FB: Wisconsin absolutely humiliated at home by Maryland

What was The Rock's finishing move again? Not the People's Elbow, the other one.

On what appeared to be a pleasant enough day in Madison, the Wisconsin Badgers football team pissed and shit in their pants for three hours at Camp Randall Stadium while the Maryland Terrapins pointed and laughed. The Terps embarrassed the Badgers by a 27-10 final score, but that 17-point margin was nowhere near indicative of the absolute ass-kicking Maryland administered.

Last week, after Wisconsin was supremely out-classed on the road by Alabama, I wrote that the game against Maryland was the most important one in Luke Fickell’s tenure as head coach. It was presumably the only game the rest of the way where UW would be favored and if the Badgers wanted to improve on last year’s five wins and get to a bowl game, they HAD to have this one.

See for yourself:

Is this where we all expected to be in Year 3 of Luke Fickell? Staring down an absolutely-no-doubt-about-it-100%-must-win game at home against fucking Maryland? Offense intended, Terps.

I feel like the following should now be the median Wisconsin fan’s take: Luke Fickell’s seat is merely warm at this moment but it gets turned up to blazing hot if Maryland comes in to Madison and leaves with a win. The only way UW potentially makes a bowl game this year is if they beat Maryland. The only way you don’t have a complete fan revolt that results in Iowa and Ohio State having more support at Camp Randall than Wisconsin is if they beat Maryland. Honestly, the only way we aren’t in the midst of another coaching search in a couple of months is if they beat Maryland.

Hope the Badgers have a good week of practice!

While I was not in attendance at any Wisconsin football practices this past week I think I have a good guess on how they went.

However, I don’t know if Wisconsin could’ve asked for a better start to the game than the one they got. UW gained 50 yards on their first two plays from scrimmage, including QB Billy Edwards Jr. (returning from his Week 1 injury to play against his former team) hitting WR Trech Kekahuna for 45 yards to set up a first down deep into Maryland territory. The drive sputtered from there and then the nearly automatic K Nathaniel Vakos came out to put the Badgers up 3-0.

About that…Vakos had his attempt blocked and the Badgers wouldn’t get that close to scoring for the rest of the first half. Maryland, on the other hand, managed to get close to scoring so often in the first half that they actually DID score a few times. Fickell and co. jogged off the field for halftime, boos and “FIRE FICKELL” chants raining down upon them, with the Terps up 20-0 and Wisconsin quite frankly lucky to be that close. This makes it two out of three home games this season where the Badgers left the field at halftime to loud booing.

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I think we now have more than enough evidence to see that Luke Fickell is not the right man to be the head coach at Wisconsin. Let’s break it down a little bit anyways though!

First up, what exactly does Fickell even DO for the team? He doesn’t call plays or coach a position group. He isn’t out on the road recruiting a bunch (because head coaches usually aren’t brought in until it’s time to close) nor is he a prolific interview-giver or face of the program type coach.

Given that you’d expect him to be a “CEO-style” coach who is in charge of the big picture stuff and getting the team fired up for every game. Well, uh, if that’s the case…he fucking SUCKS at it! Slow starts and sloppy play have been hallmarks of Fickell’s tenure in Madison and I’d argue that this is now the third (out of three!) seasons where his team has quit on him. I am also struggling to name a player who has noticeably improved under Fickell’s watch. LB Darryl Peterson maybe? WR Vinny Anthony?

Do you want to guess how many points Wisconsin has scored in the first quarter through four games this year? Three! Wisconsin hasn’t scored in the first quarter in any of their last three games!! They are averaging under one point per first quarter this season!!! Wisconsin is being outscored 51-17 in the first half this year and have looked unimpressive in the first 30 minutes of every single game!!!!

Look at this disgusting shit:

• leading Miami (Ohio) 3-0 at halftime

• leading Middle Tennessee State 14-10 at halftime

• down 21-0 against Alabama at halftime

• down 20-0 against Maryland at halftime

That is either entirely on the head coach who is in charge of getting the team mentally prepared for the game OR the head coach, who we’ve already established doesn’t call plays or coach a position group, doesn’t do anything. I honestly don’t know which option is worse.

Fickell’s record at Wisconsin sits at 15-15 overall (8-11 Big Ten) and, it must be noted, is only at .500 because he received credit for the 2022 Guaranteed Rate Bowl win in which he wasn’t actually coaching. He came to Wisconsin with the goal of “competing for championships.” I’m assuming he didn’t mean Guaranteed Rate Bowl ones but that’s the only one he has AND HE WASN’T EVEN REALLY THE COACH YET!

His best win remains the 2023 victory at Minnesota, who finished the year with a losing record, and he has only beaten two teams (Rutgers twice lol) that have ended the year with a winning record. He hasn’t won a conference game since Oct. 19, 2024 and hasn’t won a conference game at home since Oct. 5, 2024. The Badgers have a bye next weekend and then the actual difficult part of their schedule starts! As of me writing this sentence at 8:36 p.m. CT Saturday night, UW now faces:

• at No. 21 Michigan

• vs. Iowa

• vs. No. 1 Ohio State

• at No. 6 Oregon

• BYE

• vs. Washington

• at No. 19 Indiana (currently blowing the doors off of Illinois)

• vs. No. 9 Illinois

• at Minnesota

If I set the over/under on remaining wins for Wisconsin at 1.5, would you feel confident taking the over? I sure as shit wouldn’t!

Athletic Director Chris McIntosh (who has to be fired before Fickell because there is zero chance I trust McIntosh to hire the new football coach) spoke with reporters after the game and gave Fickell the "Dreaded Vote of Confidence” which almost always foretells a coach losing his job. "I think it's a time for me to express my support,” McIntosh said.

The article goes on to say:

McIntosh acknowledged the fans' sentiment, saying, "Apathy is worst case, and so we're far from that." He also said he isn't concerned about his job security. McIntosh is under contract through June 2029.

"I don't think there's anyone in the building that thinks that where we are at this moment in time right now, this is what Wisconsin football is," he said Saturday. "... I'll come back to what I said earlier: What's left to be done about that? What's left to be done about that is to learn from what happened on a day like today and grow."

McIntosh shouldn’t be as confident as he is about how far away “fan apathy” is from the program and he definitely shouldn’t be as confident as he is vis a vis his job security.

This is obviously anecdotal, but I had two friends, both of whom have had season tickets for the Badgers as alumni, not watch the Maryland game because they wanted to go golfing instead. My various Wisconsin group chats are now mostly filled with gallows humor and Remembering Some Guys. Season ticket sales are plummeting and I can’t wait until the end of the year when we get the “tickets scanned” numbers because the upper deck has looked awfully sparse this year.

McIntosh’s tenure as athletic director is irrevocably tied to Fickell’s success as head football coach and there is no scenario I can fathom where one of them stays if the other goes. Combine that with his misfires with the women’s basketball team, both on and off the court, a mediocre two-year run for men’s hockey, and you have the picture of a guy who is in over his head. To his credit (???) however, he has been smart enough to leave women’s hockey, men’s basketball, and volleyball alone.

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Oh yeah, the rest of the game against Maryland! It was bad. Let’s break it down a little bit anyways though!

• Wisconsin had a punt blocked

• Vakos was 1-of-3 on field goals

• Danny O’Neil threw another interception

• Maryland had 10 tackles for loss and six sacks

• on 2nd-and-3 from the Terps 43-yard line near the end of the first quarter the ball was snapped over RB Dilin Jones’ head and recovered by Jones 23 yards behind the line of scrimmage; two plays later Wisconsin had their punt blocked

• Wisconsin averaged 1.5 yards per rush; if you remove yards lost via sack they still only rushed for 3.1 yards per carry

• Wisconsin was 3-of-17 on third down

• I thought the defense was solid for most of the game but they were routinely put in adverse situations by the offense and special teams. Freshman LB Mason Reiger looks like he could be a Dude.

• RB Dilin Jones, QB Billy Edwards, and QB Danny O’Neil left the game with injuries; O’Neil’s was particularly concerning because he clearly got hurt, Fickell left him in for two more plays, and then he got absolutely destroyed by a Maryland defender and laid prone on the ground. I think personnel management falls under the purview of the CEO Head Coach, no?

• Third string QB Hunter Simmons looked sharp in garbage time! 7-of-9 for 70 yards and a touchdown? Get him some more reps in practice during the bye week!

• TE Lance Mason continued his impressive season with five catches for 45 yards and a score.

• What the hell was WR Jayden Ballard thinking on punt coverage when he steamrolled the Maryland returner with the ball nowhere near him? Brain-dead stuff from a team whose brain trust hasn’t proven to be up to any challenge.

• The offensive line was terrible.

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Fickell’s insane buyout (somewhere north of $25 million) makes his firing unlikely because, uh, UW boosters don’t have that kind of cash. Outside of some off-field scandal I think we’re stuck with Fickell until, at minimum, the end of the year. That doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be fired, though, because he very much should be keeping Indeed dot com up on his web browser.

I can smell what Luke Fickell is cooking and it is gross, brother.

Luke Fickell is a bad football head coach and I really wish he wasn’t employed by my alma mater. Wisconsin under Fickell keeps finding new depths of rock bottom and I shudder to think of where we’ll all be at the end of the season.

WBB: Wisconsin's opponents for Daytona Beach Classic announced

The Badgers will face Ole Miss and James Madison in Florida over Thanksgiving.

After releasing their non-conference schedule a few weeks ago, everything was all set up for Wisconsin women’s basketball to begin the season. Everything except their Thanksgiving week opponents in the Daytona Beach Classic that is! Well, fret not dear reader because the Badgers have two opponents now and they are:

• Ole Miss Rebels

• James Madison Dukes

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Here is a brief preview of those two teams.

• Friday, Nov. 28 vs. Ole Miss Rebels

  • 2024-25 record: 22-11 overall; 10-6 SEC

    • PPG: 75.3 (34th nationally)

    • OPPG: 59.1 (53rd)

  • 2024-25 Her Hoops Stats rating: 15th

    • HHS ORtg: 111.2 (24th)

    • HHS DRtg: 78.9 (13th)

  • Head coach: Yolett McPhee-McCuin (8th year at Ole Miss)

  • Returning starters (1):

    • Sira Thienou (6-foot-1, guard, SO); 33 games played (23 starts), 25.5 mpg, 10.5 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 1.9 apg, 2.4 spg, 49.6% FG/36.5% 3P/67.1% FT

  • Starters lost (4): Starr Jacobs; Tameiya Sadler; Madison Scott; Kennedy Todd-Williams

  • Transfers out (7)/Transfers in (8)

    • Denim DeShields (Mississippi State; SR; 5-foot-5; point guard)

    • Desrae Kyles (Central Michigan; SO; 6-foot-5; center)

    • Latasha Lattimore (Virginia; GR; 6-foot-4; F/C)

    • Cotie McMahon (Ohio State; SR; 6-foot-0; wing)

    • Jayla Murray (Wichita State; GR; 6-foot-0; forward)

    • Kaitlin Peterson (UCF; GR; 5-foot-9; guard)

    • Debreasha Powe (Mississippi State; GR; 6-foot-1; wing)

    • Tianna Thompson (Georgia Tech; SO; 5-foot-10; guard)

  • Players from Wisconsin (0): smdh

• Saturday, Nov. 29 vs. James Madison Dukes

  • 2024-25 record: 30-6 overall; 18-0 Sun Belt

    • PPG: 73.1 (50th nationally)

    • OPPG: 63.5 (136th)

  • 2024-25 Her Hoops Stats rating: 57th

    • HHS ORtg: 103.6 (69th, nice)

    • HHS DRtg: 85.7 (44th)

  • Head coach: Sean O’Regan (10th year at James Madison)

  • Returning starters (3):

    • Ashanti Barnes (6-foot-2, forward, GR); 35 games played (34 starts), 26.2 mpg, 10.3 ppg, 7.9 rpg, 2.0 apg, 0.5 bpg, 46.2% FG/25.0% 3P/65.3% FT

    • Peyton McDaniel (6-foot-0, guard, RS SR); 36 games played (35 starts), 31.8 mpg, 16.0 ppg, 8.3 rpg, 1.2 apg, 1.7 spg, 43.8% FG/33.5% 3P/84.5% FT

    • Zakiya Stephenson (5-foot-4, guard, JR); 36 games played (35 starts), 23.8 mpg, 4.5 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 3.0 apg, 1.2 spg, 30.7% FG/22.8% 3P/75.8% FT

  • Starters lost (2): Jamia Hazell; Kseniia Kozlova

  • Transfers out (3)/Transfers in (3)

    • Kylie Marshall (SMU; SO; 5-foot-11; guard)

    • Brianna McLeod (SMU; RS JR; 6-foot-3; forward)

    • Regina Walton (Elon; SR; 5-foot-4; point guard)

  • Players from Wisconsin (0): smdh

These are two very solid programs that will be great measuring stick games for a new-look Wisconsin team. Ole Miss upset Baylor in the NCAA Tournament to make it to the Sweet 16 (where they lost to UCLA) last year while James Madison went undefeated in Sun Belt play in the regular season, but fell to Arkansas State in the conference title game. That left them out of the NCAA Tournament, but they won a pair of games in the WBIT before getting their doors blown off by Belmont in the quarterfinals.

You can find a breakdown of all Wisconsin’s other non-conference opponents in this post right here!

FB: I don't know what I expected

Wisconsin traveled to SEC country for their final non-conference game and got stomped out by Alabama.

I opened my laptop on Sunday morning and my partial game notes for Saturday’s Wisconsin/Alabama contest stared back at me. Despite watching the entire game, my game notes are “partial” because I slammed said laptop shut after the Crimson Tide scored their second touchdown because anyone who had ever watched either of these teams play before knew the game was over at that point.

The Badgers have now played the Tide in back-to-back seasons, once at Camp Randall Stadium and once at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Wisconsin lost both matchups, despite showing early promise of being able to pull off the upset maybe if things go exactly right for the final 80% of the game in both, and I’m not even sure if we learned anything useful from either game.

On paper, Alabama is a better team than Wisconsin. In the mind of the average college football fan, Alabama is a better team than Wisconsin. On the actual field, regardless of where it is located, Alabama is a better team than Wisconsin. We didn’t need one game, let alone two, to figure that out.

This was the dictionary definition of a “Dead Dove, Do Not Eat!” game.

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Last year at an electric Camp Randall, the Badgers received the opening kickoff against Alabama and were steadily marching down the field, quickly getting the ball to midfield. You may remember that the next play after reaching the 50-yard line was a Tyler Van Dyke scramble that resulted in a 15-yard defensive holding penalty to move UW into field goal range.

Oh yeah, Van Dyke also tore his ACL on that play and never played a down for the Badgers again.

For the second straight year Wisconsin lost their transfer starting QB to injury and we were all subjected to the Braedyn Locke Experience again. Just to remind you of what that was like, he took over for Van Dyke with 1st and 10 on the Alabama 35-yard line and moved Wisconsin all the way to the Alabama 35-yard line after going 1-of-3 passing for zero yards and a near interception on third down. Nathaniel Vakos kicked the 53-yard field goal and UW went up 3-0 though!

UW’s defense forced a missed field goal by Alabama and then Wisconsin’s running game started to churn out some yards. Seven yards, two yards, four yards and a first down, 11 yards and into Alabama territory! The first pass “attempt” of the drive resulted in a Locke sack and fumble (recovered by Wisconsin wooooo!) but two plays later he found Vinny Anthony for 13 yards which set up a 4th and 1 from the Bama 39-yard line.

Luke Fickell correctly decided to go for it and Phil Longo had Locke line up under center and fed it to a full back to gain a yard and keep Wisconsin’s drive and momentum going. Wait. Hold up. That’s not how that went at all!

Wisconsin lined up in shotgun and Tawee Walker was first hit three yards behind the line of scrimmage before valiantly making it back there for no gain and a turnover on downs. Watch here if you really hate yourself. It should go right to the play, but it’s at 3:33 of the clip if it doesn’t.

83 seconds later the Tide found the endzone to take a 7-3 lead that would eventually be a 21-3 halftime lead and then a 42-10 final score. A second quarter fumble by Chez Mellusi (after a 21-yard gain) led to Bama’s second touchdown and after a late second quarter missed field goal by Vakos, Bama took two plays and 17 seconds to go 73 yards for their third TD to wrap things up before intermission.

Now, I don’t go back to last year’s debacle just because I’m a masochist. I did it because, while Wisconsin technically did “better” against Alabama this season, the game still followed the same exact script!

UW received the opening kickoff on Saturday and steadily marched the ball into Alabama territory. However, Danny O’Neil’s 3rd-and-4 completion to Chris Brooks Jr. for a first down was called back because of offensive pass interference on Trech Kekahuna who very blatantly started to block/pick Brooks’ defender well before O’Neil threw the ball. On the ensuing 3rd-and-19, O’Neil was sacked and Wisconsin had to punt it away.

However, Wisconsin’s defense stopped Alabama on 4th-and-2 near midfield! That gave O’Neil and company the ball in plus territory to start!! Predictably, O’Neil threw an interception, where it looks like he was completely fooled by the defense Alabama was playing, on the first play of the drive and the Tide drove right down the field and scored a touchdown on a 4th-and-1 rush from the goal line to make it 7-0. You can’t be giving teams like Alabama re-dos because they rarely make the same mistakes twice.

It was 21-0 by halftime and 28-0 a mere 15 seconds into the second half. An impressive 95-yard kick return by Vinny Anthony got the Badgers on the board, but Alabama answered with another TD on the following drive. The game was figuratively over in the second quarter, but the final score ended up 38-14 in favor of the Crimson Tide.

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I often wait to write these posts so I am not a prisoner of the moment and just spew rage-filled expletives for 1,000 words. We are now 24 hours from kickoff of the game on Saturday and I’ve realized that I wasn’t even really “rage-filled” after the game. I knew how it was going to go. You knew how it was going to go. The only people who didn’t “know” were inside Wisconsin’s locker room and I’d imagine in they were given truth serum we’d hear a different answer.

We didn’t learn anything in the grand hierarchy of college football on Saturday. Alabama is still better than Wisconsin. That is an indisputable fact currently and I hate it. So what did we learn? (NSFW: language in Burn After Reading clip)

I doubt Wisconsin will schedule Alabama in football any time soon, so I suppose they’ve learned “not to do it again.” But otherwise? We’ve still learned very little about what Wisconsin is under Luke Fickell. They’ve yet to beat a ranked team with Fickell in charge and his record is only above .500 in Madison (15-14 overall, 8-10 Big Ten) due to a 2022 Guaranteed Rate Bowl victory where he was the head coach in name only.

He lost the only bowl game he’s made at Wisconsin and also presided over last year’s 5-7 abomination of a season that resulted in no bowl game for the first time in 23 seasons. The Badgers are in possession of zero of their three rivalry trophies and were straight up embarrassed in all three trophy game losses last year. He spent the first two years of his tenure trying to make the Phil Longo offense happen (which anyone with half a brain could’ve told you wasn’t going to work without a first round talent at QB) at Wisconsin and that square peg couldn’t even find the round hole, let alone fit in it.

To be fair, Fickell canned Longo during the season last year and hired Jeff Grimes (who has undoubtedly been better) as offensive coordinator, but that was still too late of a move. Mike Tressel’s defense has been better this year and they used the transfer portal to address their need of bigger bodies on the d-line, but Alabama just torched them through the air instead of the ground.

So where does that leave us?

Wisconsin delivered a better performance against Alabama this year but still got blown out. The team, in general, looks more “bought in” to whatever the coaches are selling (which IS important because last year’s team would’ve probably packed it in at halftime and not scored at all) this year but they’ve still lost their only difficult non-conference contest and took over half of the game to pull away from a dreadful Middle Tennessee State team at home. For the third straight year their transfer starting quarterback is injured and the offensive line is a mess. The defense seems alright but more in a top-10 in the conference way and not top-10 in the country way.

Is this where we all expected to be in Year 3 of Luke Fickell? Staring down an absolutely-no-doubt-about-it-100%-must-win game at home against fucking Maryland? Offense intended, Terps.

I feel like the following should now be the median Wisconsin fan’s take: Luke Fickell’s seat is merely warm at this moment but it gets turned up to blazing hot if Maryland comes in to Madison and leaves with a win. The only way UW potentially makes a bowl game this year is if they beat Maryland. The only way you don’t have a complete fan revolt that results in Iowa and Ohio State having more support at Camp Randall than Wisconsin is if they beat Maryland. Honestly, the only way we aren’t in the midst of another coaching search in a couple of months is if they beat Maryland.

Hope the Badgers have a good week of practice!

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Since this is already well over 1,000 words I’ll make my thoughts from the actual game quick and in bullet points.

• I thought Jeff Grimes called a good game on offense. It isn’t his fault that Alabama is more talented at every position.

• Wisconsin’s run defense was as stout as ever and I really liked how they defended in the trenches.

• Vinny Anthony is so dynamic on kick returns. I hate that I couldn’t even get excited over his touchdown because the game had been over for so long.

• After a great start to the season in the penalties committed department, the Badgers shot themselves in the foot multiple times against Alabama. The Kekahuna OPI was brutal as was the Mason Reiger roughing the passer penalty on a third down stop at the beginning of the second quarter. Alabama scored a 43-yard TD on the literal next play.

• Starting center Jake Renfro is banged up and probably will be the rest of the season. Kerry Kodanko is a disaster at center (one snap taken; one sack allowed) and can’t play there anymore.

• Offensive line play overall was substandard yet again. This contributed to the poor rushing numbers but I’m starting to wonder if the Badgers’ running backs room is as good as we thought before the season.

• QB Danny O’Neil looked very much like a young, backup quarterback in his first road start in an extremely hostile environment.

• Pass defense was putrid and Ty Simpson surgically picked them apart all game. Ricardo Hallman fancies himself an NFL-caliber player but got absolutely barbecued all afternoon by Alabama’s actual NFL-caliber receivers. This is a week after he couldn’t lock down MTSU’s wideouts who might not even make an All-Sun Belt team.

• Linebacker Tackett Curtis is an absurd athlete who plays hard on every snap but it seems like he is constantly out of position and unable to diagnose what the offense is running.

• LB Christian Alliegro continued his solid season with 4 tackles and a sack.

• A sign of how far Wisconsin has fallen in the opinion of other fan bases? There were hundreds and hundreds of visible empty seats in the upper deck of Bryant-Denny on TV. An SEC vs. Big Ten game, on campus, in the regular season should draw an over capacity crowd, but the Tide fans treated Wisconsin like Wisconsin treats Akron. Sad.

FB: a tale of two halves

The Badgers pulled away from the worst team in FBS football after halftime but the fact that it took them that long is, uh, concerning.

MADISON — The boos cascaded down on Luke Fickell and his staff as they trotted off the field at halftime Saturday afternoon, sporting an unimpressive and uninspiring 14-10 lead over Middle Tennessee State, and to say I wasn’t vociferously voicing my opinion along with them from my seat in section AA of Camp Randall Stadium would be a lie. UW, to their credit, made adjustments at halftime and scored 28 unanswered second half points to win the game, 42-10.

Wisconsin entered the game as 28.5-point favorites and for over 50% of the game it looked like they might not only fail to cover but fail to even win. The Blue Raiders were coming off a blowout loss to Austin Peay (an FCS team that went 4-8 last year) in their first game and the Badgers were probably hoping to have this wrapped up well before Jump Around. Well, the Badgers were down 3-0 after one quarter and then, with a chance to put things away at the end of the second quarter, Danny O’Neil tried to squeeze a pass to tailback Dilin Jones on some sort of tunnel screen situation and the ball bounced off of Jones’ hands and an offensive lineman’s butt into the welcoming arms of 300-pound Blue Raiders defensive lineman Damonte Smith.

Two plays later MTSU’s QB lofted a pass to Hunter Tipton for a touchdown to make the score 14-10. With one minute left, and all three timeouts remaining, the Badgers got the ball to their own 41 with 20 seconds left and then just…kind of went in to a hurry up offense and kind of just stood around looking confused and then the clock ran out. With Wisconsin’s roster containing the best kicker from 50-plus yards in program history, not trying to get into range to attempt a long-range bomb was baffling.

The confused and frustrated boos of Wisconsin’s crowd serenaded the Badgers into the locker room and only a nice halftime performance by the UW Marching Band turned everyone’s mood around. That vibe shift was short lived due to MTSU taking the second half kick and putting together a 12-play drive that had them at the Wisconsin 24-yard line with a 3rd-and-1 staring them in the face.

RB Jekail Middlebrook plunged ahead for a first down, but the refs went under the hood to take a look at the replay and decided that he was actually short of the line to gain. On 4th-and-1, MTSU gave it right back to Middlebrook and LB Christian Alliegro, with help from a few of his defensive friends, sliced into the backfield to stonewall Middlebrook and give Wisconsin the ball.

Darrion Dupree took the next play 14 yards to UW’s 39-yard line and then a beautifully designed reverse to slot receiver Trech Kekahuna went for 61 yards and a touchdown. In under a minute of game time things had completely flipped on their head and the Badgers, like Kekahuna on his touchdown, were off to the races.

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A supremely disappointing first half followed by an efficiently dominant second half? I love to watch an inconsistent football team! It’s actually my favorite thing to do!!

Danny Dimes dominates

In his first career start for the Badgers, backup quarterback Danny O’Neil threw for the most passing yards as a UW debutant since 1951. His trio of touchdown passes were the most since Graham Mertz’s magical 2020 debut vs. Illinois when he nuked the Illini with five scores through the air. O’Neil’s 85.2% completion rate was the best by a Wisconsin signal caller since Mertz recorded an 87.5% mark against Illinois State in 2022.

Here are his stats, because they are impressive to look at all at once:

• passing: 23-of-27, 85.2%, 283 yards, long of 58

• yards per attempt: 10.5

• adjusted yards per attempt: 11.04

• TD/INT: 3/1

• rushing: 3 attempts for 11 yards

• sacks: 0

• tackles: 1 (after his interception, which wasn’t his fault, but you absolutely love to see the QB hustling to stop a touchdown)

O’Neil was on time and on target with just about every pass he attempted and, quite frankly, it was a little jarring to see the backup quarterback come in and not have the offense look stuck in the mud. 10 different receivers were targeted (nine recorded receptions) on the game and three pass catchers had four or more receptions on the day, led by tight end Lance Mason (7 catches, 102 yards, 1 TD).

After a full week of practice as QB1, O’Neil looked more comfortable in the pocket and rarely needed to scramble all game. While there were maybe a few more horizontal passes than I would’ve liked, O’Neil was still able to air a couple out and hit transfer WR Jayden Ballard up the sideline, on a beautifully designed and executed play, for a 58-yard score.

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Getting Billy Edwards back under center will be paramount to Wisconsin reaching their ceiling this year, but O’Neil has pretty quickly proven that UW’s floor doesn’t fall at all with him in the game and, again, that’s a lot more than we can say for the past few years of backup QB play.

Offensive line reshuffled and you could certainly tell

After the Davis Heinzen disaster class at left tackle in Week 1, the Badgers needed to make some changes up front especially with a new quarterback starting. During practice in the week leading up to Saturday Heinzen was not with the first unit and that stayed the same on game day, but there was another surprise as starting center Jake Renfro was listed on the pregame injury report and didn’t suit up.

With UW down multiple Week 1 starting offensive linemen, the new starting five looked like this:

• LT Riley Mahlman (RT last week)

• LG Joe Brunner (same position, woooo!)

• C Kerry Kodanko (didn’t start last week)

• RG Colin Cubberly (didn’t start last week)

• RT Emerson Mandell (RG last week)

Let’s start with a little good news! O’Neil wasn’t sacked all game after being taken down three times in Week 1. And, uhhhhh, that’s about it for good news.

Kodanko struggled with snaps all game, including launching one over O’Neil’s head for a loss of 17 yards, MTSU finished the game with seven tackles for loss, and UW’s rushing attack was completely neutered in the first half going for 17 yards on 16 attempts. While things definitely improved in the second half, over half of UW’s rushing yards (78 of 153) came from wide receivers on reverses or jet sweeps.

Running backs Dilin Jones (10 rushes for 36 yards), Darrion Dupree (6 for 25), and Cade Yacamelli (4 for 15) found the sledding tough all afternoon and looking ahead to next week’s opponent (Alabama in case you forgot) you would be forgiven if you shuddered at the thought of their defensive line setting up shop in UW’s backfield.

A lot of offensive line play is about familiarity with the dude next to you and Wisconsin has basically none of that right now. Hopefully Renfro will be healthy enough to play against the Crimson Tide, but there will still be limited continuity between the Big Fellas up front and that can lead to miscommunications and negative plays.

Photo by 2025 David Stluka/Wisconsin Athletic Communications

Halftime adjustments!

Wisconsin looked bad in the first half and that falls squarely on the coaching staff (mainly Luke Fickell) failing to get the team mentally prepared to play from the opening kickoff. On no planet are there any teams this version of Wisconsin can “look past” and that line of thinking was only solidified by their meager four-point halftime lead against Middle Tennessee State on Saturday.

When the Blue Raiders methodically marched into UW’s territory to start the second half you could feel the uneasiness in the Camp Randall crowd. However, Alliegro’s big fourth down stop fired the crowd back up and UW’s offense quickly took advantage and scored a touchdown.

Offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes must’ve seen MTSU overpursuing and not being sound on the edges in the first half because he dialed up a number of misdirection plays that went for big yardage and put the Blue Raiders deep in a hole that they were unlikely to climb out of. It is the mark of GOOD coaching to go in at halftime and reevaluate your game plan if it isn’t working instead of being a stubborn dickhead and continuing to jam a square peg in a round hole.

“I take a lot of pride in the fact that we did stick together. It was an ugly first half, but we came in at halftime, the leaders led and was able to flip the script coming out in the second half,” O’Neil told reporters, including friend of the newsletter Jake Kocorowski at

Badger Observer

after the game. I still don’t think Fickell is a very good coach, especially on Saturdays, but at least Grimes is able to make adjustments unlike He Who Shall Not Be Named the last two years.

I will begrudgingly admit though that Fickell is doing better on fourth downs this year AND that the team did not commit a penalty against MTSU.

The defense was…fine

The Badgers held MTSU scoreless in the second half, recorded 8.0 tackles for loss, and harassed multiple quarterbacks into five sacks and one interception (shoutout Philadelphia’s own Omillio Agard) but they also looked lost in pass coverage in the first half, giving up multiple big plays (two over 30 yards and one other 21-yarder) to a suspect Blue Raiders passing attack. That obviously won’t fly against ‘Bama or the rest of their Big Ten schedule.

On the bright side, the run defense looked good and multiple players have been getting pressure on the QB and behind the line of scrimmage. Hopefully with players rotating in and out and staying fresh on defense they’ll be able to wear down opposing offensive lines throughout games moving forward.

Full highlights below:

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My final thought is a bit anecdotal and should be taken with a grain of salt. While the vibes in the stands deteriorated somewhat quickly in the first half it is worth noting that the actual team never appeared down. The sideline was engaged with the action on the field and players celebrated with their teammates after big plays all day.

I mean, just look at them during Jump Around:

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They literally had to be waved off the field by a coach because they were having too much fun dancing! Later, freshman Mason Posa was surrounded after getting his first career sack at the end of the game and walk-on Charlie Jarvis was mobbed by teammates after blocking a punt in the fourth quarter.

I am not confident that the game against Alabama will be competitive, but I am confident that the Wisconsin players don’t give a shit what I think and will head down to Tuscaloosa looking to make a statement. I desperately want them to punch the Crimson Tide in the mouth from the first play of the game and make everyone in the country stand up and pay attention to Wisconsin Badgers football for the first time (positively) in years.

FB: a win is a win, right?

The Badgers opened the 2025 season with a shutout victory, 17-0, over Miami (Ohio) at Camp Randall Stadium.

This may come as a surprise to you but, before Friday night, the Wisconsin Badgers football team last won a game on Oct. 19, 2024. They last won a game at Camp Randall Stadium on Oct. 5, 2024. That is, uh, not great for my ol’ alma mater!

What certainly won’t come as a surprise to you is the fact that Wisconsin finished last year with a record of 5-7, missed a bowl game for the first time in decades, and lost all three of their trophy games in humiliating fashion. That set up a long, trying offseason where much ink was spilled about the Badgers new-look offense (I’ll see you in hell, Phil Longo), their exceedingly difficult schedule, and ruminations about if Luke Fickell is actually The Guy or not. In a way, I’m sure actually having a game against a non-intra-squad opponent was a major relief for everyone at UW.

The feeling of relief barely lasted into the second quarter, however, as new starting quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. crumpled to the turf in the backfield with a non-contact injury after handing it to Tyrell Henry on a jet sweep. Edwards, who transferred in from Maryland ahead of this season, went to the locker room for further evaluation but returned to the sidelines in street clothes before the game ended. It was revealed on Friday that an MRI showed only a knee sprain which puts Edwards on a “week-to-week” basis moving forward.

Backup QB Danny O’Neil (a transfer from San Diego State) finished the rest of the game and played fine, all things considered. He was 12-of-19 for 120 yards, one touchdown, one interception, and was sacked three times. He also scored a TD on a one-yard plunge into the endzone and looked lively while scampering for rushing yards on other occasions.

That the Badgers ended up winning the game 17-0 was of secondary concern after the game, but now that we know Edwards isn’t lost for the season (like Tyler Van Dyke was after tearing his ACL against Alabama last year or Tanner Mordecai was after breaking his hand against Iowa two years ago) it’s a good time to look at how Wisconsin actually played in their season opener. To say there was a “return to form” on both sides of the ball would actually be a bit of an understatement.

Badgers defense pitches shutout

The Milwaukee Brewers have been the best team in baseball this year and have the second best team ERA in the league so it’s a good idea to try and do as their pitching staff does. Mike Tressel’s unit channeled their inner Freddy Peralta on Thursday night and completely shut down Miami (Ohio)’s offense.

The RedHawks recorded zero points, seven first downs (they were 0-of-9 on third down), and averaged under three yards per play as a revamped Badgers defense terrorized Dequan Finn and their rushing attack. Finn completed exactly half of his passes for 83 yards, threw two interceptions, and was sacked three times. UW also recorded an additional tackle for loss to compound the RedHawks’ woes in moving the ball.

Linebackers Christian Alliegro and Sebastian Cheeks led the way with four tackles each while Mason Reiger set up camp in Finn’s living room, notching half a sack and two quarterback hits (hurries? I’m not sure what the “QH” stat is on Wisconsin’s official box score). After spending last season eschewing pressure on the quarterback in order to not stop the run or contain the pass, UW looked aggressive on defense against Miami and hopefully that trend continues throughout the year.

Also worth noting, per UW’s game notes, “this marks the first time UW has shutout an opponent in back-to-back meetings since shutouts against Marquette in 1948 and 1949. Wisconsin blanked Miami 58-0 in the only other meeting between the two teams on Sept. 12, 2015.” EAT IT, MARQUETTE!

Preston Zachman is best friends with the football

A sixth-year senior out of Pennsylvania, Zachman has, somewhat quietly, become one of the most important players on UW’s roster. The veteran safety has played in 26 games (18 starts) over the past two years (plus the 2025 season opener) and has picked off six passes in the same time frame (he has seven INTs for his career). He is now guaranteed to have three straight seasons with two (or more) interceptions to his name.

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I don’t want to undersell Zachman’s contributions to the team by labeling him a “Program Guy,” but that’s what he is! He came to UW as a freshman in 2020 and went through the COVID season, not playing in any games in 2021, missing over half of the 2022 season due to injury, a coaching change, and not earning a starting job until his fourth year on campus.

He is an incredibly talented defensive back AND an important culture/locker room presence for Wisconsin. You rarely get both of those in the same player and Badgers fans should cherish watching him ball out the rest of the year.

Ethical play-calling and running the damn ball

Look, Wisconsin’s offense didn’t light up the scoreboard or knife through Miami’s defense like a hot, uh, knife through butter on Thursday, but they DID look like they were a unit with a plan. With an identity. They looked like they were building something and had the foundation already laid.

At the 7:11 mark of the first quarter, the Badgers faced 3rd-and-1 on their own 26-yard line and lined up UNDER CENTER WITH A FULLBACK IN THE BACKFIELD. Edwards took the snap and handed it to fullback Jackson Acker who barreled forward for three yards and a new set of downs.

Multiple Wisconsin text threads I’m in immediately lit up with variations of “We Are SO Back” messages after that play. Wisconsin media members were posting the same thing online and you could hear the roar of the Camp Randall crowd as they watched Acker ethically, and violently, plunge past the first down marker. You can’t build the entire offense out of fullback dives, but your Wisconsin offensive house, as it were, collapses pretty quickly if it isn’t in the playbook.

New offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes was presumably not satisfied with how UW ran the ball (43 attempts, 195 yards, 3.8 ypc) overall, but all three main running backs (Dilin Jones, Darrion Dupree, Cade Yacamelli) averaged 4.0 ypc or more on the night. It was, after all, UW’s first game with a new scheme and they didn’t have their first choice offensive line either, so a little grace can/should be extended.

Left tackle is a Problem

HOWEVAH, that does not excuse the play of Davis Heinzen. Per a tweet from Dillon Graff, who quoted stats from PFF, Heinzen was credited with allowing five pressures and two sacks across 39 pass-blocking snaps vs. Miami (OH). That is bad and that is, quite frankly, the nicest way to describe’s Heinzen’s performance.

It was abundantly clear that the transfer offensive lineman was out of his depth on Wisconsin’s first drive as Miami linebacker/EDGE rusher Adam Trick looked like some unholy combination of Micah Parsons and Lawrence Taylor. Trick stopped Jones, by beating Heinzen, for no gain on Wisconsin’s first play. Then Heinzen lost his assignment on 2nd-and-5 a couple plays later and Trick swatted Edwards’ pass to the ground and then Trick stopped Jones for a short gain on third down the very next play to force UW to punt. Before Thursday night, Trick’s most notable game was the 2024 Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl where he recorded an interception.

This all wouldn’t be SO BAD if Heinzen (Manitowoc, Wis. native) was a transfer from a D2 or D3 school that wanted to return to his home state for his final year, but Heinzen transferred from Central Michigan…a team in the MAC…the same conference that Miami (Ohio) plays in! What happens when he plays Iowa or Michigan or Ohio State or Oregon or Alabama?!?

While Heinzen was the one out on the field playing poorly, I don’t think that Fickell’s staff should escape blame here. In the transfer portal era it is unconscionable that UW couldn’t attract a P4-level talent on the offensive line once it was clear that they would have to shuffle things around due to Kevin Heywood’s season-ending injury. Leyton Nelson, who transferred from Vanderbilt last year, came in the game for UW’s final drive and while I’m not confident he’s the answer either, Fickell and co. may need to consider a change sooner rather than later at one of the most important positions on the team.

I recommend reading Colten Bartholomew’s recap over at Badger Extra for a more thorough, film-based analysis of Heinzen’s game.

Final Thought

When Edwards went down with his injury I was extremely ready to pack it in and consider this a(nother) lost season. Hell, I literally went to bed instead of watching the rest of the game, but with Edwards now considered “week-to-week” UW can still (maybe) get to six wins and reach a bowl game.

If Wisconsin is serious about improving their record this year I hope someone in the building understands that for this season specifically, the game against Maryland is 100x more important than the game against Alabama. Everything about Edwards’ recovery should be with the goal of having him ready to play the Terps at the end of the month, looking to move to 3-1 on the season.

The Badgers enter October halfway to bowl eligibility and I’m ready to start doing Charlie Kelly level calculations on what they have to do to get to six wins.

Anyways, what a depressing state of affairs that I’m getting all fired up hoping to maybe get an invitation to the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl. Go Badgers, I suppose.