TCU versus Wisconsin: It’s not your garden-variety Rose Bowl

The 97th Rose Bowl could be the toughest one to figure out.

Texas Christian versus Wisconsin is not traditional, conventional or even intentional.

The game would have been Stanford versus Wisconsin if not for a loophole in Bowl Championship Series rules that put TCU in Pasadena and Stanford somewhere in South Florida.

Wisconsin won a Big Ten Conference tiebreaker against Michigan State, the only team it did not defeat this year.

Yet, it’s hard to argue against either school getting this chance to play in college football’s bowl showcase.

TCU (12-0) is ranked No. 3 and is the only undefeated team not playing for the BCS title. Wisconsin (11-1) is No. 4 and has been playing downhill like an avalanche since early November.

Both schools have been terrific and respectful guests, mindful that the Rose Bowl, despite being diluted by the BCS, is still the postseason pigskin equivalent of visiting the Louvre.

Neither team got off the plane in California and started complaining about not getting off a plane in Arizona, where Oregon and Auburn will play Jan. 10 for the national title in a stadium where the grass is grown outside and then slid into place like cookies on a sheet into an oven.

Instead, Wisconsin went straight from the tarmac to a palace where the grass is mowed but doesn’t move.

“I took them right to the stadium to see the stadium empty,” Badgers Coach Bret Bielema said this week. “It was done up, painted. They got to walk all over and take pictures.”

Injured Wisconsin linebacker Chris Borland, when he entered the grounds, ran to the Rose Bowl’s top row and took a long, deep, panoramic breath.

Coaches know how to draw up game plans and institute curfews, but many have been blindsided by the game-day “wow” factor.

Wisconsin Athletic Director Barry Alvarez, who as “Coach” Alvarez led Wisconsin to a 3-0 record in Pasadena, maintains the most dangerous opponent in the Rose Bowl is the Rose Bowl — those jaw-agape, pregame moments when you get mesmerized by the beauty of the backdrop.

Bielema gets it — he’s been handed down the handbook. He also, as a member of Hayden Fry’s Iowa Hawkeyes, took part in the 1991 loss to Washington.

“You don’t have to check the stats, I didn’t play until the fourth quarter when the game was out of hand, “ Bielema said Friday.

The memory, though, is indelible.

TCU hasn’t been here before, so it is starting from historical scratch. But Horned Frogs Coach Gary Patterson is the coach of students and a student of history.

Not a purple peep was heard from TCU players about possibly being invited to the wrong BCS bowl. That would be an insult to the Rose Bowl.

Patterson spoke instead of playing a Wisconsin team of national-title caliber. If TCU wins, he can take his national-title pitch to the people.

Patterson also tried to take some edge off by taking his team for a pregame Rose Bowl look-around.

TCU, admittedly, didn’t react very well to last season’s Fiesta Bowl matchup against Boise State, a 17-10 defeat.

“Last year was our first BCS bowl game,” TCU tackle Marcus Cannon said. “We didn’t know how to act.”

Horned Frogs receiver Jeremy Kerley admitted to being “a little shellshocked at first.”

Wait until he gets a load of Rose Bowl shells.

It might be an omen for Texas Christian that it rained like frogs all month in Southern California, or to Wisconsin’s advantage that its collective girth could register on the Richter scale.

The construct of this matchup, though, is what’s most intriguing. How could teams so different be so efficiently alike?

Both schools average 43 points per game, in completely different conferences, in completely different ways.

Both are led by senior quarterbacks, TCU’s Andy Dalton and Wisconsin’s Scott Tolzien, who are as flashy as No. 2 pencils.

What stands out most about Dalton is his red hair. Yet, he has posted 12 more quarterback victories for TCU than “Slingin’” Sammy Baugh. Dalton has 70 career touchdown passes, 10,095 passing yards and 1,583 rushing yards.

Tolzien’s college choice came down to Wisconsin over Toledo, yet he’s 21-4 as a starter, which means he knows how to finish.

Bielema says Tolzien is “smart before the snap, after the snap and during the snap.”

Wisconsin versus TCU is all about compare and contrast. It’s hamburger versus “the other white meat.”

Wisconsin’s offensive line, led by its All-American left side, tackle Gabe Carimi and guard John Moffitt, outweighs TCU’s defensive line by an average of 42 pounds (321 to 279).

These horses plow for three Badgers running backs who really know how to badger — Wisconsin is the only team with three backs who have gained at least 800 yards.

TCU’s defense is a 4-2-5 scheme built on speed, angles, sure tackling and blitzing safeties. The Horned Frogs once again led the led the nation in every significant statistical category. The defense allowed opponents only 18 touchdowns this year and pitched consecutive shutouts against Colorado State and Wyoming. Seven TCU opponents scored seven points or fewer.

This stone wall might be a few sandbags short against a Wisconsin offense that three times this year scored more than 70 points. The last time Wisconsin scored 70 points against someone was 1915.

Dick Bumpas, TCU’s defensive coordinator, likened the matchup to “dump truck versus Ferrari.”

What he meant was Wisconsin’s version of the “spread” offense usually involves attacking a buffet.

“I mean we are fast,” Bumpas explained, “but the reality of it is when the dump truck is going straight ahead, it’s a dangerous weapon.”

The “what gives” in this game is what’s interesting.

Generalizations are easy to make. Wisconsin is faster than you think, and TCU is stronger.

“They’re not small or puny,” Carimi said. “And it seems like we’re the big guys and everyone else is the fast guys. No, there is speed on both sides of the ball.”

Wisconsin eats more steak, yes, but there’s a lot at stake for both teams.

“We’re both representing huge things,” Carimi said.

TCU is out to prove that the smaller boys can play with the big boys.

“The BCU talk of TCU not good enough to play in the national championship,” TCU linebacker Tank Carder said. “A ‘non-AQ’ going and playing against a great Big Ten team. There’s just all kinds of bragging rights and all kinds of talk.”

It’s time to stop talking.

chris.dufresne@latimes.com

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