GAME THREAD: GAME THREAD: NCAAF: WISCONSIN (8-3) at MINNESOTA (1-10)

MINNEAPOLIS (Ticker) -- Freshman Zach Brown helped Wisconsinadd to Minnesota's futility.


Brown ran for a career-high 256 yards and two touchdowns on 29carries as the 24th-ranked Badgers posted a 41-34 victory overthe lowly Golden Gophers in the regular-season finale for bothteams on Saturday.


It was the fourth straight win over Minnesota for Wisconsin(9-3, 5-3 Big Ten), which retained the Paul Bunyan Axe trophy.

"We had some opportunities in the first half that we were notable to capitalize on," Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema said."However, we were able to persevere and play better in thesecond half. We scored early and we were able to get some keyplays to get the victory."


The Golden Gophers (1-11, 0-8) finished the season with 10straight losses as Minnesota went winless in conference play forthe first time since 1988.


With the game tied at 20-20, Brown's 50-yard run set up a 1-yardscore from Bill Rentmeester to give Wisconsin a seven-pointlead 30 seconds into the fourth quarter.


Wit the Badgers leading, 34-27, Brown scored his secondtouchdown of the day on a 4-yard run with 5:11 to play. It wasthe second straight 100-yard rushing performance for Brown, whohad 108 yards and two touchdowns in last week's 37-21 victoryover Michigan.


"Zach played very well today," Bielema said. "After P.J. Hillgot hurt, Brown really stepped up his game. As a freshman it isa difficult task to step in and perform, but Brown was able todo this and help us get to a bowl game."


Minnesota had one last possession to tie the game but safety BenStrickland intercepted Adam Weber to give the Badgers the ballon the Golden Gophers 13-yard line with 56 seconds left.

"Kind of like the season has gone, our kids fought their gutsout, they played extremely hard and did a lot of things welltoday," Minnesota coach Tim Brewster said. "I couldn't be moreproud of them. Sitting here looking at the statistics, we didsome really good things.


"But we didn't win the football game, and that's what we're hereto do at the University of Minnesota."


After the teams traded field goals in the first quarter, Weberhit Eric Decker on the first play of the second half for a22-yard touchdown to give the Golden Gophers a 10-3 lead.

Joel Monroe kicked a 24-yard field goal to give Minnesota a10-point lead before Wisconsin's Tyler Donovan cut the deficitto 13-10 on an 8-yard touchdown run with 1:59 left in the firsthalf.


After David Gilreath returned a punt 57 yards to the 18-yardline, Brown scored two plays later on a 16-yard run to give theBadgers the lead, 17-13, with 12:31 left in the third quarter.

Taylor Mehlhaff kicked a 20-yard field goal but Duane Bennetttied the game at 20-20 on a 3-yard touchdown run with just undertwo minutes left in the third.


Weber finished with 352 yards with three touchdown and twointerception on 21-of-37 passing. The redshirt freshman alsobroke the school record for touchdown passes in a season with24.


"This week we came in wanting to play for the seniors because weknew it was going to be their last game," Weber said. "Weplayed hard and we gave it all we had. We never gave up and wekept on fighting."