The Wisconsin Badgers didn’t have their prettiest outing last year in the 42-10 blowout loss against the Alabama Crimson Tide, which left the team deflated postgame as they were flat-out beaten on their home field.
Last year’s loss was crushing in several ways, as Wisconsin lost starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke to a torn ACL and seemed to have no answers for the Crimson Tide on either side of the ball.
Will this year’s outcome be any different? Head coach Luke Fickell is changing up a few things
ahead of this weekend’s game to try to change the outcome.
“There’s a lot of things I think that hopefully [are different this year],” Fickell said on Monday. “First and foremost, it has a lot to do with the team and [the new] individuals here or there. But, the truth of the matter is, the thing that I feel best about and I know that the entire program and the guys within that locker room feel the best about us, is, I think, just what we have as a group. And whether everybody’s seen it yet or hasn’t seen it yet, whether it’s Game 1 or Game 2, I just think that the biggest difference is, ‘hey, there’s some different mentality of the things that we can do and what we know we need to do.’
“And I think that’s where it’s got to kind of start. Are there some different spots and positions? Yes, I’ve said it multiple times. I think that, for the most part, I think we’re in a better place at every position. Obviously, the depth of the offensive line is the one spot that continues to be an issue or stand out a little bit to you, but as a whole and as a team, I think where we are and the things that we’re doing, I think [the mentality change] is where everything’s got to start.”
That mentality change has been addressed in the offseason, both on and off the field. For example, defensive coordinator Mike Tressel changed the defensive line’s responsibilities to be more aggressive, rather than react to what the offensive line was doing. He believes the team has the personnel to be more disruptive this season, both in the run and against the pass.
Offensively, the return to a more run-heavy attack is an approach to increase the team’s physicality after the Badgers had a much different scheme over the past two years.
But, that’s not the only change Wisconsin has implemented ahead of this week. Since it’ll be a road game in a tough environment, the Badgers have started to use crowd noise in practice to simulate what Bryant-Denny Stadium could sound like on Saturday.
“We’re going to play music,” Fickell said. “We’ll be prepared better than we were last year when we went to Iowa. That’s what I can truly say. That might have been one of those ones that, I don’t say caught you off guard, but it was maybe even louder than what we had expected. And I know that we had a plan going in there. It was more of a third-down plan. It wasn’t a first and second-down plan.
“But then we had to adjust. It was one of those things that we’ll never be in that position again. So all week, we’ll be going with some different cadence things and put a little bit more on the guys up front to make sure we’re all on the same page. We started that last night in our Sunday practice. Can you really get the noise as loud as it’s going to be on Saturday? I don’t think we can. But, we will surely try.”
Of course, Fickell is relating to Wisconsin’s ugly 42-10 loss to the Iowa Hawkeyes last year that stayed with the team even throughout the offseason.
It seems the Badgers will now be better prepared to handle those environments heading into Week 3. But, at the end of the day, they’ll still need to execute at a higher level than they have so far on gameday.
