Stocco's Bid Farwell

It was perhaps the worst week to be a fan of Wisconsin quarterbacks. Brett Favre may have very well played his last game in a Packers jersey, and John Stocco's elgibility has sadly run up. While Brett has and will continue to garner all the attention, and deservedly so, Stocco will sit back, be overlooked for his accomplishments, and fade into his all but certain back-up quarterback role when he enters the NFL.

Stocco capped off a stellar four year career at the University of Wisconsin with a win over 12th ranked Arkansas in the Capital One Bowl on Monday, and although it wasn't his best performance, he once again pulled it out and was named MVP of the game. I will be the first to admit that there are many quarterbacks who are more talented than Stocco, but there are few quarterbacks who know how to win and have won like Stocco.


Stocco's Sophomore Year...leading us to victory over Ohio St.

In his three years as a starter, Stocco has compiled a 29-7 record, good for second place in all-time wins at Wisconsin behind Brooks Bollinger who had 30. And had he not gotten hurt and missed games against Buffalo and Iowa (which ended his impressive streak of 35 consecutive starts), Stocco would've finished with 31 wins and the record. He has also led the Badgers to three straight bowl appearances, the Outback Bowl in 2004, and the Capital One Bowl in both 2005 and 2006. Stocco led Wisconsin to three consecutive nine-win seasons, and the Badgers are one of only five teams to achieve that feat in the past three years (along with Auburn, Boise State, USC and Texas). Furthermore, Stocco set single-season school records in 2005 with 2,920 passing yards, 21 touchdown passes, 197 completions, 414 plays and 2,888 total yards. Stocco nearly set the all time passing yardage record as well, finishing his career with 7,227 passing yards in just 36 games as a starter. Number one in that category is Darrell Bevell who finished his career with 7,686 yards in 43 games as a starter. It's pretty obvious that Stocco would've shattered that record and many others if he had 7 more games under his belt.


Stocco's Junior Year...the quarterback sneak that won it against Michigan

But the worst part of it all is how Stocco has been received by the media, and more importantly, Badger fans. I know a lot of people that have season tickets to Badger football that still seem to think Stocco sucks. If you knew football at all or were a true Badger fan, you know Stocco doesn't suck. The wins don't lie, and to back up the wins, the numbers and records don't either. But there still remains a common theme with Stocco among fans: when we lose, everyone is quick to point out that Stocco is to blame, but when we win, it's always something other than Stocco that won it for us. And it's been like that for his entire career. When the Badgers won 9 in a row to start off the 2004 season, the defense got the credit. But when they lost their last three games to end the season, most of the blame fell on Stocco. Most people don't understand that the defense gave up 103 points in those final 3 games (34.3 points per game). And then in 2005, all the credit went to the trio of senior receivers and Brian Calhoun. None of it went to Stocco. I wonder what it will be this year? He lost all those receivers, he lost Calhoun, he even had knee surgery before the season began, but it couldn't have been him that led us to a 12-1 season, the most in Wisconsin history. Could it? Hell no...it had to have been rookie coach Bret Beilema. Not Beilema's fault though, just the story of Stocco's career.


Stocco's Senior Year...Capital One Bowl win in last game

All in all, you will never find a quarterback who was more scrutinized for winning over 80 percent of his games in the history of organized football. Bret Beilema put it best: "There has probably never been a quarterback that's won, with as much success, as John Stocco and taken as much verbal abuse from fans, sports writers and everybody in between." Wisconsin fans seem to think they are the best fans in the nation, well the way Stocco was treated the past four years makes me think otherwise. The fans never appreciated Stocco and never will. All you have to do is visit the ESPN message board and you're sure to see numerous posts about how he's terrible. Hell, Tyler Donovan has received more praise for winning 2 games than Stocco has for winning 29, now that's terrible. Sure Stocco hasn't always looked pretty, and there's been times where we've all wondered what they hell he was thinking, but the bottom line is that he won games. Stocco won't be remembered for his 29 wins or his handful of records, he probably won't be remembered at all. He's that type of a guy. Give it 5 years, and he will almost certainly be completely forgotten by the fair-weather Badger season ticket holders. Sad story. So here's to Stocco, here's to many Aflac Trivia questions based on you, and for the last time...Stocco for Heisman.