BleedGopher
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per the Journal Sentinel:
Whether you talk to Wisconsin’s players and coaches or their counterparts at Minnesota, you quickly understand the sickening feeling that sets in after losing the game and the right to hold onto Paul Bunyan’s Axe for a calendar year.
Just ask the classes of Minnesota players who never held the axe because UW won 14 consecutive meetings, from 2004-17.
UW defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard knows the feeling. UW lost to Minnesota twice when Leonhard played for the Badgers.
The first time came in 2001, when Leonhard was a freshman who played on special teams.
UW suffered a 42-31 loss at the Metrodome in the teams’ regular-season finale. That loss ended the Badgers’ bowl hopes and they finished 3-5 in the Big Ten and 5-7 overall.
The second loss came in 2003, when Rhys Lloyd kicked a 35-yard field goal on the final play to give the Gophers a 37-34 victory.
After seeing the ball sail through the uprights, Lloyd turned and sprinted to the UW bench area to get the axe.
"When you’re standing on the sideline and you’re watching an entire team run over – and the emotions after kicking the game-winner – that makes you feel sick," Leonhard said.
Go Gophers!!
Whether you talk to Wisconsin’s players and coaches or their counterparts at Minnesota, you quickly understand the sickening feeling that sets in after losing the game and the right to hold onto Paul Bunyan’s Axe for a calendar year.
Just ask the classes of Minnesota players who never held the axe because UW won 14 consecutive meetings, from 2004-17.
UW defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard knows the feeling. UW lost to Minnesota twice when Leonhard played for the Badgers.
The first time came in 2001, when Leonhard was a freshman who played on special teams.
UW suffered a 42-31 loss at the Metrodome in the teams’ regular-season finale. That loss ended the Badgers’ bowl hopes and they finished 3-5 in the Big Ten and 5-7 overall.
The second loss came in 2003, when Rhys Lloyd kicked a 35-yard field goal on the final play to give the Gophers a 37-34 victory.
After seeing the ball sail through the uprights, Lloyd turned and sprinted to the UW bench area to get the axe.
"When you’re standing on the sideline and you’re watching an entire team run over – and the emotions after kicking the game-winner – that makes you feel sick," Leonhard said.
Wisconsin defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard has experienced the joy – and the pain – of the UW-Minnesota rivalry
Jim Leonhard recalls taking back the axe as a senior in 2004: “It was an awesome feeling running across that field to go get that axe back from them.”
www.greenbaypressgazette.com
Go Gophers!!
