The crowd that fills the stadium on game days at Camp Randall is iconic. Out of the 80,321 seats available, 14,000 of them are filled with die-hard student fans. Despite some recent disappointing seasons, Badgers fans are there to show their support for the team.
This highly anticipated season has promising new additions to the coaching staff and new key players to watch out for. So, what will that mean for the crowds at the upcoming games? Does a better team result in a bigger and better crowd?
New seasons for college football fans are always exciting. It’s a fresh start — you get to ignore the past years and find newfound hope for the upcoming season. There are new players to watch and new coaching staff to look out for.
Wisconsin this season welcomed several new members from the University of Cincinnati to the Badgers, including new head coach Luke Fickell.
Fickell is no stranger to the college football atmosphere. After playing for Ohio State from 1993 to 1996, Fickell worked with the Buckeyes’ coaching staff as a co-defensive coordinator from 2005-2016 and earned some head coaching experience on an interim basis during the 2011 season. He eventually landed a long-term head coaching position with the Cincinnati Bearcats in 2016.
Coaching the Bearcats is where Fickell was able to show his true capabilities. From 2018-2021, Fickell had incredible campaigns with Cincinnati. He tallied back-to-back 11-win seasons in 2018 and 2019 as well as an undefeated regular season in 2020 that resulted in a Peach Bowl appearance.
Fickell’s most notable accomplishment is arguably Cincinnati’s record-setting season in 2021, which earned the Bearcats their first-ever College Football Playoff appearance.
Fickell, along with several others, joined the Wisconsin Badgers staff last season, leading Wisconsin fans to be pretty pumped for the upcoming season. Fickell is determined to create a team where adaptability is at the forefront and with that in mind, fans are enthusiastic about the approaching season.
Games hosted by the Badgers are already pretty exciting, with no shortage of cheering and rowdiness. And, with the addition of new fans from the incoming freshmen class, the crowds have a lot to live up to.
There will always be some skeptical souls among the crowd in Camp Randall weary from the disappointment of the previous season, but the team is in for an exciting run when they face off against Buffalo in the home opener on Sept. 2.
With optimism and fervor surrounding a new season with exciting additions to the Badgers, the crowd is destined to be exhilarating and loud.
