For the first time this season, Luke Fickell walked away from a game feeling like the Wisconsin football team had put something resembling its complete vision on the field.
It just took the Badgers a quarter to get there.
Wisconsin trailed Eastern Michigan 7-3 after the opening 15 minutes, had already turned the ball over twice — once on downs and once on an interception — and again made life more difficult than necessary against an overmatched nonconference opponent.
What happened next was considerably different.
The Badgers scored 28 points in the second quarter, Colton Joseph threw for 362 yards and three touchdowns, the defense forced its first three takeaways of the season, and Wisconsin eventually turned a sluggish start into a 54-10 win at Camp Randall Stadium.
For Fickell, the response was every bit as important as the final margin.
“Well, that’s closer to what complimentary football for us looks like and feels like,” Fickell told reporters. “I thought the best thing about the whole day was the end of the first quarter at seven to three, and we’re down.”
That became the prevailing theme of Fickell’s postgame availability.
Wisconsin didn’t play particularly well out of the gate. But it stayed patient, responded to the early adversity, and eventually got contributions from all three phases. After spending much of the offseason talking about maturity, consistency, and sustaining its best football, Fickell felt Saturday offered some tangible evidence of what that is supposed to look like.
Here are three things that stood out from Fickell’s postgame comments.
Wisconsin’s response to adversity stood out to Fickell
A week earlier, Wisconsin raced out to a 17-0 lead against Western Illinois before struggling to sustain that level of play.
Saturday presented the opposite test.
Eastern Michigan marched 67 yards for a touchdown on its opening possession. Wisconsin’s offense turned the ball over on downs on its first possession, and Joseph followed with an interception on the next.
Instead of unraveling, the Badgers took control.
Wisconsin outscored Eastern Michigan 51-3 the rest of the way, including 28 unanswered points in the second quarter. The Badgers finished with 479 yards of offense, converted all six of their red-zone opportunities into touchdowns, and scored 21 points off three takeaways.
Fickell thought the way Wisconsin handled the early adversity revealed something he hadn’t consistently seen from his teams.
“I saw some things that I don’t know that I had seen for the last couple of years,” Fickell said. “There are some things that are growing. And I saw some guys that didn’t panic and just kept believing in one another. And, you know, I thought that that’s what we had to be able to do.”
That doesn’t suddenly erase everything Wisconsin has struggled with during Fickell’s tenure. Eastern Michigan is still an opponent the Badgers were expected to beat comfortably.
But after Wisconsin struggled to put together four quarters against inferior nonconference opponents throughout Fickell’s first three seasons, this game looked much closer to what you’d expect the talent disparity to produce.
“Everybody can say this is what you expect. You’re supposed to beat teams like this. You’re supposed to win. I know, but the way in which we did, the way in which they moved the ball around, the way that some guys made some different plays, this is something we really need,” Fickell said.
Colton Joseph and the passing game created explosive plays
Joseph’s afternoon didn’t begin particularly well.
His first-quarter interception came on an underthrown deep ball intended for Eugene Hilton Jr., giving him a turnover for the second time in three games. But just as Fickell noted after Joseph’s pick-six against Notre Dame, the mistake didn’t appear to linger for too long or get him down.
Joseph responded with easily his most productive passing performance at Wisconsin, completing 23-of-33 passes for 362 yards and three touchdowns while adding another 46 yards and a score on the ground.
Wisconsin finally found the explosive passing game that had been largely missing through two weeks.
Chris Brooks Jr. caught a 75-yard touchdown. Tyrell Henry set a Wisconsin single-game record with 14 receptions, finishing with 160 yards and a touchdown. Tight end Jacob Harris added 89 yards on three receptions, including an impressive one-handed catch.
Fickell was particularly encouraged that the early misses didn’t make Joseph or offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes hesitant to keep attacking.
“We missed them in the first half or in the first quarter, the first series,” said Fickell. “We missed a couple ones. I would say we’re there, just a little bit outstretched. But I don’t think it’s the same thing. It didn’t keep us from continuing to do it. It didn’t, you know, hold Colton back. It didn’t hold Coach Grimes back in the ability to call them.”
Henry’s emergence has become particularly noteworthy. After contributing primarily on special teams during his first two seasons, he has become one of Joseph’s most dependable targets. His 14 receptions Saturday broke Matt Nyquist’s previous Wisconsin record of 13 against Iowa in 1995.
Fickell pointed to Henry’s offseason commitment to becoming bigger and more durable as one reason he’s been able to handle a larger role.
“I didn’t know he had 14 catches,” Fickell said. “I didn’t know that was a record.”
Fickell was similarly encouraged by Harris and the different dimension his catch radius can provide.
“I think we did see some things today where we’ve got some guys that can be different,” Fickell said. “They can make some plays down the field. Everything doesn’t have to be methodical. Everything doesn’t have to be within the tackle boxes.”
That’s an important development for an offense that had too often been exactly that through the first two games.
Wisconsin finally created the takeaways it desperately needed
Perhaps no part of the Eastern Michigan matchup better illustrated Fickell’s idea of complementary football than what happened defensively.
Wisconsin entered Week 3 without a takeaway after forcing only six all of last season.
Then they came in bunches.
Mason Posa intercepted Noah Kim in the second quarter. Safety Matt Jung followed with a leaping interception at midfield. Wisconsin’s offense turned both into touchdowns. Sebastian Cheeks added another immediately after halftime, sacking Kim and forcing a fumble that Cooper Catalano recovered and returned for a touchdown.
Three takeaways. Twenty-one points.
Fickell believed Wisconsin’s decision to play more aggressively defensively helped create those opportunities.
“For us to play, I’m not saying you don’t want to play sound, but to play really sound and not allow some of our guys to be aggressive to take some shots, it does kind of lend to what we had last week where it’s methodical,” Fickell said. “We’ve got to challenge ourselves to be a little bit more aggressive. We’ve got to take some shots. If they make some plays, they make some plays.”
That’s a notable philosophical adjustment after Western Illinois possessed the football for nearly 35 minutes a week earlier without committing a turnover.
Wisconsin wasn’t flawless Saturday. The Badgers managed 117 yards on the ground, 46 of which came from Joseph, and Abu Sama III didn’t play after being a game-time decision. The traditional run game still has plenty of work to do, and another slow start against an inferior opponent won’t be something this team can afford once Big Ten play begins.
But this time, Wisconsin responded instead of letting the problems compound. That’s the distinction Fickell kept coming back to afterward.
“Yeah, every win we need,” Fickell said. “And I think that’s where we can’t be arrogant and delusional — every win is important, and every opportunity is important. But I think the way that we went about today is more important.”
Now the competition level changes.
Wisconsin is 2-1. The nonconference tune-ups are over. A trip to Penn State will provide a far more meaningful test of whether what Fickell believes is beginning to grow can survive once the margin for error disappears.
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