Dayne's dream: beating Michigan

Man, what's wrong with me?, he thought. I used to be The Man. I was supposed to come here and take these guys places. He looked at the Rose Bowl ring on his finger. He took it off to look at it. Looks like this is the only one of these I get.

He dropped it. Sigh.

Rick Freeman Freeman of the Press

He picked up the football he had been carrying around, to get a better feel for it. He tucked it under his arm and went for a walk.

He had no where in particular to go, and found himself at Camp Randall Stadium. He dropped the football. Man.

Picking it up, he thought about Michigan, this week's opponent. He remembered the Badgers' two losses to the Wolverines since he had been at Wisconsin He had been impotent in each one. He remembered his ankle hurt in 1997, and he had an ear infection last year. He had amassed a total of 53 yards in last year's game, and the papers ate him up.

He imagined what a Heisman with his name on it would look like. He imagined standing up, all proud at the Downtown Athletic Club and hearing the words "From the University of Wisconsin, Ron Dayne."

Instead, he just heard: "Hey Ron."

Am I sleepwalking? he thought to himself. He heard it again, authoritative and deep.

"Down here."

He walked toward the voice.

"Man, why you beating yourself up?" the figure asked. "You have to believe in yourself." By now Ron was standing next to him.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Never mind. We don't have time for that. You want to finally beat Michigan, right? You might not leave here with a Heisman, you might not get another Big Ten ring, but you want to beat those guys, don't you?

"You want more than that one guy's record you beat Saturday, right?"

"Uhhh ... yeah."

"Son, when I was your age, I hated Michigan as much as you do now. I wanted to beat them so bad I could taste it, I wanted to beat them so-"

"Who'd you play for?"

"Hey. I said we don't have time. Do you want to beat them or do you want to use some lame excuse again?"

"Hey man, I was dizzy, My ear hurt. And my ankle ..."

"Listen, Ron. You may not know who I am, but I know who you are. Old running backs, we look out for each other. And Ron, I want you to beat Michigan. I did it three times in my four years."

"Uh, yeah, but ..."
"Ron. No buts. You're big enough to go through people, but man,

09-22-99