Who knew Barry Alvarez had dance moves? (If that’s what those are.)

But who can blame the Badgers for their enthusiasm after their unexpected 34-31 overtime Outback Bowl win over Auburn Thursday? (The dance moves followed Alvarez’s getting the ice-water bath at the end of his ESPN2 postgame interview.)

You’ve read or heard the two phrases “It’s better to be lucky than good” and “people make their own luck.” The Badgers were the beneficiaries of one of those in being able to overcome Joel Stave’s three interceptions and, other than Stave’s win-or-die fourth-down completion on their last drive of regulation, underwhelming play-calling and execution on their last two drives of the game.

One of my Theories of Football is that head coaches who come from the defensive side (that is, former defensive coordinators or defensive position coaches) are more conservative in a football sense than coaches that come from the offensive side. That might explain the Badgers’ try-not-to-lose approach after Stave’s first-down pass and in the overtime, though it seemed to me that the Badgers called too many passes and demonstrated poor clock management at the end of regulation.

Apparently Alvarez doesn’t see it that way, based on Jeff Potrykus‘ reporting:

Three times Alvarez decided to roll the dice on fourth down and all three times the Badgers converted in their 34-31 overtime victory over Auburn on Thursday in the Outback Bowl.

In chronological order:

■Corey Clement gained 2 yards on fourth and 1 from the Auburn 40 in the second quarter with UW trailing, 14-7.

That conversion turned out to be fruitless, however, because quarterback Joel Stave threw his second of three interceptions.

■Melvin Gordon ripped off a 53-yard touchdown run on fourth and 1 from the UW 47 with the Badgers trailing, 17-14, late in the third quarter.

■ With 56 seconds left in regulation, UW faced fourth and 5 from the Auburn 33. With the Badgers trailing, 31-28, Alvarez had the choice of rolling the dice one more time or letting freshman Rafael Gaglianone, who had made his last 13 field-goal attempts, try a 50-yard attempt.

Alvarez, who saw UW convert 11 of 15 fourth-down chances entering Thursday, gambled.

“It was a tough kick,” Alvarez said. “Quite frankly, I wanted to go for the win.

“We’re playing with a guard (Kyle Costigan) who’s got a leg he is dragging for an entire half. I didn’t know how much longer he would go.

“I just didn’t want to take a chance with a kick and go into overtime when we had a chance. If we can get a first down we can go in and have a shot to win and we had a shot.”

Stave hit tight end Sam Arneson for a 7-yard gain to the 26 keep the drive alive.

What was Arneson’s reaction when the decision was made to eschew the field-goal attempt and go for the first down?

“If we don’t get it,” Arneson said smiling “it’s a tough way to go. But it’s the confidence this team had today.”

If you had the steamroller that is UW’s rushing offense, why would you not go for it on fourth and up to 4 yards? Particularly on Thursday, when the number of times Auburn’s rushing defense stopped UW was few.

Regardless of that, UW’s play-calling issues were not as bad as Auburn’s, which proved fatal in the overtime, reports Joel A. Erickson:

A high-flying offense held in check by its own mistakes, a defense unable to slow down an elite opponent and a baffling set of plays in overtime led to Daniel Carlson‘s missed field goal bouncing off the post and handing the Tigers a 34-31 loss at the hands of Wisconsin in the Outback Bowl. …

Marshall’s arm, as it has more than a few times this season, got a struggling Auburn running game untracked — he finished 15-of-22 for 217 yards and two scores — and when Cameron Artis-Payne powered over the goal line for the go-ahead score with 2:55 left, the Tigers had a 31-28 lead.

But a defense already in the middle of transition — a defense that cost coordinator Ellis Johnson his job and gave way to Will Muschamp — couldn’t seal the win, instead making a couple of mistakes that have become all too characteristic for Auburn this season: a 15-yard penalty by Frost on a late hit, and a 7-yard completion from Stave to tight end Sam Arneson on 4th-and-5. …

Auburn chose to put its struggling defense on the field first in overtime.

And the Tigers came up with a stop, forcing another Gaglianone field goal to give Wisconsin a 34-31 lead and Auburn a chance to win the game with a touchdown.

On the sideline, the Tigers’ offense was all thinking the same thing.

“I expected us to score,” Ricardo Louis said. “We just couldn’t finish.”

Auburn’s offense, which had piled up 452 yards to that point and repeatedly dented Wisconsin’s defense with the pass, instead kept it conservative.

A run to Artis-Payne, who finished with 128 yards, went for a 2-yard loss. A tunnel screen to Coates picked up nothing.

And on 3rd-and-12, Malzahn ordered a questionable trick play, a double pass from Uzomah to Marshall that went for a 1-yard loss, setting up Carlson’s missed 45-yard field goal.

“The thought process is, we were thinking we’d possibly get man,” [coach Gus] Malzahn said. “We were trying to win the game, we were setting it up earlier, and sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t.”

One thing that can be said today is that the Big Ten has unified the state of Alabama by ending their two teams’ seasons. The one that gets more national notice, of course, is Alabama’s 42-35 national semifinal loss to Ohio State, which Al.com calls “humiliating.”

In fact, if you believe Ohio State coach Urban Meyer and Kevin Scarbinsky, the Outback Bowl win led to the Sugar Bowl win:

How do you convince your players that they can beat Alabama when most analysts and experts have told them they can’t?

You watch a Big Ten team you dominated beat an SEC team that made Alabama sweat.

Urban Meyer said Ohio State’s 42-35 victory over Alabama in the playoff semifinal Thursday night was made possible, in part, by Wisconsin’s 34-31 overtime win over Auburn in the Outback Bowl earlier in the day.

“There’s a perception out there” that Ohio State isn’t as good as Alabama, Meyer said. “I’ll tell you when I think the tide turned a little bit – when Wisconsin beat Auburn. Everybody on our team knew that. I made sure they knew that.”

Meyer said Ohio State was at its pregame meal when Wisconsin finished off Auburn. He said he mentioned it to his players then and again during a highlight video they watched before getting on the buses to head to the Superdome.

Ohio State had beaten Wisconsin 59-0 in the Big Ten Championship Game. Auburn had rolled up a ton of yards and points in a 55-44 loss to Alabama in the Iron Bowl.

If Wisconsin could beat Auburn, why couldn’t Ohio State beat Alabama?

Or, put another way by Facebook:

So the Paul Chryst era begins on a good note. Chryst’s challenge will be to get better quarterback play, whether from Stave, Bart Houston, D.J. Gillins or someone not currently on the roster. Chryst’s previous work with Scott Tolzein and Russell Wilson should make one optimistic. Finding better receivers will be helpful too.

Finally, if you’re near an Outback Steakhouse today, run in and get your free coconut shrimp, courtesy of the Badgers.