Another week, another ranked opponent, although Wisconsin should pose a far stiffer test than either Penn State and their anemic offense or Michigan and their pitiful defense. Wisconsin's stout on both sides of the ball, but particularly on offense where their behemoth offensive line paves the way for John Clay and Jason White. The marquee match-up of the day ought to be the Badger offensive line versus the Iowa defensive line -- it's reductive to say that whichever team wins that battle will win the game... but it's not entirely false, either. Keep an eye on Gabe Carimi versus Adrian Clayborn -- it's not often you see two future first-round draft picks squaring off (or that you see Clayborn get single-teamed by an offense).
Injury-wise, it's pretty much business as usual for the Hawks; Jeff Tarpinian is once again out with a neck stinger, so Troy Johnson will be manning the MLB spot. Beyond that, it sounds like all the usual suspects are healthy. Weather.com gives it a 10% chance of rain during the game today, so hopefully things stay dry. TV coverage is on ESPN/ABC -- click here to see what channel the game is on in your area. Remember to check the ESPN Alternate and ESPN SD feeds if you can't find it on ESPN HD.
The rules of the open thread are pretty simple: no links to pirated illegal streams of games, no porn, no slurs (ethnic, sexual, whatever), nothing that really bogs down the thread (i.e., alphabet games), no posting "first!" or "second!", and be judicious in posting images, particularly animated .gif files. If you need more detailed descriptions of those rules, click here. Other than that... game on. This is the last time we play Wisconsin until at least 2013 -- let's keep that damn Heartland Trophy where it belongs.