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By Rick Eymer
Palo Alto Online Sports

Stanford defensive end Ben Gardner grew up devoted to Wisconsin football. On New Year's Day he'll be devoted to beating the Badgers.

Gardner was raised in Mequon, a town on Lake Michigan about 15 miles north of Milwaukee. Homestead High won the state Division I championship in Gardner's senior year, finishing with a 14-0 record.

On signing day, Gardner went with Stanford while teammate Shelby Harris signed with Wisconsin (he's no longer there).

"We took a lot of hypothetical questions about meeting in the Rose Bowl," Gardner said. "People didn't really expect it to happen. In fact, they laughed about it."

Gardner hopes to get the last laugh, as the Cardinal goes against Wisconsin in this year's Rose Bowl, a rematch of the 2000 Rose Bowl, in which Stanford lost, 17-9.

Both schools changed coaches since that game, though Wisconsin changed back after current coach Bret Bielema took a job with Arkansas. Former coach Barry Alvarez, the guy who beat the Cardinal 13 years ago, will return to the sidelines to coach the unranked Badgers when they face No. 8 Stanford on New Year's Day.

"I'm very excited about coming back," said Alvarez, the school's athletic director. "This will be one game. I'm not looking to do it any longer than one game."

David Shaw is Stanford's fourth coach since Tyrone Willingham led Stanford into the 2000 Rose Bowl, with current radio analyst Todd Husak as his quarterback.

The Cardinal is still looking for its first Rose Bowl since 1972, when the late Don Bunce led Stanford past Michigan.

"Before you're aware of any other bowl game there's the Rose Bowl," Stanford linebacker Shayne Skov said. "The Rose Bowl is the premiere bowl game. I grew up watching it."

Cardinal linebacker Trent Murphy said this game was the goal from the moment he committed to Stanford.

"We wanted to win title and go to bowl games," Murphy said. "This was our mission statement from the beginning."

Stanford (11-2) qualified for the Rose Bowl game when it shut out No. 17 UCLA in the fourth quarter en route to a 27-24 victory in the Pac-12 championship game at Stanford Stadium last Friday night.

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