HUNTINGTON, W.Va. -- Wisconsin junior tailback P.J. Hill loves the Badgers' no-frills, run-oriented offense, which he makes sound so simple when he explains it.

However, it is anything but simple to stop.

"We're not that fancy of a team,'' Hill told (Madison, Wis.) Capital Times columnist Mike Lucas. "We're a straight I-formation and a run-the-ball-at-'em kind of team. We want to be more physical than our opponent -- and we want to beat on them for four quarters.

"I love the formations we run out of. It's just hard-nosed football -- bigger bodies on smaller bodies equals more force.''

Wisconsin ran for 404 yards and four touchdowns on 63 carries in a 38-17 win over Akron last weekend. Hill had 210 yards and two scores on 26 carries.

Hill and No. 11 Wisconsin (1-0) will welcome Marshall (1-0) into 80,321-seat Camp Randall Stadium on Saturday at noon.

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ONE HAS to wonder whether Rick Minter dusted off his game films from 1999.

It was in that season that Marshall's first-year defensive coordinator helped Cincinnati upset No. 9 Wisconsin.

The Bearcats' head coach at the time, Minter led his team to a 17-12 home win over the Badgers.

"In such a huge environment against a team of that caliber, things have to fall right for you, but it has been done before, as I well know," said Minter, whose team also dropped a 28-25 overtime heartbreaker to No. 4 Wisconsin at Camp Randall Stadium the next season. "We're looking forward to it. It's going to be a great venue for our guys. It's fun and challenging all at the same time.

"This challenge is huge in the sense of the talent and the size and the productivity and the history and the home crowd. All of those things fair well for them. But we can't get caught up in that. Our guys obviously look forward to the challenge. It's more about us than it is about them."

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JOHN SHANNON is a hit among the Thundering Herd players, who appreciate his aggressive style.

Instead of taking a knee with 35 seconds remaining in the second quarter of its season opener against Illinois State last weekend, Marshall's first-year offensive coordinator called for redshirt freshman quarterback Mark Cann to throw a deep bomb to senior wide receiver Darius Passmore.

The result was a momentum-changing 88-yard touchdown that snapped a 7-7 tie and lifted the Thundering Herd to a 35-10 win.

"The offensive coordinator we have, that's not even his mindset," Passmore said of taking a knee and killing the clock. "He's in attack mode all the time, no matter how many seconds are left."

Some wondered whether that play would have been called in that situation last year, when Larry Kueck was Marshall's offensive coordinator.

Shannon, however, didn't think twice.

"That's me," he said. "I like to play the game. However many snaps I have got, let's try to take advantage of them. You got a big field. You got 11 players. Let's try to get out there and make some plays."

Don't expect Shannon to alter his approach against Wisconsin, which is a double-digit favorite entering the teams' non-conference game.

"If I played your pee-wee team," Shannon said, "I would be the same way."

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THE BIG Ten Network, which is available to DirecTV and Dish Network satellite subscribers and Comcast, Time Warner and Charter cable systems, will televise the game.

Fans also can listen to it on the radio at 93.7 FM in Huntington-Charleston or 107.3 FM in Charleston. It also will be available on XM satellite radio on Channel 231.

The university's student radio station, WMUL, also will broadcast live from Camp Randall Stadium starting at 10:30 a.m. Saturday. Fans can listen on the radio at 88.1 FM in Huntington or online at www.marshall.edu/wmul/sports.