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away from Pitt about two weeks later, following Gary Andersen's surprise de- cision to bolt for Oregon State. But many of the players on the 2016 team were at Lucas Oil Stadium that night, and Chryst is hoping that they took what lessons they could from their disappointing per- formance in Indianapolis. "I think that you're always learning and growing from situations and life experi- ences," he said. "You would hope that they take away things they did well, whether it's preparation or their actual handling of playing the game, and things they didn't do well. I think that you're always wanting to grow from experiences good or bad." The Badgers will have a chance on Sat- urday to show how much they've grown, as they prepare to take on Penn State. They've thrived in their two seasons under Chryst, a Madison native and for- mer Badgers quarterback. In his first sea- son as head coach, Chryst guided the team to a 10-3 record and a win over USC in the Holiday Bowl. This year his team is 10-2 and is ranked sixth in both the As- sociated Press poll and the College Foot- ball Playoff rankings. Led by senior tailback Corey Clement, who was Gordon's backup in the 2014 championship game, Wisconsin has done what Wisconsin teams usually do on offense, putting up big rushing num- bers, then hitting play-action passes in the hope of catching opponents flat- footed. Clement is the Big Ten's third- leading rusher with 1,140 yards. "When I think of what a traditional Big Ten team is, that's who these guys are," Penn State head coach James Franklin said. "On offense, they're big, strong, physical. They're 6-6 across the board at every offensive line [position], except, I think, their leB tackle is 6-7. Their tight end is 6-6. Their running back is 235 pounds. They run for power, they play- action pass, take shots down the field." Because they are so adept at moving the ball on the ground, the Badgers lead the Football Bowl Subdivision with an aver- age time of possession of 35 minutes, 12 seconds. For opponents, that's a worri- some statistic, and not just because it means that their defenses are probably going to have a hard time getting off the field. It also affects their offenses. Franklin said teams are "worried about how many possessions they're going to get, so they start to change how they call the game. That does have a big effect." On Saturday, the Badgers may be with- out starting quarterback Alex Horni- brook, who suffered a head injury in Wisconsin's regular-season finale against Minnesota. But his backup, Bart Houston, is a fiBh-year senior who has played ex- tensively throughout the year, hitting 64 percent of his passes for 912 yards, with five touchdowns and three interceptions. On defense, the Badgers are among the nation's most opportunistic teams. They lead the FBS with 21 interceptions, and their plus-nine turnover ratio ranks sec- ond in the Big Ten. They've got the best run defense in the conference, having al- lowed a league-low 100.8 rushing yards per game, so they may not have to fill the box with defenders to stop Penn State's N O V E M B E R 3 0 , 2 0 1 6 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 2

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