The Wisconsin Badgers blew out the Michigan State Spartans 31-3 at home on Saturday, improving their record to 4-1 and extending their win streak to four in a big way.
Wisconsin’s offense started off the game strong with scores on its first three drives, while the defense was dominant throughout, forcing five turnovers on downs in another good performance.
After the game, head coach Luke Fickell spoke with the media, sharing key updates and breaking down the win over Michigan State. Here’s everything
he said.
Opening Statement…
“Well, that was one that you enjoyed, to be honest with you. And I think that, not that I didn’t expect our guys to come out the way they came out. A lot of people asked you about that after last week’s game, on the road and the big win and things like that, and how would you respond, and how would your guys come back out? Is there a letdown of any sort? It’s like we never addressed it. All we talked about was that, hey, don’t be delusional, don’t be arrogant. We understand who we are and what we’ve got to be able to do.
And I think they showed me that today. They showed me that there’s a maturity level that we keep talking about that’s growing, but there’s a recognition of saying who we are and then being who we are. And like I said, it’s nice when all things kind of roll together and you see complementary football and the things that you preach, but it doesn’t just happen. And so, this league, there’s no easy ones, and you got to go out and play every single week. You got to take care of the football, which we did a hell of a lot better job of today.
But I think around the horn and on all areas, I mean, this is, you know, this is what I’ve wanted and we’ve wanted to see. Don’t get me wrong, there’s things we have to do a hell of a lot better. We got to create some more turnovers on defense. But the ability to get 4th down stops, the ability to mix it up defensively, and be able to play some more man coverage at times when we need to, as well as be able to mix it up in the back end on some things. And I think it was a really, for us, one of our first kind of real complementary, wholesome, full football games that we played in a long time.
On whether he expected this level of consistent play this early in season…
I’d be lying. Like I said, we preach about consistently good. Like, you can write it all day you want, like consistently good, consistently good, not occasionally great. And we haven’t had that and we haven’t been that over the past few years for whatever reason, injuries and different things. But this is what we hope to be able to continue to see. Did we really know it? I mean, again, there was a lot more pieces that we felt like after spring football and as we went into fall that we felt like we had, but there was just so much new.
I said it, Coach [Fitzgerald] and I said that before the game out there. We kind of said like, look, this is quite a unique last few years. I know Coach Fitzgerald’s first year back into it. And it’s just the idea that like, man, you’re just learning so much every week about your team. He’s in his first year, we’re in our fourth year, and we’re still learning so much about our team. And I’m learning a hell of a lot more. And we do have pieces that we know a hell of a lot more about in the Cooper Catalanos and the Mason Posas and the [Colin] Cubberleys and the [Kevin] Heywoods. They give us a much greater chance to be able to couple a lot more talent together to hopefully continue to preach the consistently good.
On the changes with OL starters…
Well, I don’t know if I made those changes, but Coach [Eric] Mateos and Coach [Jeff] Grimes maybe made those changes. Again, I think we just want to continue to find a way to get our best guys on the field. And we all have seen where Emerson [Mandell] has played, and he has been a guy that’s rolled a little bit. And we’ve challenged guys to do some different things. And I just think we wanted to continue to push PJ [Wilkins]. We wanted to continue to find a way.
Stylz Blackmon’s been playing really good and we felt like he gives us a little something different in there and to not have to roll him in there. He’s a guy that can play 60, 65 snaps, and we feel comfortable with it. And so we flipped Kevin [Heywood] over to the other side, and then we used Emerson and PJ at the right tackle to try to continue to generate some competition and find a way to get us our best guys on the field.
On complementary football shown on Saturday…
Well, I mean, it’s a great place to play from as a defense, and got to give our guys— the defense played lights out today. I mean, they really consistently continued to, you know, when a team’s going forward as many times on fourth down, you recognize their philosophy and what they have to be able to do. And when they have four downs, man, we’ve seen this. Western Illinois when people are willing to do that and they play the game a little bit different.
And so the challenge to the defense was, hey, understand, like, they’re gonna, they’re gonna try to get to fourth and two and fourth and three and fourth and one, and we’re gonna have to be more aggressive. We’re gonna have to not let this thing get milked. And because the offense is doing doing a really good job. And I think that’s where we’ve grown a bit more in the understanding what complementary football looks like and what the job of the defense is to not just let them kind of milk some of that clock.
On defensive line getting to QB…
Yeah, I didn’t know the stats on that on how many sacks there were. And I kind of had a feeling going into the game that they were going to find a way to be able to not put their quarterback in those positions. We’ve all kind of talked about it, but that was one of those things I kind of going into the game, like, how much quarterback run will they do? How much will they use 2 quarterbacks? They’ve given up a few too many sacks, I think, going into the game. And I just kind of figured, look, they’re going to find a way to make sure that they can give their quarterback an opportunity, a chance. And sometimes it gets frustrating.
I know we got a couple penalties that I haven’t seen them completely. The one I got a question on landing on top of the quarterback, but they swear that that’s pretty obvious. I didn’t know we were with the NFL just yet, but I got to find out a little bit more about that. And then obviously [Sebastian] Cheeks got one that those are things we’ve got to be able to get better at. As long as our guys don’t get frustrated, I think that’s the thing. And our coaches don’t get frustrated, you know, [they] understand like, look, pressure is even more important. Tip balls are even more important sometimes than sacks.
Importance of bye week coming now…
Well, hopefully they get a little time to take a couple of deep breaths. We’ve always said you don’t heal up during a bye week. There are some things that can get healed up, but I think you can get a mental break. And I think that we’ve challenged our guys, we’ve pushed our guys. They’ve had quite a run, right? I mean, it’s not just 5 games, but we’ve been on the road, we’ve had some comeback wins, we’ve had some really solid wins.
We’ve not played 60 minutes in Game 1. And so I think it’s a great opportunity for our guys, for our coaches to take a couple deep breaths, reassess where we are and how we can get better. And so, bye weeks can be used in many different ways. We’ll continue to work. We’ll continue to make sure our guys understand that this has got to be used in the right way. But a part of that is to have a little bit of a break.
On Wisconsin matching win total from last season…
I don’t want to reflect on last year in that, but I’d be remiss if it does feel good. And the truth of the matter is last week felt really good, and last week’s practice felt different. And I don’t sometimes like that feeling because it’s almost like you can feel your own self, take too many deep breaths. But there’s a positive energy that has built and is continuing to build. And it is from winning.
Obviously, it’s hard to overcome if you don’t. But I think it has even more to do with the leadership. And it’s a group of guys that understand that, like, look, we know what we have to do and we know— we feel like we know who we are and what we need to do to continue to grow. And so I think there is a different feeling when winning, but a different feeling on understanding, like, there’s a long process to this. This journey is going to be quite a battle.
On what has made Colton Joseph stand out…
All games are great and all victories are awesome. What Colton has given us is obviously some stability too. Health, knock on wood. I know he ran the ball a bunch today, but it’s interesting when you have youth, when you have those guys that are younger and can take some shots. But I think what he gives us is a spark to understand, like, he’s a great depiction of who we are as a team, right? We’re nowhere where we know we want to be. And I think he’s a great example of that.
Like, when he walked in the door here, you didn’t know exactly what you were getting, but you knew you had a guy that had been a hell of an athlete, a guy that had won a lot of football games, a guy that competed at a high level, had a competitive spirit that you loved. And then you recognize, look, he’s got to grow and we got to grow. And so I think he’s a microcosm of our team. Each and every week you’re seeing something a little bit different, a little bit better, and a little bit more mature. And so he’s a prime example of I think who we are.
On difficulty of OL switching sides, how tackles fared this week…
I can’t tell you exactly off the film yet, but I worried in the beginning of the week. I thought Kevin was growing and Kevin, he’d cut off his right arm for us. He thought he was going to be able to play last year after he had a blown-out knee. And so I didn’t want to put him in a position where he said, yeah, I can do it. I can’t wait to do it. Yeah, I’ll do it. I’ll do whatever the team needs, and not put him in a position where he can play his best.
And so all week I think he looked really good. All week he looked confident. I know initially, early in the week it was even so much to say, it’s okay, well, where’s Emerson? Does Emerson feel confident and comfortable about doing this as well? And PJ is going to be challenged and pushed in a different way. And so I don’t know exactly how it looked, but I know in nature, I think those guys played pretty well. And the combination, I don’t know if you guys noticed, but Ryan Cory went in there and played really well, I think, for us too. And one of those guys that had to step in there and nobody maybe noticed or recognized that we didn’t miss a beat.
On Colton Joseph as a runner, what he brings extra to the team…
17 shy of the all-time quarterback rushing record. Someone told me that on the way in here. I think we saw, at least I saw him today, run to win. I think last 2 weeks ago we saw a little bit of that where I challenged him like, look, if you’re gonna run, run to win, run to score. And I just think we saw a little bit more of that today.
And I don’t know if we planned on— I don’t know how many rushes he truly had. I don’t know that we came in here saying he’s got to rush 12 times or 10 times in the game. But we have to be able to say, like, look, when we’re going to take these shots, we have the opportunities, if the read is there, then you got to be aggressive. And so I think the combination of seeing him being comfortable, being able to do that, obviously it creates an energy and momentum. I think it’s going to give us a spark in some different ways as we continue to grow.
On if there were any signs Badgers got carried away after Week 4 win vs. Penn State…
You know what’s great about a big win? I mean, you can, you can coach and push a little bit harder. So if there’s any little thing that I don’t know would have been any different than it was 2 weeks ago or 3 weeks ago, can be pointed out a little bit more intently. So I don’t know that there was.
I kind of got after them early this morning in a special teams meeting, just on a focus and attention to detail at 7:55 in the morning that I don’t know that I would normally do. But I think that everybody obviously is seeing and feeling the growth. And so it just gives us a greater opportunity. I didn’t sense it. I was on high alert for it, but I think that even after last Saturday, I didn’t want to put too much emphasis on not enjoying and celebrating the win, but reminding them of the arrogance and delusion that we cannot have.
On Ryan Cory stepping up after Austin Kawecki injury…
I think last week we said, I kind of said DD (Darrion Dupree) stepped up and was a grown man for us. And I would say the same thing. I haven’t watched the film. I don’t know exactly, but Ryan stepped up and was a grown man for us today. And he had been challenged, whether it was in the last year, in the offseason when we were going to bring in some guys and has had some tough conversations with me about where we are and what we need to see.
And it just reminds you what a guy, a 3rd-year in your program really is and can be, and how valuable they are when sometimes we forget about high-profile transfers and new guys that are coming in. And then you really look at the roots of your program and why you feel like you’re growing and in a much better place. It’s because of guys like Ryan Cory. It’s because of guys like Colin Cubberly. It’s because of guys that have been here and have battled through a lot of different things with us.
