only ranked for the tiny picture of Bielema on the bottom wearing a visor.
#12: 2003
We've got the greatest Badger football player of all time along with Lee Evans and Jim Leonhard on the same cover. Iconic.
#11: 1983
Independence Bowl Champs! Yeah baby.
#10: 1982
Neither player is identified, nor is the plaque they are standing in front of. Its also supremely awkward looking. I love it.
#9: 1970
Guy in a jacket posing with a football. Coach? Player? Who knows!
#8: 1975
I sincerely like this one. Very 1970s font and a cool 3 layers of graphics.
#7: 1989
I believe they discovered computer graphics in 1989, and they way they used the #89 on the player in 1989? Levels, man.
#6: 1972
I'm a sucker for the groovy 1970s font, and this is a great photo of the Roadrunner with Camp Randall in the background. I'd hang a poster version of this in my basement.
#5: 1985
Going with drawings instead of photos was a risky choice, but I think it paid off. I really, really enjoyed the tuba guy.
#4: 1955
The font! The suitcase! The winking Bucky! Where is he going? Why is he in black and white but the W isn't? Who knows! Great cover.
#3 2000
The Barry Alvarez, "F*ck You I'm Awesome" cover, an all time classic.
How I imagined this conversation going:
Marketing: So we have this concept for the year 2000, incorporating Wisconsin's history wit...
Barry: Let me stop you there. Its going to be me with the trophies
Marketing: Ok, what if we incorporated the trophies into a larger theme of
Barry: Me. Trophies. Are we done here?
#2: 1990
Barry's first media guide featured him with 6 (maybe 7, there is an extra shoulder in there) players all looking completely confused at where they are and why a person with a camera is there.
#1: 1986
The Miami Vice cover! I love this one so much, its such a product of its time and bonus points for the use of Lake Mendota. This is perfection out of a Media Guide and exactly what we're missing now that they've went away.
That's it for this week! Thanks again for reading. Go Badgers.