Three weeks of figuring things out are over for the Wisconsin football team.
The Badgers emerged from nonconference play 2-1, showed some legitimate growth during a 54-10 win over Eastern Michigan and finally produced something resembling the complementary football Luke Fickell has spent four years trying to establish.
Now comes the considerably more important part.
Wisconsin opens Big Ten play Saturday at Penn State, where Fickell’s team will get its first true road test of the season in an environment he considers as difficult as any in the conference.
For a team still trying to determine how much of its early progress is sustainable, the timing feels appropriate.
“I’m not going to dwell on a lot of last week,” Fickell told reporters. “Obviously, there’s a lot of really good things. I think there was some growth from week one to week two that we saw in week three.”
Here are three things that stood out from Fickell’s media availability as Wisconsin turns its attention toward Penn State.
Wisconsin is about to find out how much its early growth travels
Wisconsin has already played a highly ranked opponent. It hasn’t played one under these circumstances.
The Notre Dame game at Lambeau Field provided a big-game atmosphere, but Fickell was quick to distinguish a split neutral-site crowd from what awaits the Badgers at Happy Valley.
“There’s no place that can be a wilder, crazier, louder environment than Happy Valley, especially later at night,” Fickell said.
That makes Week 4 another useful measuring stick for a team that hasn’t handled adversity particularly well during Fickell’s tenure.
Wisconsin played No. 4 Notre Dame competitively for a half before getting worn down in a 41-13 loss. Fickell believes there are lessons from that game his team can carry forward, particularly the need to withstand the emotional and physical demands for an entire four-quarter game.
“This is going to be another top 10, top 12 [13] opponent that there’s an emotional side of things that we’ve got to be prepared for,” Fickell said. “And whether that’s from the very start and in an environment like that to obviously coming out after half, being able to play 60-plus minutes.”
Eastern Michigan showed Wisconsin can respond when a game starts poorly. Penn State should provide a much better indication of whether it can do it when the opponent is capable of punching back.
Wisconsin is still figuring out the right balance with Colton Joseph
Joseph’s development, while far from perfect, remains one of the more encouraging parts of Wisconsin’s 2-1 start.
The Old Dominion transfer threw for 362 yards and three touchdowns against Eastern Michigan while rushing for 46 yards and another score. More importantly, Fickell believes Joseph is becoming more comfortable understanding when his athleticism should become part of the offense.
“The thing that I would continue to challenge him for is, look, when you run, you got to run to score,” Fickell said. “You run to win, not just run to find some space or to get some yards.”
That doesn’t mean Wisconsin intends to turn Joseph into a run-first quarterback. Fickell acknowledged that Jeff Grimes and this coaching staff are still determining what the proper balance looks like.
But his legs are clearly part of the equation entering conference play.
“We’re going to need that as we move into Big Ten play,” Fickell said.
Joseph doesn’t need to become the centerpiece of Wisconsin’s offense. What the Badgers need is for the flashes we’ve seen from Joseph through three games to become increasingly dependable.
Penn State represents another incredibly difficult test.
Creating turnovers can’t be a one-week development
Mike Tressel’s defense spent the first two games searching for a takeaway. Then it found three against Eastern Michigan.
Mason Posa and Matt Jung each intercepted a pass, while Sebastian Cheeks forced a fumble that Cooper Catalano returned for a touchdown. After Wisconsin produced only six takeaways all of last season, Fickell wasn’t dismissing what happened simply because of the opponent.
He believes the bigger development was how aggressively Wisconsin attacked the football.
“We know it’s really tough to play great defense without creating turnovers,” Fickell admitted. “And so, you know, people are going to move the ball today. I mean, it’s just, it’s the nature of the beast.”
That’s especially relevant now.
Wisconsin’s defense has been relatively solid through three games without establishing any overwhelming strengths. Fickell knows Big Ten offenses are going to move the football, which makes creating negative plays and stealing possessions considerably more important.
“We have to find ways to continue to create turnovers, create some discomfort for guys on the other side of the ball,” Fickell said.
Eastern Michigan was an encouraging start. Now Wisconsin has to prove it wasn’t an isolated one.
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I have watched most every Penn State-Wisconsin game since the '70's and 80's. Who even remembers coaches Dave McClain or Don Morton? And I now live in Pennsylvania.
There is a familiar script at Happy Valley that we have to avoid:
(Penn State always starts the season with cupcakes.)
1. Penn State fires up their crowds with big plays.
2. Penn State makes big plays (30 yards plus) down the field and the crowd gets louder.
3. Penn State makes big play take-aways and the crowd gets insufferable.
Without Penn State making big plays and big take-aways, the crowd is subdued, Wisconsin stays in the game and it's competitive for 3, maybe 4 quarters.
In order to win, we have to hang around. The only way Wisconsin can win (Imagine that!) is
1. Leave the shrinking violets at home. Play aggressive. Have some fun on Penn State's turf.
2. Silence the crowd with productive hustle (TFLs, hard hits, pass break ups, etc.)
3. Silence the crowd with Wisconsin take-aways.
4. Silence the crowd with a consistent run game.
5. Silence the crowd with big plays of 10+ yards.
Did I mention how important it is to silence their crowd so the crowd is not a distraction?
This is a movie we have seen many times before. We know how it usually ends.