Appalachian State has sparked belief in the creampuffs of the nation that they have the power to upend any juggernaut on the top 25 slate. The Division I-AA Mountaineers shocked the #5 Michigan Wolverines in Ann Arbor two weeks ago leaving fans to believe that anything is possible. The Citadel, hailing from the same conference as Appalachian State, harbored similar aspirations entering Madison this past weekend. The #7 Wisconsin Badgers didn?t see the Bulldogs? bite coming. A 21-21 tie at halftime had the Camp Randall crowd booing the teams off the field.
The few fans from Charleston, South Carolina treated the halftime deadlock like a Super Bowl victory. Not much Southern flavor hits the Dairyland State, but by the half, the Badgers had enough. Wisconsin began to provide some northern hospitality in the third quarter by validating their top ten ranking. The Badgers turned the game around and scored 24 unanswered points to put the game out of reach. Despite a few late scores by the Citadel, Wisconsin notched a 45-31 victory.
The baby blue Bulldogs hardly seemed daunted by the 80,000+ in Camp Randall Stadium. The naughty student section, the famous thirdquarter” jump” tradition, and the fast and slow motion wave turned heads and caused some gaping stares, but it didn’t affect their team’sperformance. We sat down near the Citadel cheerleaders, who cheered with a pronounced southern drawl. Even though their materialresembled that of a high school squad, they flung themselves into a spasm-like frenzy with every Bulldog score. They may not have been able to pull an Appalachian State this past weekend, but the Citadel furthered the respect for lower echelon squads and scared the pants off of any Division I-A team who has yet to play a Division I-AA squad on their schedule.
