There is lots of blame to go around. Eldred has to drop that punt on about the 5 from the 41 yard line (I know his coverage didn't do him any favors, but the ball still should have been farther back. Nelson had his head pretty deep up his rump when he threw that last pass. 7-18 is a pretty bad night. Gray missed wide open receivers, which can't happen from a senior. Limegrover had no idea whether he was burning the clock or going for fg range. Clayes shouldn't have left is in cover 0. And snaps, holy crap! Snaps are the most routine play in football. High school centers and quarterbacks should be able to find a way to get the ball from the ground to the QB's hand without issue.
The most miserable thing about a loss like this is that every time this team looks like its ready to take the next step (and it has looked that way several times over the last decade or so), somebody gets a mid-game lobotomy and finds a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. That needs to stop, because getting to that level requires teams to, when they find themselves in a game they weren't expected to be in, find their best football and go for the jugular, not wet their pants with some uncreative fourth quarter playcalling that would have done the Brew Crew proud.
Sorry, I had to vent a little. We did double our win total from last year. We've set the bar for next year, so if we can get to 7, we can continue to be satisfied with steady improvement (one nice thing is that our 4-0 out of conference record this year means that improving our win total necessarily involves a better B1G record, or a bowl win, so that should make moot the discussion of whether we measure improvement by conference or overall record). I expect us to get a trophy next year. We have miserable 2-6 Iowa in our house, and we also play host to the Badgers who should be in transition. I think that 2 trophies and a 4-4 record would be a nice stretch goal, but get to 7-5, and I will be happy.
