Wisconsin

Wisco Wednesday: The Badgers are Down Bad

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Mordecai went down. The defense gave up only 13, but the offense couldn’t score. Wisconsin is way behind schedule in Fickell’s year 1. 

Fickell’s first season as HC had 1 very clear and attainable goal. Win the division in the last year of its existence, and build on that success heading into 2024. The Badgers were supposed to win the West, not join the chaos. Turns out that when pundits and fans say the B1G West is bad, that includes Wisconsin. We can make excuses about the one big run Iowa had (the only TD of the game), or how the QB went down. But to put it simply: Wisconsin got owned by a team with the worst offense in America. 

Now they need to put the pieces back together and get ready for a 2 game stretch that could really take the season off the rails and into a bottomless canyon. Too hyperbolic? Fine, but Illinois is in the ultimate look ahead spot. Everyone’s looking at the OSU game in 2 weeks when the team needs to be focused on not letting Bielema beat them for the 2nd year in a row. 

The season can go in 2 very …

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Wisco Wednesday: Might the Badgers Actually be Good? 

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Still undefeated all time vs. Rutgers. The first team to 15 points wins this week. Mordecai can run now?

The Badgers play the Iowa Hawkeyes on Saturday. It’s easily the most important game of the season. I know they play Ohio State too, but no one is expecting Fickell to win that game, and that’s okay. The Iowa game matters the most for showing improvement from last year and for how the B1G West is going to shake out. But first, let’s go back and look at some of the keys to the homecoming win over Rutgers. 

Looking Back: Great Defense, Poor Passing, Terrible Snaps.

Rutgers 13
Wisconsin 24

Ricardo Hallman

Give Ricardo his flowers, he had a hell of a game. The 95 yard pick-six couldn’t have come at a better time. It was near the end of the 2nd quarter, and Rutgers still had some life. They drove down the field, were at the 5, and expected to score. That would’ve made it a 3 point game going into halftime. 

Instead, it’s 17-0. All the wind left Rutgers’ sails. Hallman effectively ended the game. 

On top of his INT, Hallman played well for the entire game. He was …

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Wisco Wednesday: Homecoming, There’s No Way Bucky Can Screw Up a Party

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What’s a Peacock? Iowa won with Wisco’s leftovers. Rutgers for Homecoming, maybe not my first choice.

Watch out Rutgers, this Wisconsin team had an extra week to prepare and isn’t satisfied with their results so far. They may be itching to make an example of someone. And Badgers, this isn’t the same old Rutgers, watch out. This is only Wisconsin’s second conference game of the season, but it’s their first opponent out of the East. Later on, I’ll talk about some East teams doing very well right now, but this is Wisconsin’s opportunity to prove the West isn’t all bad. If they get the win, they will double the West’s win total over their Eastern counterparts 

Looking Back: Wisco’s Week Off

Want to Read about the Purdue Game?

Check out last week’s Wisco Wednesday.  We covered the Purdue game (Boiler Down!) as well as other games that Badger fans might have had an interest in in week 4.

Bucky was on vacation,

And so is our looking back segment. Move on to the next part to read about what happened in the B1G last weekend.

Around College Football: 

Iowa fans, it’s time to panic.

Many of you likely didn’t watch …

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Wisco Wednesday: Time for a Break

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Wisconsin is the Lord of the Flies. Purdue wasn’t much of a threat. The Best QBs in the B1G are out West.

The Badgers handled business on Friday night, time for a long break before Homecoming. With next weekend being a bye week, I won’t have a game preview at the end of this week’s Wisco Wednesday. Also, I don’t have as much to say about the Purdue game as previous games this season. I think most of us have an idea of who the Badgers are right now; we just want to see consistent improvement now. 

With that in mind, this will be a shorter Wisco Wed piece. Without further introduction, let’s get into it. 

Looking Back: Offense is improving faster than Defense

Wisconsin 38
Purdue 17

WOF attended the game in West Lafayette last Friday, and it was a fantastic experience. 

The cliff notes: Ross-Ade was great, the massive video board put NFL stadiums’ to shame, the fans around town were super nice, selling beer in the stadium is great, Purdue fans stand more and are louder than Wisconsin fans (recently), and Badger fans travel well.

Shout out to Lana from Colorado who tailgated with us. 

Long Live

…

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Wisco Wednesday: Ready or Not, Here Comes B1G Football

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So how about that Defense? At least the “No Turnovers” streak is over.

Ready or not should be the expression of the week. Wisconsin has better players than Purdue. But, based on what we saw over the first 3 weeks, the Badgers do not look ready to go on the road in conference. 

Looking Back: A Jekyll and Hyde Defense. Yards and Turnovers.

Georgia Southern 14
Wisconsin 35

BUCKY GOT A TURNOVER! WOO!

They actually got 6!

The streak has ended. After 2 games without a turnover, Wisconsin got six. But, were they earned? Kind of? All 6 turnovers were on Georgia Southern QB, Davis Brin, and I think he deserves blame more than Wisconsin deserves credit. Some were bad throws because the Wisconsin D-Line was generating pressure, and some were just bad throws. 

Brin threw 5 picks and fumbled once. Watching the game, most of the picks were thrown right to Badger defenders. They didn’t so much “make a play on the ball,” it was more “they caught the ball that hit their hands.”

So yeah, 6 turnovers is great, and it takes skill to catch INT’s and secure loose fumbles, but it wasn’t impressive. More so just something …

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Wisco Wednesday: How Will The Badgers Respond?

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I told them to run the ball, but they just wouldn’t listen. 

Last weekend was not a fun time to be a Badger fan. All that offseason excitement and optimism came crashing down as Wisconsin lost its 1st real game of the year. All due respect to Buffalo, but a lot of Madison viewed that as more of a preseason contest. There are more issues to clean up than fans were expecting. And I don’t think people realize, Washington State is just a good football team. You can’t make mistakes and beat a good football team. 

Looking Back: Slow starts and turnovers. A losing formula.

Wisconsin 22
Washington State 31

The stat sheet says Wisconsin won, but the score doesn’t.

Wisconsin had:

  • More Passing Yards
  • More Rushing Yards
  • More Yards Per Play
  • More Plays
  • More 1st downs
  • Half as many punts
  • Half as many penalties

BUT

They lost the turnover battle 3-0.

So regardless of all the other mistakes made, like not running in the first half, and not giving the ball to Braelon enough, the game was decided by turnovers. It’s plain and simple: don’t turn the ball over.

Bad 1st Half

The slow start was concerning. Wisconsin had …

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Wisco Wednesday: I Have Concerns

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Everything is different, yet nothing has changed. Run the damn ball.

Wisco Wednesday will have a consistent format for most of the season. I’ll start by looking back at what Wisconsin did the previous week. We might also touch on some other games that are of interest to Badger fans. Then, I’ll look ahead to the upcoming matchup of the week. That’s the plan; let’s see how it goes.

Looking Back: Where was the Air Raid?

Wisconsin 38
Buffalo 17

I think some lists are in order, to sum up what should’ve been an uneventful beatdown of a lesser team.

The bad:

  1. Wisconsin had 3 total pass attempts with over 15 air yards. The forward pass is an abomination.
  2. The 2 Mordecai INTs led to 7 Buffalo points (it should’ve been 10, Buffalo missed a 34 yard field goal after pick #1)
  3. Mordecai went 24/31 for 189 yards. That’s a paltry 6.1 YPA.
  4. Wisconsin had 0 sacks, 0 INT’s, and 0 Forced Fumbles.
  5. Wisconsin had 3 TFLs, Buffalo had 5. This wasn’t a good showing for our OL.
  6. Skyler Bell (WR) dropped the only long ball of the day. It would’ve been a 60 yard TD. 
  7. Jordan Turner (ILB) was
…

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Wisco Wednesday: Week 1 Preview

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Big Fick debuts vs. the Buffalo Bulls in Mad Town. The start of an era.

Not nearly as intimidating as the Bills, the Bulls are a middle of the road team in the Mid-American Conference that also resides in Buffalo, NY. There is a lot of interest in the new offense that Fickell is bringing to Madison. The Bulls should be a nice tune up/pseudo preseason game for the Badgers to work out the kinks of new offensive and defensive schemes.

  • Odds listed were taken from FanDuel at the time of writing.

Game Preview: Buffalo at (19) Wisconsin

Spread: 

Wisconsin -27.5

Over/Under:

54.5

Location:

Camp Randall – Madison, Wisconsin

Kickoff Time:

Saturday – 2:30 PM CT

TV Network:

FS1

Who are the Buffalo Bulls?

2022 Season:

  • Buffalo went 7-6 in 2022
  • They beat Georgia Southern in the Camellia Bowl to end the season.
  • They went 5-3 in the MAC East, taking 2nd in the division.
  • 66th in scoring defense, giving up 26.7 pts per game.
  • 64th in scoring offense, scoring 28.5 pts per game

The defense and offensive rankings can be a bit inflated because they played poor competition for most of the season. They threw the ball a bit …

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Wisco Wednesday: Post-Realignment Schedule Thoughts

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Oregon and Washington are in the B1G (in 2024). Time to rip up the current schedule plans.

I have some thoughts on future B1G schedules I want to touch on with the new additions to the B1G. I don’t think they are very extreme. But, there is likely to be some disagreement. This is a longer article that is a deep dive into schedule making (and how it’s impossible to please everyone). 

Schedule Demands Post Realignment

With Oregon and Washington being added to the B1G the schedule has to be redone, again. I have a couple of demands for the new schedule. They are all common sense, I think, but they should be said.

  1. Stay at 9 conference games. I fear that if the B1G goes to 10 conference games right now, most teams, including Wisconsin, will try to cancel their future, marquee, non-conference matchups. I do not want Wisconsin canceling their home-and-home series vs Alabama for 2024 and 2025. And, I want the B1G to continue playing big non-conference games in the future.
  2. Keep all 11 rivalries highlighted in the previous model, Flex Protect Plus, and keep Oregon vs Washington. This is likely a given, with one
…

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Wisco Wednesday: Luke Fickell is an Upgrade at Wisconsin

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How much better will Wisconsin be in 2023?

The badger state is full of excitement and anticipation. What will the new QB look like? What will the offense look like? Packer fans need to know what will happen now that Rodgers is gone. Oh, you were talking about the other football team going through massive changes in Wisconsin.  

The Badgers have the same questions mentioned above, and one more big one. Can Luke Fickell deliver the championships he has mentioned frequently since taking over the program? There’s a lot of unknown there, and it might take time for the program to be what Fickell is envisioning. When comparing Fickell to his predecessor, a more focused question would be: Can he win big games, the type of wins that have mostly eluded Wisconsin since Russell Wilson was under center?

Under previous coach Paul Chryst, the answer was mostly no. There was the Rose Bowl loss, no wins over Ohio State or Penn State, losses to Notre Dame and Alabama in marquee non-conference matchups, and 0 for 3 in Indianapolis in the B1G Championship game. It hurts a lot more when it’s laid out like that. Everyone liked Coach Dad.  …

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