I wrote after the Maryland loss, “Apparently, rock bottom has a basement.” Well, the Iowa Hawkeyes just showed the Wisconsin Badgers that the basement is much deeper than we thought.
The Badgers’ 37-0 loss to the Iowa Hawkeyes sealed the fate of this year’s Badgers team. They are now officially the worst team in the Big Ten Conference, and I don’t think it’s even close. Not after the UCLA Bruins earned another conference win, and the Purdue Boilermakers, which also have not won a conference game this season,
fought their tails off against the Minnesota Golden Gophers before falling.
All offseason, we kept hearing about the 42 push-ups this team would do in practice and how embarrassed they were after last year’s loss at Kinnick Stadium. Badger fans were told that this team was going to get revenge on Iowa at Camp Randall.
It was all talk. No bite.
Badger fans, it’s only going to get worse from here before it gets better. No. 1 Ohio State comes into town next Saturday, and then the Badgers take on Oregon at Autzen Stadium the very next week. If Iowa can whoop Wisconsin by 37, who knows how many points the Buckeyes and the Ducks can put on the Badgers.
Here are three things that stood out from Wisconsin’s Homecoming loss to Iowa.
Complete lack of discipline
We should have known how this game would turn out right before the game when Tyreese Fearbry chose to taunt Iowa’s team as they came onto the field.
Fearbry’s pregame unsportsmanlike conduct penalty was one of three unsportsmanlike conduct penalties the Badgers committed on Saturday. Wisconsin had to be disciplined in all facets of the game to at least have a chance to knock off Iowa. They miserably failed in that aspect.
Dilin Jones
The only positive takeaway for the Badgers from this game was how hard Jones ran the ball. The redshirt freshman running back finished the game with 16 carries for 69 yards. It was Jones’ highest rushing yard total through three Big Ten Games, and his 4.3 yards per carry was his highest in conference play.
Wisconsin fans should expect Jones to continue racking up yards through the season, as Darrion Dupree went down with an injury on Saturday.
Beginning of the end
Ultimately, the major takeaway I had from this game was that this program, barring a miracle of epic proportions, is going nowhere with Luke Fickell as head coach. I hate writing this because I wanted Fickell to succeed with Wisconsin, but the football program had reached pre-Barry Alvarez era levels of ineptitude. There was no execution or mental toughness on display against Iowa. None. Zip. Nada.
Watching Fickell’s press conference, he appears to be out of answers for this football team, stating he was “dumbfounded in a lot of ways.” After the game, Christian Allegrio admitted what all Badgers fans were thinking after the game. This program has no identity.
Chris McIntosh, who should also be on the hot seat, has two choices. Either cut ties with Fickell mid-season or wait until after the Minnesota game to make a change. You cannot convince Badger fans that this program is going in the right direction under Fickell.
