The Wisconsin Badgers football program is a ship without a clear direction right now.
The Badgers looked on their way to turning around their season last weekend, playing an almost flawless first half on the road against No.13 USC. Their offense appeared to be showing signs of what was promised when Phil Longo was brought in by head coach Luke Fickell to revolutionize Wisconsin’s conservative offense. Though the Badgers were helped significantly by three USC turnovers, Wisconsin’s offense had three touchdown drives, including a 63-yard touchdown pass from Braedyn Locke to Vinny Anthony.
The second half, on the other hand, represented what many Badgers fans have worried for the past two years: the program is in the midst of an identity crisis.
Wisconsin scored zero points in the second half and failed to establish the run and set Locke up to lead more scoring drives. No moment was more confounding in that half than when the Badgers ran a 4th-and-1 play out of the shotgun. Running back Tawee Walker was stopped short of the line to gain, sparking outcries from Badgers legends of all kinds like Melvin Gordon and Frank Kaminsky.
Many Wisconsin fans were hesitant when the Badgers abandoned their decades-long identity of being a run-first team to bring the pass-first “air raid” to Madison. On the contrary, many felt the change was necessary for the Badgers to truly compete in the new age of college football.
So far, the returns are not looking strong for Fickell and Longo. It must be mentioned that health has played a big role in the last two years. Last year’s starting quarterback Tanner Mordecai missed a significant portion of that season with a hand injury.
This year, new starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke tore his ACL in the third game of the season. While that is an unfortunate bit of injury luck, the reality of sports is that health is a big part of a team’s season, and everyone suffers from injuries at some point.
Regardless, the Badgers finished seventh in the Big Ten in total offense last year and are 16th in that same category to start the season. Patience is required, even in this rapidly changing college football landscape. But the team is going to have to show true progress at some point. Seeing Indiana and Duke start 5-0 with new coaches this year makes one wonder when the Badgers will see similar results.
So far, Fickell’s signature win with the Badgers is against Minnesota — a critical rivalry game, but the Golden Gophers finished the 2023 season with a paltry 6-7 record.
In each of Fickell’s big tests so far, the Badgers have fallen short, and his team has yet to beat a program ranked in the AP Top 25. This year featured the 38-21 loss to USC and the 42-10 drubbing at the hands of Alabama. Last year, Wisconsin kept it close but fell to Ohio State 24-10.
These are all college football’s best programs and it might’ve been a reach to expect the Badgers to win any of these games. But isn’t that a problem? It’s starting to feel like the college football world and even some Badgers fans have forgotten what this program used to be about. This program made four Rose Bowls between 2010 and 2020 and posted the most wins of any program not to make the College Football Playoff during its four-team era.
After that last Rose Bowl in 2020, the program has not measured up against the Big Ten’s elite. Questions for the Badgers remain: what is the best way forward? Is more time required for the Air Raid experiment? Is Wisconsin meant to operate its offense using the classic “three yards and a cloud of dust” mantra?
There’s no easy answer, but the reality is the 18-team Big Ten is here to stay. The Badgers can no longer win a mediocre Big Ten West to compete for a conference title.
Now, they must match up with Ohio State, USC, Penn State, Oregon and reigning national champions Michigan. It’s hard to imagine the Badgers having better athletes and more blue-chip talent than those programs on a consistent basis.
Michigan won last year’s national championship with a very clear identity. The Wolverines had the nation’s best offensive line in 2021 and 2022 and carried that strong play into 2023 to support running backs Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards. Corum ran for over 1,000 yards and 27 touchdowns last year. Michigan did have quarterback J.J. McCarthy, who was a first-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, but it was clear their identity was built at the line of scrimmage.
Wisconsin is not going to succeed if they continue meandering with a diet version of the air raid. The Badgers have only played one game in the Big Ten so far and return home for their second to face Purdue Saturday. Badgers fans will need to see a coherent offensive game plan going forward, or else the questions and doubts will only continue to mount.
