By Michael Hunt, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel –
Anytime a student gets attacked on campus, that’s a problem. It sets off all kind of alarm bells for parents everywhere.
But when the leading returning vote-getter in the 2011 Heisman Trophy balloting is jumped by five guys, that sets off a different kind of warning altogether.
It’s major news. Besides that, it makes you wonder what’s going on with the football program.
Montee Ball hasn’t been cleared for practice because he has a concussion after being roughed up last week. Ball will be back, and he will play like the tailback who rushed for 39 touchdowns last season and will, in all likelihood, carry the Badgers to another Big Ten Championship Game.
But for now, that is not the concern.
For now, I buy what UW coach Bret Bielema said about Ball’s innocence in the matter. Ball has always struck me as a straight-up, do-the-right-thing kind of young man.
But one question is why he was walking the streets with friends last Wednesday at 2:15 a.m. No one is ever guilty by the kind of hours they keep, but it’s like your grandma always told you:
Almost nothing that happens after midnight is good. It’s best to not place yourself in trouble’s path in the first place, no matter how innocent the intent. Madison, while still a fairly benign setting, isn’t the idyllic place it used to be, especially after midnight.
And there are questions about Ball’s teammates that still must be resolved.
As it has been reported, several UW players were involved in a fight the week before Ball was attacked. Not only are those players at risk of criminal charges, their behavior may have caused one of the country’s best players to become a target for retaliation.
That’s not exactly what the defending Big Ten champion needs here at the start of camp. It brings into question such critical intangibles as locker-room chemistry and the overall attitude of the team. Are these the kind of guys you want representing Wisconsin?
Based on all my time around the program, Barry Alvarez didn’t recruit problem kids. Neither has Bielema. There have been isolated bad acts and notable incidents, including the Brent Moss arrest and assorted bar fights and low crimes and misdemeanors over the years.
But that happens everywhere, and usually at a higher percentage rate within the general student body. That is no excuse whenever it happens at Wisconsin, but it has always seemed that the Badgers have had fewer off-the-field problems than your typical Enormous U. football program.
It’s true that Bielema ran a looser ship than he should have with his players when he became head coach at the age of 36, but the resulting problems usually came on the field. An immature coach was reflected in the play of an immature team that committed silly penalties.
Bielema has grown up — maybe not to everyone’s satisfaction when it comes to UW’s play in big games — and has learned to keep a tighter rein on the players. Not that they were out of control, even when Bielema was giving them more latitude than a parent might with their teenager. Except Bielema has a hundred or so to watch over, basically an impossible job.
Eventually, the Badgers cut way down on penalties as they retained their status as a top-shelf program. And, generally speaking, the players have been the type of kids you’d be proud to call your own — respectful, courteous and smart. They’ve always been among the Big Ten leader in manners while kicking serious behind on the field.
Bielema has not been perfect in his own behavior as a coach, but he’s being completely honest when he says:
“In my seven years as a head coach, we have not had many situations pop up. I don’t expect to go through my entire coaching career without some of these things popping up. I know that I recruit kids of high quality and high character. If there’s a situation where a couple of guys are involved in it, I told every one of them, ‘Hey, if you did something to ring the bell, you’re going to have to pay the price.’ “
Let’s see if Bielema is true to his word once the police are finished with this matter, because it’s got to stop here. Even if it was an isolated event, he’s got more than another potentially great season riding on player decorum.
Wisconsin’s good name is never to be messed with.
