Wisconsin football 2026

[adambr2]

You’d need to go back to about 1990 to the Lindy Infante/first year of Barry Alvarez era to find when the overall football product between the Packers and Badgers are both as bad as they’re going to be this year. Pretty depressing. 

[adambr2]

You know what I hate so much about Luke Fickell? He’s the kind of HC that sits on 2 timeouts and lets the clock run out with 30 seconds left in the half rather than force the opposing team to punt on 4th down because he’s happy that he’s only down 10.

[JosephC]

Penn State lost a huge chunk of their team and had played a complete joke schedule so far, so it was hard to tell what the Badgers were going to get.  But for some reason, earlier in the day, I got the feeling this would be a total blowout (probably a by-product of the humiliating Packer loss).  I'm impressed they are only down by 10.  Of course, they could come out in the second half and do what they did against Notre Dame, but we'll see about that.

[homer]

gah. that was a neat play call. too bad he dropped it 

[homer]

way to burn a timeout, PSU

[homer]

Punting here is dumb

[nate82]

Subtract the INT's and the Badgers maybe winning this game.

[nate82]

Wow! Way to redeem yourself there Harris!

[adambr2]

Is this really happening? Or they gonna blow it anyway?

[homer]

lol wut???

 

that was awesome

[adambr2]

That was a game saving defensive play if they hold on. 

[homer]

that was fun. Fickell is gonna get drunk tonight.

[nate82]

Defense looks legit.

[yourout]

Wow....did not see that coming.

[RedStickBrew]

56 minutes ago, nate82 said:

Defense looks legit.

Few more sacks would be nice. Otherwise it seems every position group has improved each game so far. 

[Jim French Stepstool]

From what I saw tonite (missed about a quarter & a half) it appeared to me about what I expected---UW couldn't run the ball w/the exception of Joseph occasionally getting loose, PSU therefore didn't need to overload the box, and because of that the short passes were going for very little. It looked like sometimes the short passing game was used to 'replace' the run, which usually only works for sufficient YAC yards vs bad teams. 

But the defense just kept getting them the ball back. I missed both PSU TDs but from what I understand one was a pick-6 & the other was like a 10-yd drive (I assume after a TO). So clearly the defense won them this game. The LBs have been really impressive before today, and now they did it on the road in a B10 game. And the secondary seems to play much better than the collective (lack of) experience. On the last PSU drive they mostly seemed to be right where they needed to be.

I would imagine the Penn State message boards are railing on their offense going into a shell late, but it really looked to me like more of a case of the UW defense just making play after play......after play. If I'm one of their fans I'm more upset about the defense allowing a TE to A) get wide open & B) run for about 50-60 yards (or whatever it was) after the catch. Had to be a major bust somewhere, but kudos to Joseph for keeping the play alive. And that was some kind of old-school stiff-arm by Harris.

IMO they'll have a tough time keeping the mistakes & turnovers---and losses--- to a minimum unless they can develop a better running game. Not to mention keeping Joseph healthy. But a great win, and you have to feel good for the kids.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Glad to see them pull that out. I have been wanting to see Fickell succeed. I'm pretty passive on the Badgers but I just don't think he's had great luck/support from the administration and unfortunate timing. I hope it was the start of good fortune for the program. 

[JosephC]

I fear it may be too little too late for Fickell,  There is a new sheriff in town, and no doubt he will want to hire his own head coach.  We'll see how the Badgers progress.  I don't want to take anything away from them, a Big 10 road win is a Big 10 road win.  But at the same time, we don't really know how good Penn State are.  They may just be a glorified Iowa State this year.  But again, if Wisconsin goes on the road and beats Iowa State, that's a pretty solid victory because Campbell turned them into a respectable program.

[homer]

I didn't realize Harris ran the last 30+ yards of his TD with one shoe missing.

[homer]

17 minutes ago, JosephC said:

I fear it may be too little too late for Fickell,  There is a new sheriff in town, and no doubt he will want to hire his own head coach.  We'll see how the Badgers progress.  I don't want to take anything away from them, a Big 10 road win is a Big 10 road win.  But at the same time, we don't really know how good Penn State are.  They may just be a glorified Iowa State this year.  But again, if Wisconsin goes on the road and beats Iowa State, that's a pretty solid victory because Campbell turned them into a respectable program.

If they get 8+ wins, he will most likely get another year at least. I think UW is conscious of the buyout $$. 

 

Wisconsin would owe Fickell either $6.48 million or 80% of his remaining total compensation under terms of his initial contract and additional compensation agreement — whichever is higher at the time he is fired. That original contract runs through March 31, 2030.

[nate82]

Have to say the WR's look to be the best they have had in a long time at least production wise.  Tyrell Henry looks like everything is clicking for him finally.  Hilton looks like he has taken that next step and Brooks also looks like he belongs as a WR.  Coleman also looks decent at times.  Coleman is the hard one to figure out of the group.  He has all the talent and size that you would want for a NFL WR but he hasn't put it together on the field yet.  

[Jimbo]

Glad I tuned in early the second half.  If I would have seen any of the first half, I would have turned it off for good.

 

[homer]

16 hours ago, nate82 said:

Have to say the WR's look to be the best they have had in a long time at least production wise.  Tyrell Henry looks like everything is clicking for him finally.  Hilton looks like he has taken that next step and Brooks also looks like he belongs as a WR.  Coleman also looks decent at times.  Coleman is the hard one to figure out of the group.  He has all the talent and size that you would want for a NFL WR but he hasn't put it together on the field yet.  

They aren't running a high school offense anymore. That might help.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

If the Badgers have a productive year, win 8 games and play a real bowl, it would be a mistake to fire Fickell. They have a really nice class coming of high school seniors this year. Kingston Allen is the best skill player Fickell has had. Predictably the fans haven't handled losing all that well after prolonged competitiveness and I've never really believed Fickell had much to do with all the losing. It was a storm long coming and the result of slow decay. Would have made more sense to fire him two years ago than now.

[tmwiese55]

Its clear the talent level is better than the last few years.   The D is perfectly fine.  Not the best non SEC/OSU D in the country it was before, but its perfectly solid/good.

Offense is still a work in progress. And in general if they could clean up the attention to detail, organizational, discipline stuff they could be perfectly ok. Which is all we're asking this year, just don't suck. I don't think they've fumbled a kick since ND which is big progress. Gotta clean up the turnovers, penalties, bad snaps etc next. As small of a thing as it is, the QB having to worry about the snap every play starts him a half second behind where he should be and it distracts his mind from what it should actually be on.     

That was big progress to pull that out, beat MSU and you're at 4-1.  Hopefully they don't give all that progress back by laying an egg this week.  As much as I don't think Fickell is good, steps are going in the right direction like was needed this year. Generally speaking, it would be best if he could get them back to the OK/fine/good level in the next few years and then work on some kind of transition out or take some other job. Much better than a mass firing overhaul situation.  My connections inside the program say its still a complete unprofessional, disorganized chaotic mess behind the scenes though.