Dodgers Give Bollinger a Look

After Tom Lasorda had finished his speech, firing up the Wisconsin players before last season’s Rose Bowl victory over Stanford, Badger Coach Barry Alvarez thanked Lasorda and offered him this tip: “Hey, my quarterback is a pretty good baseball player.”

Lasorda passed along the tip to the Dodgers’ scouting department. And, in the 50th and final round of the June draft, the Dodgers selected Wisconsin quarterback--er, infielder--Brooks Bollinger.

“It was kind of crazy,” Bollinger said. “I called home and my sister said some guy called and said I had been drafted.”

The Badgers no longer field a baseball team, and Bollinger hasn’t played since his days as an all-state shortstop at Central High in Grand Forks, N.D. The Dodgers sent a scout to Wisconsin to work him out and saw enough to project him as a third baseman.

The team then offered him the chance to play minor league baseball during the summer before returning to Wisconsin for football. As the starting quarterback, Bollinger believed his responsibility to the Badgers was too great to take a part-time job with the Dodgers.

“It was a tough fit,” Bollinger said. “I couldn’t really do it, but I told them it’s something I may be interested in doing in the future.”

That future could come surprisingly soon. Bollinger is 16-3 as the Badgers’ starting quarterback, having led Wisconsin to the Rose Bowl as a freshman last season and the Sun Bowl this season. But Alvarez said Tuesday that freshman Jim Sorgi will play in relief of Bollinger in the Sun Bowl against UCLA, and the coach declined to discuss who might start next season.

Sorgi, who has the stronger arm, completed 45 of 67 passes as the backup this season, with six touchdowns and one interception. Bollinger completed 101 of 192, with eight touchdowns and seven interceptions.

But Bollinger is far more mobile, and running quarterbacks, such as Arizona’s Ortege Jenkins and Washington’s Marques Tuiasosopo, have bedeviled the Bruins. Bollinger rushed for 404 yards this season, the most of any Badger besides tailback Michael Bennett.

“He could just as easily have a 100-yard rushing game as a 200-yard passing game,” Alvarez said.

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So what sold Joey Boese, who grew up in Villa Park and played at Santa Ana Mater Dei High, on playing at Wisconsin?

“He liked the weather,” Alvarez said with a smile.

Boese, a junior safety, is the only Californian in the Badgers’ starting lineup. He said UCLA and USC did not heavily recruit him. He’s happy to play UCLA, he said, because friends and family can see him on national television, not because he wants to prove himself to the Bruins.

And how does he like the weather?

“My first year, it was kind of like culture shock when it started snowing,” Boese said. “I’ve adapted to it now.”

Winter weather followed the Badgers to El Paso, where Tuesday there were snow flurries and temperatures in the 30s. The forecast for Friday’s game calls for clear skies and temperatures in the 50s.

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Wisconsin cornerback Jamar Fletcher, on the marquee matchup against equally talented and equally outspoken UCLA receiver Freddie Mitchell:

“Every time I get a chance to go up against a top-notch receiver, I try to prove myself. It’s going to be a nice little show. . . . [Mitchell] doesn’t really compare to most guys in the Big Ten. Maybe [Ohio State’s] Ken-Yon Rambo, but I don’t know if he’s that physical.”

Fletcher and Mitchell met earlier this month at a college football awards ceremony in Florida, where Fletcher won the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation’s top defensive back. Mitchell was a finalist for the Biletnikoff Award as top receiver.

“He feels he can’t be stopped,” Fletcher said, “and I feel no one can beat me.”