The Wisconsin Badgers struggled in a 38-14 loss to the No. 19 Alabama Crimson Tide on Saturday, dropping their first game of the season in a rough manner.
It was a game where the Badgers were just outclassed in every facet, as they couldn’t muster up much offense, while allowing five straight touchdown drives defensively.
“That’s obviously not easy to swallow,” head coach Luke Fickell said after the game. “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, despite the beatdown, the Badgers head coach had one key message for his team: stay positive through the ups and downs.
“I promised 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,” Fickell said. “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.”
The message of staying positive seems to indicate a few things for the Badgers: 1) they’re going through a bit of a ‘rebuild’ with their younger talent getting more experience, and 2) there was a clear issue in responding to losses like Saturday’s last season.
Fickell understood heading into the year how tough this season would be for his team. Losses like these were going to come, especially as Wisconsin started to develop some of its young talent. But, bouncing back and not allowing losses to stack will be the big thing for this team to reach its goals.
“It is very challenging [to stay positive], but I mean, I don’t know where else to go,” Fickell continued. “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.”
The Badgers will need to bounce back next weekend when they take on the Maryland Terrapins at Camp Randall Stadium, with kickoff slated for 11:00 a.m. on Saturday. Otherwise, things could start to get ugly.
