For the first time in a while, the Wisconsin Badgers football team looks good. Not in the way that last season’s wins helped build the foundation for a new era of Badger football, or in the way the continuing recruiting success sets the program up for the future. You don’t have to reach for any metaphorical coach-talk to describe how the Badgers have played the last two weeks – they’ve just been objectively, flat-out good.
Following dominating wins over Purdue and Rutgers, these have been the brightest days of head coach Luke Fickell’s two-year tenure.
Before this October, convincing wasn’t a way to describe Wisconsin’s wins under Fickell. When they had won, the Badgers didn't look particularly good in doing so.
Last season, Wisconsin entered the second half tied with Georgia Southern before pulling away, needed late-game trickery to beat Illinois and had to go overtime to beat a Nebraska team that finished with a losing record. And despite starting 2-0 this season, Wisconsin’s opening wins were extremely suspect, as they struggled to pull away from Western Michigan and South Dakota.
But in back-to-back weeks, the Badgers have put together full games of complimentary football. The results have been spectacular. By defeating Purdue and Rutgers by a combined 81 points in the last two weeks, Fickell has shown that his program is capable of dominating against Big Ten programs.
This is an obvious step in the right direction, and provides reason for optimism that Fickell can eventually build Wisconsin into the program he envisioned when hired.
Beating a down-trodden, self-admittedly bad Purdue team was one thing, but following it up with a thoroughly commanding 42-7 road win against Rutgers was another.
“This is the team that’s getting better. And just like I said last week, it’s exciting,” Fickell said Saturday. “It’s exciting to, obviously, to win, but it’s exciting to see things continue to grow in front of our own face. And that’s where to me, I’m as happy and as proud as anything.”
Wisconsin continued its offensive onslaught against Rutgers, picking up where they left off after scoring 52 points against Purdue. Offensive coordinator Phil Longo has received his fair share of criticism in his two years in Madison, but in the last two games, his unit has looked the best it has in his tenure.
Longo masterfully blended power running with versatile passing plays on Saturday, keeping the Rutgers defense on their toes and executing what he’s preached – a balanced offensive attack.
Quarterback Braedyn Locke followed up his career day against Purdue with another stellar performance, completing 20/28 passes for 240 yards while running back Tawee Walker ran for 198 yards and three touchdowns.
After over a year of offensive turmoil, Longo’s group is finally firing on all cylinders.
The Badgers are also trending in the right direction defensively. For a group that has endured the struggles of a new defensive system, limiting opponents to single digits in consecutive games creates a shot of confidence that they will need to ride the rest of the season.
A few weeks ago, Wisconsin was reeling. They had lost by a combined 49 points in big games against Alabama and USC. Former players and key alumni publicly questioned Fickell’s vision for the future. A season and a half into his tenure, Fickell had yet to prove that his program was progressing. But now, after these two feel-good wins, the scope of Wisconsin’s season has drastically changed.
Wisconsin must continue its suddenly impressive play against Northwestern on Saturday before a massive Camp Randall night game against No. 3 Penn State in two weeks. Fickell has now shown Wisconsin can convincingly beat Big Ten opponents, but a win against a big-time college football program remains elusive. The Badgers will still be considered major underdogs, but beating Penn State now seems feasible.
Wisconsin’s focus now is on beating Northwestern, the first task at hand, and entering Saturday, they will find themselves in a much more desirable position than they did just a few weeks ago. Wisconsin is finally playing with confidence. The question now is for how long.
