For the second week in a row, touted Wisconsin sophomore tailback Melvin Gordon was held to fewer than 100 yards and kept out of the end zone. But for the second week in a row, Badgers senior tailback James White picked up the slack.
White (5-foot-10, 195 pounds) is a solid pro prospect in his own right, if not as highly thought of as Gordon. He rushed for 147 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries Saturday, and also had a receiving TD. In all, he accounted for 194 yards and three TDs on 29 touches. Last week, he rushed for 132 yards and two TDs in a win over Iowa, which held Gordon to 62 yards.
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White has rushed for 951 yards and 11 TDs, and he also has caught two touchdown passes this season.
White is a talented back who always has shared carries. He played with Gio Bernard (a second-round pick of the Bengals in the 2013 draft) in high school at powerhouse Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) St. Thomas Aquinas, and in his four seasons at Wisconsin, White has shared time with Montee Ball, John Clay and Gordon.
Gordon had 86 yards on 19 carries against BYU; in the past two games, he has rushed for 148 yards -- or just 6 more yards than he had in the previous game against Illinois on Oct. 19. Gordon, who had rushed for at least 140 yards in six of the Badgers' first seven games, might be laboring a bit because of a heavier workload as the season has progressed. He hadn't had a game in his career with more than 16 carries until having at least 17 carries in each of the past four games.
Mike Huguenin can be reached at mike.huguenin@nfl.com. You also can follow him on Twitter @MikeHuguenin.
