Column: What Luke Fickell, Wisconsin football must accomplish in each game during 2025
The Badgers have arguably the toughest schedule in the nation this fall. Navigating it successfully doesn't necessarily mean winning every game.
When head coach Luke Fickell met with transfer portal prospects this offseason, he made sure to show each player the Wisconsin football team's schedule early in their conversation.
Why? It’s not exactly for the faint of heart.
The Badgers’ 2025 slate is like the trailer for a horror movie, an odyssey through some of the most hostile environments and intimidating opponents college football has to offer.
Forget the September trip to Tuscaloosa — Wisconsin’s conference slate features seven of the top eight teams from last season’s final Big Ten standings.
The Badgers’ most formidable schedule maybe ever just so happens to coincide with the program’s most critical season in years. Simply put, Wisconsin must win at least six games and return to the postseason in Fickell’s third lap around the track.
Failure to do so would be an utter disaster for a once-proud program desperate to claw its way back to respectability. But a team’s road to relevancy isn’t exclusively defined by wins and losses.
Progress for the Badgers means finding their identity on both sides of the ball. It means playing with the grit and toughness the program claims is a staple of its identity. It means reclaiming rivalry trophies. It means making Camp Randall a terrifying place to play again.
Different games come with different expectations in college football, especially when faced with a murder’s row of opponents. The following is what I believe Fickell and the Badgers must achieve in each game to prove they’re still on the right track after bottoming out in 2024:
vs. Miami (OH)
The RedHawks were the MAC runner-ups last season, winning nine games. Still, if this is anything other than a dominant performance by Wisconsin, the same sense of uneasiness that arose from the Badgers needing all four quarters to put away Western Michigan last year will percolate through the fanbase once again.
If the Badgers want any chance of emerging on the other side of this schedule with a respectable record, they need to be able to manhandle a MAC team at home. Miami does have an exciting dual-threat quarterback in Dequan Finn, but it replaces all 11 starters on offense and is one of the least experienced rosters in the nation. Offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes must establish his ground game from the jump in this one, and it’d also be extremely encouraging to see Wisconsin’s dormant pass rush toss Finn to the turf a few times.
vs. Middle Tennessee
This is the one game on Wisconsin’s schedule that’s truly blowout or bust. While the Badgers must handle Miami (OH) with ease in Week 1, they need to absolutely blow the doors off the Blue Raiders in Week 2.
Middle Tennessee is coming off a 3-9 season and is easily the worst team Wisconsin will face. This should be a laugher and a tune-up game before a trip into the deep south for the first marquee matchup of the campaign.