The Wisconsin Badgers suffered a 38-14 loss at the hands of the No. 19 Alabama Crimson Tide on Saturday, dropping their first game of the season in a tough environment at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
From the jump, Wisconsin was outmatched, as it struggled with penalties, sacks, and turnovers offensively. Defensively, the Badgers couldn’t get off the field, as Alabama compiled five straight touchdown drives, racking up explosive plays through the air consistently.
After the game, head coach Luke Fickell spoke
with the media, acknowledging where the team currently stands and what they have to do moving forward.
Opening Statement
“Well, that’s obviously not, not easy to swallow. And the truth of the matter is, I told those guys: that was a much better team than we are right now, and they showed it, and they did everything that they needed to do. They played complementary football and we did not. We knew we had to come out here in the first half in particular and play solid, play poised, play confident, find a way to make some plays on both sides of the ball, but really make sure that what we could do was make some adjustments at the halftime and come out the second half and make sure that we could put the pressure on them. And it’s exactly opposite of what we did, so it’s tough to swallow.
“But I promise those guys from the get-go that when we started this thing, I said it was one thing that I’m going to be committed to, it’s going to be committed to being positive. And it’s very easy to stand up here and rant and rave and point a finger at a lot of things. We all know that we have to get better. We have to get better as coaches, we have to get better as players. Offensively, defensively, there’s not a whole lot of bright spots. I know somebody can ask about the kick return, but the truth of the matter is, even that right there gets overshadowed by just the way that we executed.
“And so more than anything, we know that this was a measuring stick. We’re not measuring up to where we want to be or expect to be. But there’s a long way to go. And the key is, where do we go moving forward and continuing to find ways to get better and keep pushing, because the season starts now.”
On current state of offensive line…
“For me, it’s hard to just point a finger at that. I mean, there’s so many things from today. We kind of thought Jake [Renfro] was going to make it, but that was late in the week. We weren’t sure. He did not practice very much. If not, it was going to be Kerry [Kodanko], who I think after the first series went down and couldn’t play, and then Ryan Cory had to go in there and, you know, went back and forth on some things.
“And so there’s a lot of shuffling parts, and we knew that was going to be the case. We knew that if we were starting three redshirt freshmen on the offensive line or playing with three redshirt freshmen on the offensive line, things were going to be probably a little bit tougher at times.
“But, I don’t know that I can say that there’s one glaring [issue]. There’s a lot of other things that maybe stood out more than exactly how the younger guys played up front. But, it’s a process that we’ve got to figure out and find a way to get the right combination of those guys together, keep them healthy in some ways, and find a way to run the ball better.”
On decision to keep Jake Renfro in after injury…
“Yeah, it’s hard to say [if we should’ve kept Renfro in there]. You know, obviously, he went down. It wasn’t his knee, it was the ankle, I think, or something. So, I don’t know exactly how Ryan [Cory] did when he was in there. Obviously, we didn’t move the football a lot, but there wasn’t as glaring of things that I would say, ‘hey, we couldn’t go that direction.’
“So, hopefully there are some options there. We just got to figure out what that best combination is and find a way to get in a groove a little bit better. I’m not saying we ever got in a groove, and I know late in the game doesn’t matter, but there are some things where we can find ways to move the ball better even as we get these guys growing up and working better together. But not to say that’s a darn good football team and a darn good front that took it to us today.”
On how to stay positive through these types of losses…
“Yeah, challenging. It is very challenging, but I mean, I don’t know where else to go. And the truth of the matter is, we knew this was going to be a mountain to climb. And I don’t just mean this game. I mean this entire season. I knew that. We know that, you know, there was going to be some mix and matching. We didn’t always expect the injuries and things as early in the season that you have to mix and match, but knowing that there was going to have to be a competitive maturity even on my part to make sure that [we can move forward].
“I mean, don’t get me wrong, now we’re going to tear this thing apart and we’re going to move forward, but finding ways to understand, like, we cannot lose each other at any point in time, not in a game, not in a half, not in a quarter, and sure as hell not in a season.”
On why Fickell still believes this group is in a better place than last year…
“I don’t know if I said that. There’s a lot of things that go into being in a better place, and I really do feel like these guys have a better grasp of each other, but that’s going to be tested. That’s always a challenge, so to speak, in camp when you’re grinding through some things. But these are the real adversities. These are the real challenges to see.
“Do they really have the commitment level? Them and me and everybody in that locker room and everybody’s sick. Nobody likes to not only lose, but, you know, lose the way we did and not perform in any way, shape, or form the way that we had prepared to perform. And, so, yeah, it’s tough to be positive in some of those things, but where else do we go, right? I mean, we know that the season really begins now. We got to be able to move forward. We got to be able to get ourselves out of here. We got to be able to get as healthy as we can, and we got to get into league play, and we got to get better.”
On how much the penalties impacted Wisconsin at the start…
“Yeah, I can’t blame that. I mean, if we can’t make life on Ty Simpson any harder, it’s going to be really difficult for us and give him a lot of credit. He did a hell of a job. He played a hell of a game through the ball really well, but they protected him really well. And that’s on us. I mean, if we’re going to get better, the discipline, things that we have to do show up, and those penalties in those situations, just like turnovers. It’s not like not saying it wasn’t a good play, but when we throw them right to them, we got to make people earn things, and those are the ones that stand out right there. You’re not going to go on a road and beat a team like this, making those types of mistakes.”
On the recurring slow starts…
“There’s a lot of things. I mean, you got to give other teams credit, but I think that the trying to figure out the continuity of what’s the combination of guys, whether it’s up front and with, I’d say a new quarterback, but with, you know, Danny getting in his second game, there’s a lot of things you’re trying to figure out. Okay, what do we do really well, and that’s what we’ve got to figure out.
“That’s on us as coaches more so than it is on the guys and the players. And so, you know, that’s the challenge for us to say moving forward, we got to put ourselves in a better position, especially in that first half, to build a rhythm. To have some poise and to build some of that confidence that shows up more so in that second half. And that’s the idea of the complimentary football that obviously was not displayed today.”
On whether he thought the defense would play better after the first two weeks performance…
“Yeah. And I’m not saying I didn’t give the quarterback as much credit, but obviously, he played really, really well today, and we gave up big plays. I mean, the ability to handle some of those things and respond is what is key. The third down, you have a penalty, and you give them the ball back. And then, I think two plays later, they hit a dig for a touchdown. And that’s a little bit more of a surprise to me. I thought that the way we had played in the back end of our defense, in particular defensively, I thought that was going to give us a better opportunity to get that thing to the second half and find a way to put some pressure on him in particular from the defensive side of the ball. And we weren’t able to do that.”
On where to go from here…
“Yeah, we got to flush it pretty quick, but there’s a lot to learn from. And I think that’s where, no matter what, when you’re going through these games and seasons, you got to be able to put them past you. I tried to do some studying over the summer, trying to figure out knowing that what this thing was going to look like, and a part of that competitive maturity had to do with me as well, and not being able to handle some of these situations and being able to move forward.
“It’s like I try to tell them afterwards, it’s not that we’re going to wash this thing away and forget about it, but we have to move on. And it’s not accepting losing. It’s not accepting playing the way you did, but it’s accepting the ability to, ‘hey, let’s correct this thing and let’s move forward because the league starts and the season starts now.’”
