FB: what the hell, sure, let's try being positive
Wisconsin lost (sixth straight!) at Oregon, 21-7, but it COULD have been way worse.
I have been a Wisconsin Badgers fan my entire life, technically, but I’ve probably only been an active fan for the last three decades give or take a year. So, I don’t say this lightly: the 2025 Wisconsin Badgers football season has been the least enjoyable one of my life. THAT being said, I enjoyed watching Wisconsin lose at Oregon in the driving rain on Saturday night.
For the first quarter and a half of the game I was at an INSANE Halloween party. The hosts start decorating their backyard in August and you can tell the second you step on to their property. It ruled and there were a couple of other parents there who were also Wisconsin fans and we participated in some gallows humor (Halloween!) while checking our phones and seeing the score was still 0-0 at the end of the first quarter.
I watched the end of the second quarter and most of the rest of the game at home by myself, since my wife is the best and said she’d stay at the party so the kids could keep playing, while periodically checking in on (and praying for) Brian Kelly’s downfall. The Badgers game didn’t go as expected, in a positive way for once this season, but I was never once under the impression that they were going to win.
It was an extremely freeing way to watch football!
Wisconsin entered the fourth quarter down 14-0 (which may as well have been 1,400-0 with the way UW’s offense was operating) and yet I was still locked in on the game. I obviously wanted to see the Badgers score points for the first time in 11-plus quarters, or even a touchdown for the first time in 14-plus quarters, but I was also interested to see how the team looked in such dire straights.
Seamus Rohrer over at Badgernotes posted his weekly film review from the Ohio State game a couple days before the Oregon game and came away impressed with how the players responded while getting their asses beat for the second straight home game. It gave me pause while reading it and also made me reevaluate how I wanted to approach the rest of the season.
While knowing it in the deepest, darkest depths of my heart, I don’t think I had fully admitted to myself that Wisconsin is probably not going to win another game this season AND Luke Fickell is still going to be the head coach next year. Fickell is a bad coach and I’ll dance on his grave when he finally gets canned in Madison, but me being an annoying grouch about it all the time isn’t going to affect anything! Let’s try being positive for once!! For instance: look at that punt AND punt coverage!!! Teach tape stuff right there, brother.
Was this the only highlight posted, and thus only option for me to embed, by the Badgers football Instagram account? Well, yes…but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good play worth celebrating! Here are a few other things I liked from Wisconsin.
First off, we need to talk about some embarrassing coaching decisions…NOT by Fickell! Oregon head coach Dan Lanning apparently didn’t think his No. 6 ranked team in the country could line up and beat the Badgers (two wins on the year; zero points in the last two weeks) on their own merits. Opening the game with an onside kick against Wisconsin? Of all teams?? Then immediately going four and out after recovering??? And THEN later running a fake punt and getting it called back for holding?!?! I hope putting all of that on tape costs you a game later in the season in an important game Dan Lanning, you dingus.
Lanning’s goofy ass aside, I think Fickell made the right calls on fourth down in this one. It wasn’t Fickell’s fault that QB Hunter Simmons fumbled on 4th and 1 in the first quarter and ended up losing a yard, despite it being recovered by RB Gideon Ituka. On the next 4th and 1, near the beginning of the second quarter, Wisconsin gave it to FB Jackson Acker (10-yard gain) and then on 4th and 4 in the fourth quarter Simmons completed a pass to WR Trech Kekahuna for eight yards on a drive that ended in a touchdown.
Should Fickell have been more aggressive at the end of the first half and try to get points? I mean, yeah, I would’ve liked that but I also think that this was a man recognizing the extreme limitations of his team’s offense. That being such a huge consideration is obviously a massive black mark on Fickell’s coaching acumen in general, but we’re being positive in this post, remember?
I mentioned Ituka, UW’s fourth string tailback, earlier and he deserves much more praise for his performance that a brief mention. Dilin Jones and Darrion Dupree (top two RBs on the depth chart) were both out and third-stringer Cade Yacamelli got knocked out of the game after only three carries, so Ituka, by default, was Wisconsin’s bell cow in this one. He responded by toting the rock 21 times for 85 yards (4.0 ypc) and a long of 18. The offensive line wasn’t a glaring negative either and it was nice to see OL Davis Heinzen starting again after the catastrophic start to his UW career.
Ituka was a member of the same recruiting class as Jones and Dupree but hadn’t received as many carries as those two yet. The past couple of weeks have shown that Ituka, who is more of a bruising between the tackles type back, deserves more snaps even when the others are healthy.
Freshman WR Eugene Hilton, Jr. had one catch for 42 yards and, after a review that showed he very well might’ve gotten in the endzone, not a touchdown. He adjusted on a terribly under-thrown ball by Simmons and came back to make the catch, showing awareness beyond his years. Wisconsin’s touchdown, their first in almost 15 full quarters, was a nice play-call by Jeff Grimes and good execution by Simmons and TE Lance Mason.
Speaking of freshmen, the inside linebacker duo of Mason Posa (13 tackles) and Cooper Catalano (eight tackles) is a legit foundation on which to build Wisconsin’s defense of the future. Those two maniacs were all over the field with each of them breaking up a pass and Catalano delivering a QB hit too. Posa (accidentally and with a hard, legal hit) knocked Ducks starting QB Dante Moore out of the game on a scramble when Posa’s arm went through Moore’s facemask and broke his nose.
It should be at the top of the list of whoever is in charge of NIL money in Madison to make sure those two don’t leave this offseason in the transfer portal.
On the other end of the eligibility spectrum is graduate student Ben Barten. The massive defensive lineman is having an excellent season and Saturday vs. Oregon may have been his best showing yet. He had eight tackles, one tackle for loss, and a sack while being a general nuisance to the Ducks’ offensive line all night. You love to see an in-state kid stick around during a coaching change and have his best season in his last go around.
Sebastian Cheeks, Mason Reiger, and Aaron Witt all recorded sacks, giving the Badgers four on the game. It was nice to see an opposing signal caller actually feel uncomfortable for once.
Both punters, distance expert Sean West and accuracy maven Atticus Bertrams, did their jobs perfectly. West averaged 47.7 yards per punt, landing two inside the 20, while booting two of his three kicks 50+ yards. Both of Bertrams’ attempts were downed inside the 20 too. Vinny Anthony never broke one but looked dangerous on all three of his kick returns (72 yards, long of 29) to set UW up with decent field position a couple of times.
The defense, as a full unit, played lights out in the first half and held the Ducks to a mere seven points. Oregon has only scored fewer than 21 points in one game this year, their loss to Indiana when they scored 20. Even after struggling against Wisconsin, the Ducks are averaging 41.3 ppg which is sixth best in the nation. Oregon (again, these numbers include Wisconsin too, meaning they were higher coming into the game) averaged 483.9 yards per game and UW held them to 335 total yards.
Look, I’ve been positive for over 1,400 words so indulge me for a moment. The fact that Luke Fickell has bottomed out the Wisconsin football program so thoroughly that fans are legitimately celebrating a 14-point loss because everyone thought it would be a 34-point loss is honestly pathetic loser shit. But that’s where we find ourselves!
The shift from blood-boiling anger at the product on the field to indifferent bemusement has been so rapid I barely even noticed. I didn’t expect Wisconsin to even score a point against Oregon so I was ecstatic when the Badgers got in the endzone…even though they were still down 14 points and everyone knew they weren’t going to score again.
The Wisconsin fans at the game were clearly cheering, at best, half sarcastically and the internet poisoned brains of the online wing of Wisconsin fandom were definitely fully cheering sarcastically. The Badgers will end the month of October winless (0-4), having only scored 17 points total, and now get their second bye week before returning to Camp Randall Stadium for a tilt with the 6-2 Washington Huskies, who are currently third in the “receiving votes” section of the AP Poll. The Huskies, depending on what happens next week when they are also on a bye, could be in the top-25 before playing Wisconsin. You may remember that Fickell has never beaten a ranked team while the head coach of Wisconsin and he is 0-4 this year in particular.
At kickoff it will have been over a year since Fickell last beat a P4 team and over 13 months since doing so at home. Wisconsin has lost 10 straight Big Ten games. Their defense is competing hard every week but ends up worn down by the second half due to the extreme ineptitude of the offense. The offense is (technically) improving in the blocking and rushing departments but might possess the worst passing attack in the nation. The 86 passing yards Wisconsin ended the Oregon game with was actually their MOST in the last three games.
The rot in the program is deep and spreading, but as noted above, there are still some positives to find. In fact, one of the few complaints you can’t levy against Fickell’s team this year is “they lack effort.” I do think that Fickell gave up against Michigan and then some of the players did against Maryland, but since then I would argue the team has been flying around and playing to the whistle in every game, regardless of score.
Wisconsin football will look different next year. Maybe not on the coaching staff, but there will be plenty of new faces on the two-deep. The eternal search for a quarterback will continue as will the hunt for difference-makers on defense, but if players like Posa, Catalano, and Ituka stick around…they can rebuild the culture in Madison. I know I’ll still be around.
My main complaint about Fickell is his failure to develop a quarterback. For 3 years he as recruited (not obtained through transfer) several highly rated prospects. Yet, I think it's safe to say those recruits total less than a dozen game snaps. Wisconsin seems to have talent at most positions, but they'll go nowhere without a quarterback. I think a new coach deserves 3 years to get his system in place and the players he likes. After that, he's fair game.
Sorry, but not surprised, about the loss and happy, and a little surprised, by your more positive take on the game and the program (about which I feel better after reading your post). Serenity now!