The Wisconsin Badgers upset the USC Trojans 24-7 at Camp Randall Stadium on Saturday, leading to a field storming and a memorable night in Madison for head coach Luke Fickell and his team.
Wisconsin jumped out ahead early and never looked back, holding the Trojans to just one scoring drive in the second quarter, as they continued to pile on their lead at home.
After the game, head coach Luke Fickell gave his thoughts on the moment and what it meant for his program.
Opening Statement
What an incredible
night. I mean, I don’t know where to start, to be honest with you. You know, last week was a tough one, and give our guys an incredible amount of credit to come back and go out there and play like they did tonight.
Man, we are growing, and we are getting better. There’s still things we got to do a hell of a lot better. We know that. But this team believes. They understand what consistently good, they understand what grinding things out looks like. I think they’ve taken a lot of pride in it.
I mean, it wouldn’t be abnormal for a good Wisconsin football team to take pride in something like that. And to me, that’s what we want to continue to be about.
There’s a lot of great performances tonight. I mean, that defense, Coach Tress and those guys on the defensive side of the ball, man, they played an incredible game and they kept the pressure on. Yeah, he was 31 of 50 or something like that. A lot of those might be in the last six minutes of the game. A bunch of them are, but those guys played relentless. They played physical. Minus-17 yards rushing. I mean, it’s going to be tough to lose a football game if you can hold somebody under [zero] yards rushing.
So just so happy and so proud for these guys, for this whole team, for the whole fan base, for everybody. This was a night we needed.
On whether Wisconsin expected to have an advantage up front defensively…
You know, I mean, we wanted to. We knew that obviously, had led the country, I think, in passing. So we knew that they were going to want to throw the football. But they pride themselves on being able to run and being balanced as well.
And so that was the thing that I kind of got on Coach Tressel late in the week. I’m like, you know, the last game they were in 10 personnel a lot more than we have seen. And they obviously believe they can out-athlete you. I don’t know that we need to be doing as much with the run game.
I’m glad he didn’t listen to me because it still starts there. And those guys, I mean, I thought you had an advantage, but you felt like our guys up front, in particular inside, were going to give them some fits with some of the things they want to be able to do.
On the secondary stepping up despite injuries and personnel changes…
Give a lot of credit to that whole back end. And it starts with Coach Haynes, who kind of oversees the back end, and Coach Coop (Jack Cooper), and then Coach Steep (Robert Steeples).
We had to mix a lot of people around in there. We were playing some dime packages where we had two guys down in that package. And so guys like Carson Van Dinter had to go in, and Matt Traynor had to go in and fill in different spots. And Bryce West had to try to play a couple of different spots when he was able to come back.
So there were a lot of things that had to happen tonight. J-Rob was a guy that was questionable the whole entire week. And so Fletch and Jay Scott took an incredible amount of reps. Donnie Dunmore took an incredible amount of reps.
And really, as we started this thing, I wasn’t sure who was going to be our starting center. I wasn’t sure who was going to be our starting guard. And I wasn’t sure what the rotation was going to be like at a corner position.
But that’s what’s so impressive about what those guys did. They prepared, they got themselves ready however they had to, and the coaches did a heck of a job of making sure we could move some guys around and have faith in them.
On the decision to go for it on fourth down, leading to Chris Brooks’ touchdown…
Well, to be honest with you, yes, the defense is playing well, but the truth of the matter is I don’t think field goals are going to win these ballgames. Now, hindsight, maybe it would have.
But the idea of, hey, we’ve got to find a way. These guys, we keep preaching about being aggressive. It’s about being smart too. But we had to put ourselves in a position where, like, look, man, let’s try to win this thing instead of holding on and trying not to lose.
And so I think there’s a completely different mentality. That doesn’t mean you just go for it every fourth down. But I think there’s a part of those times when we have to continue to be aggressive.
On the importance of establishing the running game and getting the running backs involved…
Well, I don’t know that we actually got ahead of the chains in a lot of those. I know there were probably some ones and twos at the very beginning on first down in particular.
That was something I was kind of pushing and preaching, and it wasn’t something that they didn’t want to do. We had been pretty heavy with Colton running the football.
And I just think that if we’re going to grow, if we’re going to be who we want to be, if you’re going to win in this league at this place, our tailbacks have to shoulder the load and be the horses that we need them to be.
And Abu was back pretty healthy tonight. And we actually weren’t sure if Darrion was going to play. He kind of tweaked a hammy on Thursday and was limited and probably doubtful, but then put himself in a position where he could still play for us. He fought like hell to get himself back out there.
So there’s another spot where we were kind of mixing a lot of things around, weren’t sure exactly as the game started, as the game went on, who was really going to be the one to shoulder the load.
But if we can’t rely on those guys, it’s going to be a long year.
On the significance of the fans storming the field after the win…
It’s pretty special. You know, I’m so happy for the guys. I mean, our guys, they work. Everybody does in college football, but they’ve taken some flak too.
And so to have those moments where they can celebrate and act like a college student, that they don’t get an opportunity to do a whole lot, I think it’s really special to them too.
And so if we were going to hold that locker room talk and celebration for a while because we had a lot of guys still on the field, I didn’t care.
This is what college football is about. We complain at times that there’s this merry-go-round of college football and a lot of the new of college football, but this is what never changes and what makes college football special. The pageantry, the history, and then the fan bases in particular on campuses. It’s unbelievable.
On what makes defensive coordinator Mike Tressel’s process so effective…
Well, I think it starts with their ability to have a lot of guys that do a lot of things. And I mean that as a coaching staff. It’s not a one-man show.
Coach Tress does call the defense. Coach Tress is the guy that makes the decisions. But how he works with Paul, Coach Haynes, who helps the back end and kind of works with the back end, and how he listens to those guys up front, how he relies on them.
I mean, we don’t work separately. Coach Tress doesn’t go in his office and work Monday through Thursday or Monday through Wednesday. Those guys are in there grinding together every single day.
And I think that’s what’s so special about it, that they’re on the same page. They can agree to disagree. They can have their moments. But they’re the example for what we want our guys to be like and how we want our guys to play, and that there’s one mission.
And so him and that whole crew, I think, are doing a great job.
On the decision to bring all-out pressure defensively in key situations…
Yeah, maybe you had a couple others that didn’t get there, maybe one other one. It was something that we wanted to be able to do.
You got to pick and choose your times when you can. And there were some moments there that maybe we should have done it a few more times.
But you got to have faith. You got to have confidence in the guys in the back end. You got to have faith and confidence in the guys up front because you are hanging a lot of things out.
And you got an incredible expectation that things are going to happen really fast. And that’s another one of those spots right there that Coach Tress put a lot of faith in those guys on the field, that they have confidence to be able to do it.
On Bryan Jackson scoring his first touchdown as a Badger…
You know, there’s so many of these guys that you just don’t know. I say it often. B-Jack is one of those guys. He’s been here since January.
He’s been a guy that’s been in a rotation. He hasn’t played a ton, but you love who he is and what he’s brought and what he’s done. He just hasn’t had as many opportunities.
And to have his opportunities tonight, obviously in the situation that it is, it’s pretty special.
Sometimes you just got to give guys greater opportunities to see what they really have when the game’s on the line. And he showed us something tonight that we thought maybe he had, but it’s hard sometimes to see because you don’t do a lot of live.
And there was a pretty good depth of guys in that backfield, but happy for him.
We actually called him up there at the end of the locker room, and he still hadn’t made it in from the field yet. I don’t know if he got lost on his way to the locker room or what exactly happened, but I think he was enjoying it as well.
On Barrett Nelson returning from injury and starting…
That is awesome. I didn’t know, to be honest with you, as I walked through this morning, I kept going to Coach Mateos and said, what do you think? Who’s it going to be? Where are we going to go?
And he said, you know what, I just think I want to go with Bear and just let him get out there and go after it.
And he’s a guy you’re kind of, I’m not going to say you’re holding your breath, but I mean, he’s been through so much.
And for him to actually continue to fight back, to go out there and play tonight, start tonight, and play as well as he did, I don’t know if he’s perfect or anything.
But I know this, that there’s nobody that would go harder, that would do more, that would sacrifice for this team, this program, and this university than Bear Nelson. And probably the guy I’m happiest for tonight.
On the impact of Mason Posa and Christian Catalano as defensive leaders…
No, they are an everyday inspiration. I don’t know, inspiration. They’re an everyday example to everybody.
And I’m not saying that there aren’t more guys that are like that, but the faith that they’ve had in us and some things as we’ve battled in the past, to bringing it every single day, they’re an incredible example.
And we do feed off of them. I know the defense feeds off of them, but I think the whole entire team feeds off of them as well.
And that’s a lot to put on some younger guys, but you know what? I think they really love it.
On the defense responding to adversity throughout the game…
It was special. It really was.
I mean, the one scoring drive, we gave up a third, and maybe we sacked a guy for third and like 17, and we got my first — not me, somebody on the sideline got their first ever personal foul for a first down.
And you made it very clear who it was. Coach Collins. That I’ve never seen before.
But yet, they didn’t bat an eye. And that’s where you start to see a maturity happen.
They do score a touchdown. We stop them on third down, the goal line, on whatever, first down, second down, third down. You get them to when you feel like you could get after them, and they score a touchdown.
But you’re seeing a maturity grow in that group. You’re seeing the confidence grow in that group.
And it’s not just in them. It’s also in their coaches with the ability to be able to throw some pressures out there that kind of hang you out to dry a little bit, but give you an opportunity to make some big plays.
And so it’s still a work in progress, but I tell you what, that’s what it takes for guys to continue to grow and gain the confidence in one another. And we did it tonight.
