Keeping The Ball Rolling

NCAA defenses never found an answer to the
lethal legs of Montee Ball in 2011.

After being told by many draft experts that he was a third-round grade, Wisconsin Badgers' running back Montee Ball has decide to return for his senior season and forgo the 2012 NFL Draft.

Coming off the best season of his collegiate career, Ball was named the Big Ten's Offensive Player of the Year and a Heisman Trophy finalist. As a junior, Ball led the nation in rushing yards with 1,923, the seventh-highest total in Big Ten history, and tied Barry Sanders, who set 24 other NCCA records in 1988, for the most touchdowns (39) in FBS history for a single season.

Despite Ball playing in three more games than Sanders did while attending Oklahoma State, he touched the ball sixty-one fewer times than the 2004 Hall of Fame inductee, making a case that his recording-tying season was as impressive as Sanders' '88 Heisman campaign.

Ball finished the year with 2,229 all-purpose yards, the second in team history. Playing for then-Wisconsin head coach Barry Alvarez, running back Ron Dayne set the Badgers' team record in 1996 when he accumulated 2,242 yards, putting Ball's name in the same sentence with yet another Heisman Trophy winner.

Dayne captured college football's most prestigious award in 1999.

Scoring 57 total touchdowns the last two seasons, many attribute Ball's recent success to his commitment of losing weight. Shedding more than 25 pounds prior to the start of the season, the 5' 11", 210-pounder was in great shape, but plans to put on weight his offseason in hopes of getting stronger, something NFL scouts believe he must do to raise his draft stock.

A consensus All-American, Ball helped lead the No. 10 ranked Badgers to a Conference title and earned them their second consecutive Rose Bowl bid.

Facing the Michigan State Spartans, a team that beaten Ball and Co. earlier in the year, in the inaugural Big Ten title game on Dec. 3, Ball got his revenge. He scored a season-high 4 TDs, with his last coming with 3:45 remaining in the fourth quarter, sealing the win, 42-39.

And while Ball was on the losing end of the highest scoring Rose Bowl in history, 45-38, he enjoyed another fantastic game to close out his season, rushing for 164 and a score while catching 4 passes for 51 yards.

Showing once again why Madison will be happy to keep the ball rolling and hit the ground running in 2012.