Column: Wisconsin football has more talent, but the same concerns remain

Wisconsin invested heavily in its roster, but recurring coaching issues under Luke Fickell make any type of breakthrough hard to trust.

Wisconsin Badgers head coach Luke Fickell walking into the stadium before a game. Photo credit: UW Athletics.

I understand one version of the argument for people who are optimistic about the Wisconsin football team this season.

The roster is better.

Luke Fickell and his staff attacked the portal aggressively thanks to increased investment, brought in 33 transfers, and addressed obvious weaknesses across the depth chart. The locker room is full of solid players.

More resources have been poured into the program. The talent level, at least on paper, looks more capable of competing in the Big Ten than it did a year ago. That should create optimism among the fanbase.

My problem is that I’m still not convinced the roster or the program’s budget is the biggest variable determining Wisconsin’s ceiling.

The coaching staff is.

And four years into the Fickell era, there are still too many recurring problems that make it difficult for me to assume a better collection of players will automatically produce a substantially better football team.