Wisconsin’s offense has been generally pedestrian the last few years, but they’ve remaining a solid defensive unit under Luke Fickell and defensive coordinator Mike Tressel. Tressel was a longtime Michigan State coach that was part of the impressive defensive unit that Fickell put together for the Cincinnati Bearcats back in 2021. Because I’m always happy to recycle my old studies from previous seasons when Alabama gets to face the same coach two years in a row, here’s what I wrote last year:
Fickell/Tressel
aren’t running the same 3-3-5 stack that they did at Cincinnati (a move I’m not sure I agree with) and are running a 2-4-5 at Wisconsin. Essentially, two defensive tackles going for 2-gap space eating, and a couple of 250-lb outside linebackers that are stand-up edge rushers. Ultimately, it’s the same package that Alabama ran for most of the season in 2022 with Will Anderson and Dallas Turner on the edges, but it’s their entire base defense.
And, because we’re extra lucky, here’s what I wrote about the Cincinnati defense back in 2021:
The Bearcats employ a true 3-3-5 stack defense with an entire starting roster full of seniors, 5th year seniors, and 6th year seniors. Philosophically, they run a lot of asymmetrical cover-6 cloud type coverages and try to mix in a 4th rusher as a blitzer from all different angles.
Last year, the Badgers did backslide a little, giving up 23.1 points per game. Their rushing defense was pretty subpar, but they were, overall, a decent pass coverage squad. Then through two games in 2025, they pitched one shut out vs Miami (OH) and then gave up 10 points to Middle Tennessee State.
As mentioned above, the Badgers run a 2-4-5 defense, with a couple of big defensive tackles and two outside linebackers that act more as defensive ends. Much of the defensive line was overhauled with transfers in order to improve their play against the run, with Corey Walker and Mason Reiger coming in as experience edge rushers and defensive tackle Jay’viar Suggs joining the team as a 5th year senior out of LSU. Reiger in particular has looked like a potential big pick up for them as a guy who’s been making quite a few splash plays from the edge in their first two games.
The back 7 of the defense, though, returns quite a bit of experience. Veteran linebacker Christian Alliegro and Tackett Curtis return, and Alliegro was second on the team with 5 tackles for loss last year and was a preseason Butkus watchlist player.
In the secondary, senior safety Preston Zachman has a ton of starting experience, was probably the Badgers’ best player last year, and already has two interceptions so far this season. Meanwhile, cornerback Ricardo Hallman was a 3rd team All-American a couple of seasons ago, though he fell out of national recognition last year.
Really, we don’t know a whole lot about Wisconsin’s defense yet. They’ve looked nearly impenetrable through two games, but, again, Miami of Ohio and MTSU. A year ago they we OK, but far from great. However, they did bring in a bevy of transfers this offseason to bolster their weakness while returning some really good players in the back end. Plus Luke Fickell and Mike Tressel have a long history of putting together good defenses, so I wouldn’t bet against that.
If we extrapolate from that, they’ll probably be a top-30 unit this season, though they’ll likely get left out to dry by their offense quite often.
I think they’ll give Alabama’s offense some fits – probably more than we’d like. To this point, the only thing they’ve shown susceptibility to is the sideline deep ball…. And Alabama has also just not really tried one of those yet with Ty Simpson at QB.
Let’s go with an ugly-ish 27 point outing for the Tide.
