Stock up, stock down for Wisconsin football after Week 3 loss to Alabama
Wisconsin football stock report after the 38-14 loss to No. 19 Alabama. Who’s rising, who’s falling, and what it means heading into Week 4.
The Wisconsin football team didn’t just lose in Tuscaloosa, it got a harsh reminder of how far up the mountain the Badgers still have to climb under head coach Luke Fickell. No. 19 Alabama scored the game’s first four touchdowns and rolled 38–14, extending Fickell’s record to 0–7 against ranked opponents and 3–12 in them against teams with winning records.
And that’s where the frustration sets in. I’ll let you know when I figure out exactly what has improved in three years. Sure, you can point to recruiting, and I’ll acknowledge it’s not as easy to recruit, retain, and develop players as it used to be. The portal has created a revolving-door climate where many new faces come and go every year. But even with that context, this program hasn’t shown meaningful growth on the field that suggests they’re closing the gap on the top college football teams.
What we’ve seen thus far is a consistently inconsistent football team. Perhaps this staff has learned from some of their mistakes, but the difference between learning from theory and executing corrections in practice is significant. Right now, nothing about this looks like progress.
The Badgers managed only 209 yards of total offense, surrendered 382 passing yards to Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson and 454 overall to the Tide, and never truly looked competitive after the first quarter. An offensive line made up of several redshirt freshmen, due to injuries and a lack of depth, struggled to hold up. The secondary was repeatedly torched, and Wisconsin’s only real highlights came on Vinny Anthony II’s 95-yard kickoff return and a 41-yard touchdown pass to Jayden Ballard.
“We've got to flush it pretty quick because there’s a lot to learn from," Luke Fickell told reporters. "No matter what, you’ve got to be able to put these games behind you. I tried to do some studying over the summer, knowing what this was going to look like, and a part of that competitive maturity had to do with me as well, being able to handle these situations and move forward. It’s not that we’re going to wash this thing away and forget about it, but we have to move on. And it’s not accepting losing or accepting playing the way we did, but it’s accepting the ability to correct it and move forward because the league and the season start now.”
There’s no sugarcoating it: this was a measuring stick game, and Wisconsin was overmatched in every phase except special teams. But even in lopsided losses against ranked teams, there are always players on both sides of the ball who either raise their stock or see it take a hit.
With that in mind, let’s sort through which stocks are rising and whose are falling for Wisconsin coming out of Week 3.
📈 Stock up: OLB Darryl Peterson
If you’re looking for signs of individual growth on Wisconsin’s defense, senior outside linebacker Darryl Peterson is giving you something tangible. Against Alabama, Peterson logged 25 total snaps and came away with a 74.0 defensive grade, three pressures, and a quarterback hit.
It didn't change the game, but the tape showed a guy who looks sharper, stronger, and more decisive than he has in years past.
Peterson has been a steady rotational piece for years and someone that this staff could lean on to hold the edge and do his job against the run. But this season, Peterson's added a little more juice as a pass rusher with the added weight, and that’s changing the way he’s impacting games.
The Ohio native has six total pressures and two sacks through three weeks, which already puts him on a better trajectory than a year ago.
Credit where credit is due: Peterson is starting to play like a legitimate asset in Mike Tressel’s defense. He’s a veteran presence who’s logged plenty of snaps, but the difference now is that he’s making them count. That’s the version Wisconsin has been waiting on, and it feels like he’s finally rounding into one of the more reliable chips in this front seven.
📈 Stock up: WR Jayden Ballard
Jayden Ballard didn’t need a heavy workload to leave his mark against Alabama. He logged 24 total snaps: 14 as a pass catcher and 10 as a run blocker, and graded out at 67.3 offensively, per PFF.
But what stood out were the moments, not the volume. Ballard made a heady special teams play by catching an Atticus Bertrams punt in the air and downing it at the two-yard line early in the game, and later hauled in a beautifully thrown 41-yard touchdown pass from Danny O’Neil, which was one of Wisconsin’s few offensive highlights against the Tide.
Through three games, Ballard has six catches for 141 yards, averaging 23.5 yards per reception, with two touchdowns. He’s not going to be a volume guy in this offense, but the high-end speed is real, and it forces defenses to respect him. That’s exactly what this group needs: someone who can keep opponents' safeties honest while the top options draw coverage elsewhere. Ballard may not be the focal point, but he’s shaping up as the kind of big-play threat who can flip the field in a hurry.
Vinny Anthony, Chris Brooks Jr., Trech Kekahuna, and Ballard appear to be the Badgers’ top options at receiver. And despite Ballard being fourth in that pecking order, the former Buckeye currently leads the team in receiving yards. That says plenty about his ability to stretch the field and make splash plays, even if he isn’t the featured target. Stock up.
📈 Stock up: C Ryan Cory
It’s tough to come up with many stock-up options after getting absolutely throttled by Alabama, but redshirt freshman Ryan Cory deserves some recognition. With Jake Renfro gutting it out through injuries before exiting the game, and Kerry Kodanko lasting just one disastrous snap before going down, Cory found himself thrown into the fire against the Tide.
In 10 total snaps, Cory posted a 65.4 offensive grade, including a 76.0 in pass protection and a 63.7 mark as a run blocker. That’s hardly headline-grabbing, but context matters. Cory isn’t even the backup center, yet he was forced into action against Alabama’s front and held his own. He wasn’t credited with giving up a single pressure or sack during his brief cameo, which is all you can ask from a redshirt freshman thrown into the fire.
The fact that Cory didn’t look totally outclassed is worth noting.
This isn’t to say he should be starting at center moving forward. The staff still views him as a developmental piece with a long runway ahead. But if nothing else, Cory showed he can hold the line when the situation demands it, and that’s encouraging for a group that’s been searching desperately for continuity. With the injuries and constant shuffling up front, there’s a very real chance Wisconsin will keep rotating young players in.
If those guys can take their lumps now and start stacking real reps together, this line might have the makings of a more cohesive unit by year’s end, with Cory firmly part of that picture in 2026 and beyond.
📉 Stock down: LB Tackett Curtis
There’s no denying that Tackett Curtis is a freak athlete. He plays hard, he flies around North-South, and when you unleash him going downhill, he looks every bit like the disruptive force Wisconsin thought it was getting.
But right now, the other half of the linebacker job, diagnosing plays and holding up in coverage, is where the cracks are showing.
Against Alabama, Curtis was targeted four times by the Tide and gave up four catches for 50 yards. That earned him a 31.2 coverage grade according to PFF, and it wasn’t just a one-off. Through three games, he’s allowed eight receptions on nine targets for 95 yards with a 45.5 coverage grade on the season. The numbers match the eye test: he’s consistently out of position and struggling to process what the offense is trying to do.
This isn’t to say Curtis can’t still be useful and grow from this because he absolutely can. In games where his main job is plugging gaps and blowing up the run, he has real value. But until Curtis proves he can drop back and be something more than a downhill hammer, I’ve got real questions about whether he can be trusted in the kind of space modern defenses demand.
📉 Stock down: CB Geimere Latimer
It was a tough outing for nickel cornerback Geimere Latimer against Alabama. He logged 48 defensive snaps and was targeted four times, allowing three catches for 128 yards and two touchdowns.
The numbers backed it up: Latimer finished with a 60.5 defensive grade, a 59.3 in coverage, and had a 156.3 NFL passer rating against him when targeted. That said, one of those plays needs a little context. Latimer was credited with allowing the 75-yard touchdown pass on the double-reverse screen to Ryan Williams, but he never really had a chance. Latimer was the only defensive back in the area, and the lead blocker absolutely buried him before Williams sprinted free to the end zone. It still goes on Latimer’s stat line, but it wasn’t the product of him being beaten in man coverage.
Either way, it's a drop off from what we saw from Latimer earlier in the season. Latimer had a solid opener and, while he gave up an explosive play against Middle Tennessee State, he looked steady overall before getting exposed by Alabama’s talented wideouts. Even so, he remains Wisconsin’s best option at nickel. This was more about running into an elite passing attack than a total indictment of his ability. Nevertheless, it was indeed a rough day at the office for the Jacksonville State transfer.
📉 Stock down: OL Emerson Mandell
After winning the right guard competition in fall camp, redshirt freshman Emerson Mandell was asked to kick out to right tackle in Week 2. He handled himself pretty well at tackle against Middle Tennessee State, but Week 3 down in Tuscaloosa was a different story. Against Alabama’s front seven, Mandell struggled quite a bit, and that might be the kindest way to say that.
In 54 total snaps at tackle, Mandell earned a 49.5 offensive grade, a 57.1 mark as a run blocker, and just a 26.8 in pass protection. He was credited with giving up four pressures and two sacks, and at times looked completely overmatched by Alabama's speed and power on the edge.
Now, none of this erases what he could become. Mandell still has the upside to be a cornerstone piece Wisconsin builds around long-term, and these kinds of trial-by-fire moments often accelerate growth. But Saturday was a harsh reminder of how far Mandell still has to go.
The Badgers need to find some continuity up front, and whatever that five-man combination ends up being, Mandell is going to be part of it.
His outing in Week 3 was forgettable, but it also presents an opportunity for line coach A.J. Blazek to coach him up and make corrections. With a long slate of Big Ten defenses ahead, the learning curve has to be steep.
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