MADISON, Wis. — If it sounds silly that grown men run to the sideline filled with such delight, looking to scoop up a wooden axe named after a mythical giant lumberjack, well then you just don't understand what the Wisconsin-Minnesota football rivalry means.
To players on both sides, the bragging rights are nice. But Paul Bunyan's Axe serves as the true representation of victory.
"This is the game you come here for," Badgers linebacker Mike Taylor said. "Growing up, you see the axe on TV, and the same over at Minnesota. That's the reason why they go to that school is to play us, and that's why we come is to play them — for the axe. You live to play this game."
The most-played rivalry in the FBS resumes on Saturday at 11 a.m. CT when Minnesota (4-2, 0-2 in Big Ten play) travels to face Wisconsin (5-2, 2-1) at Camp Randall Stadium.
Paul Bunyan's Axe has gone to the Wisconsin-Minnesota winner every year since 1948, when the Wisconsin letterwinners' organization instituted the trophy for the series. But for the past eight games, the Badgers have owned the axe, winning each game by an average score of 39-24.
Some have suggested that a rivalry game is not actually a rivalry unless both teams win — Minnesota linebacker Mike Rallis admitted as much this week. Try telling that to Wisconsin's players, who sound as motivated as ever to pummel their neighbors to the west.
"From the outside looking in, I could understand why people might think the luster has worn off the rivalry," Badgers linebacker Chris Borland said. "But internally, this game means everything to us. Just envisioning them running across our field and taking our axe is something we're going to make sure we don't have to feel."
So, can Minnesota take back the axe this year? The Gophers will have to overcome an awful lot to make that a reality.
Minnesota is coming off a game against Northwestern in which it fumbled seven times and lost two of them. Dual-threat quarterback MarQueis Gray, the Gophers' leading rusher, also injured his left ankle during the game and very well could play most of Saturday's game at wide receiver.
"When Gray gets going downhill, he's a load," Badgers coach Bret Bielema said. "He's 250 pounds of lean, mean fighting machine coming at you."
That leaves Max Shortell as Minnesota's quarterback. Shortell has completed 60 of 105 passes for 791 yards with six touchdown passes and four interceptions. But over his last two games, he has more interceptions (three) than touchdown passes (two).
The Gophers also will have to win in a place that has been especially unkind to visitors. Wisconsin has won 20 straight home games and is 54-4 at home under Bielema.
"Obviously, any time you play Wisconsin, you've got to bring your big-boy pants," Rallis said.
Wisconsin appears to be rounding into form as Big Ten play begins, and it starts with the team's ability to control the line of scrimmage up front. Running back Montee Ball gained a career-high 247 yards against Purdue last week and scored three touchdowns. The Badgers also gained 645 yards of total offense, the second-highest total in program history, on the way to their second straight Big Ten victory.
The Gophers, who have lost two straight Big Ten games, certainly know what they're up against this week.
"We've got to be competitive out here," Minnesota wide receiver A.J. Barker said. "We've got to put up a fight because they've been dominating us as of late. That's just the reality."
Wisconsin center Travis Frederick, a computer engineering major, admitted the probability of winning nine straight games against one team is not high. It has happened just once before in the 122-year-old series.
This season, the two teams seem to be headed in opposite directions, and Frederick — one of 52 players from the state of Wisconsin on the Badgers' roster — intends to keep it that way.
Hoisting the axe and pretending to chop down a goalpost after earning another victory never gets old.
"We've been able to control the axe for my entire tenure here," Frederick said. "But the thought of another team coming over to our sideline on our home turf and grabbing that thing and taking it over, really just drives goosebumps up your back. This game definitely has a sense of urgency about it."
FOXSportsNorth.com's Tyler Mason contributed to this story.
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