During a team meeting on Friday night, University of Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema did something different and called down the 16 departing seniors to stand in front of the rest of their teammates.

"Have our team look at them and realize how many good football players were standing up there and how much good football they've played for us," Bielema said. "To not send them out on a winning note would be a crime we didn't want to commit."

The get-away car had the engine running and the perpetrators from Cal Poly were ready to pull off the crime, before the Badgers escaped with a 36-35 overtime victory Saturday at Camp Randall Stadium.

It took three missed extra points by Mustangs junior kicker Andrew Gardner, the last coming in overtime, for the Badgers to finish the regular season 7-5 and likely get a trip to the Insight Bowl in Tempe, Ariz., Dec. 31.

The Mustangs (8-2) came in ranked third in the Football Championship Subdivision, with a tricky triple-option offense mostly seen at the high school level.

After a 25-yard touchdown pass from Jonathan Dally to Ramses Barden on the first play of overtime, Gardner clanked his second one off the right upright.

The Badgers capitalized on three straight runs by redshirt freshman John Clay, who scored on a 6-yard dash around left end, running through a tackler for the final 2 yards. When Philip Welch booted the point after, it prevented the Badgers from what would have been perceived nationally as an embarrassing loss.

"We're not surprised this football team came in here and played well and had a chance to win," Cal Poly coach Rich Ellerson said. "We're disappointed it didn't win. I'm not sure what history will say but that's how we feel."

The reason the Badgers made it into overtime was because of fourth-year junior quarterback Dustin Sherer. It was fitting because Sherer came in with many of the seniors, including the three starters in the offensive line.

"My class, there's a lot of good football players in it," Sherer said. "To see those guys go, it is emotional. When (Bielema) pulled them up in front, you kind of realized to yourself, we're losing some pretty special people."

Thanks to its running game, Cal Poly held the ball for 39 minutes, 59 seconds. It ran 75 plays, to 54 for the Badgers.

"They ate the clock up," said UW receiver Nick Toon, who caught a 26-yard touchdown pass from Sherer on a deflection in the second quarter. "It's tough to put points up and it's tough to not get that many plays. You just have to make use of the ones you do get."

That's what Sherer did, completing 13-of-22 for 245 yards. He led touchdown drives of 73, 80 and 89 yards, lasting 28 seconds, 1:17 and 2:18.

"We knew we had to make the most of every possession we got because we weren't going to have much," Sherer said.

In the third quarter, the Badgers ran eight offensive plays and trailed 23-14. That's when Sherer found David Gilreath for a 49-yard completion, setting up P.J. Hill's 10-yard TD run.

But UW's defense was having trouble stopping the Mustangs, who threw for 95 yards but still managed 276 on the ground.

The situation looked dire for UW when James Noble scored on a 2-yard run midway through the fourth quarter to put Cal Poly ahead 29-21, with Gardner missing wide right on the PAT.