With a new head coach on the sidelines and a new starting quarterback at the helm of the offense, Wisconsin ended its season in a customary Badgers football way – with a bowl game victory. After racing out to a 17-7 halftime lead and withstanding an Oklahoma State fourth quarter comeback, the Badgers held on for a 24-17 victory in the 2022 Guaranteed Rate Bowl in Downtown Phoenix.
The win was Wisconsin's eighth in its past nine bowl games as the Badgers concluded the 2022 season with a 7-6 record, its 21
st straight winning season.
"Like I said, I'm not sure I knew exactly what to expect completely tonight, but I know what I've seen over the last three and a half weeks, that they wanted to be here, they wanted to prepare," said Wisconsin Head Coach Luke Fickell, who was hired in Madison on November 27. "This is what I envisioned from afar that (Wisconsin) was all about … They want to be here, they want to do it together and they want do it the right way."
Fickell, the consensus 2021 National Coach of the Year at Cincinnati, roamed the sidelines alongside interim head coach Jim Leonhard and together, they led a stifling defense that allowed just 52 rushing yards and picked off Oklahoma State's Garret Rangel twice – the latter sealing the victory with under three minutes to play.
Offensively, the Badgers relied on a punishing ground game led by Braelon Allen and Chez Mellusi. Allen, the Offensive Player of the Game, rushed for 116 yards on 22 carries and a score, while Mellusi added 77 yards and a touchdown of his own. In total, Wisconsin rushed for 258 yards, nearly matching Oklahoma State's entire offensive output (281).
The Badgers' ground game helped Wisconsin control the time of possession, with the fourth-largest possession time difference (15:56) in Guaranteed Rate Bowl history. That aided fifth-year senior Chase Wolf, who made his first career collegiate start at quarterback. Wolf, who had attempted just six passes this season prior to the game, completed 16-of-26 passes for 116 yards and a touchdown.
After Wisconsin took the initial advantage with a 49-yard field goal by Nate Van Zelst to cap the Badgers' opening possession, Oklahoma State claimed its only lead of the game on an 84-yard pitch and catch from Rangel to Stephon Johnson Jr. The 84-yard touchdown reception was the second-longest play from scrimmage in Guaranteed Rate Bowl history, only trailing Washington State's Phillip Bobo's 87-yard touchdown reception in 1992.
Wisconsin reeled off 21 unanswered points that kept the Pokes off the scoreboard until early in the fourth quarter. Mellusi punched a touchdown in from a one-yard out and Wolf found Hayden Rucci for a 15-yard score right before halftime to give the Badgers a 17-7 intermission advantage.
Allen reached the endzone midway through the third quarter untouched on a 20-yard scamper to pad Wisconsin's lead to 24-7, a margin that held until Rangel tossed his second touchdown of the evening two minutes into the fourth quarter. After nearly being sacked on 4
th and goal from the one-yard line, Rangel scooped it to Ollie Gordon II to bring the Cowboys within 10 points on the scoreboard.
Oklahoma State (7-6) then forced a Wisconsin 3-and-out and capped a 13-play drive covering 69 yards over six minutes with a 24-yard Tanner Brown field goal to push the score to 24-17 with 5:02 remaining. A second consecutive Badgers 3-and-out gave the Cowboys possession with 3:33 to play. However, Cedrick Dort Jr. preserved Wisconsin's bowl win – its second in as many all-time trips to the Guaranteed Rate Bowl – by intercepting Rangel's deep throw.
"We had a chance at the end, and we threw an interception," said Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy. "We had a shot. We had the ball, had a chance to go down and make it really interesting. Then almost had a stop there, and they hit us on a reverse at the end. It was a good play call on their part."
Wisconsin flashed its traditional defensive identity and stymied Oklahoma State into the Cowboys' third-lowest offensive yard output of the season and their fewest rushing yards in a game since September 2016, spanning 88 games. Entering Bowl Season 13
th in the country in total defense at 305.4 yards per game, the Badgers have ranked in the top 10 nationally in total defense in eight of the last nine seasons.
"What makes Wisconsin great, what has made Wisconsin great isn't going to change," Fickell said. "We would be fools to think that we aren't going to be what this place historically has been. Now, how you do things and how it looks may be a little different. But we're never going to let this thing lose its edge, let us lose our edge for what's going to give us a chance to win."
Jordan Turner, the Defensive Player of the Game, led the Badgers with eight tackles, including 1.5 tackles for loss and one quarterback hurry. Maema Njongmeta was right behind with seven tackles and a tackle for loss.
