The Wisconsin Badgers struggled in a 41-13 loss to the No. 4 Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Sunday evening, as they couldn’t respond well enough in the second half, where they were outscored 28-3.
It was a competitive start for Luke Fickell’s guys, but ultimately, the story was similar to prior Badger losses, with tackling being an issue and a couple of plays completely shifting the momentum of the game.
Head coach Luke Fickell spoke with the media after the game, talking about Colton Joseph, the offense, the difference between halves, and more. Here’s everything he said after the loss to Notre Dame.
Opening Statement
“Well, obviously a tale of two halves. I don’t have a great explanation for the second half. I give them a lot of credit. I thought that we kind of held the energy and created a lot of momentum in the first half. In the second half, we could do none. And they physically got after us in the second half. That was something that we felt like we were in a really good place in the first half. And so I don’t know if we got wore down. I know defensively we want to play a lot of guys. I think we did a good job in the first half of playing a lot of guys, and the second half came out and, obviously, the energy, momentum shifted in one direction, and we never could get it back. And I think that’s the most difficult thing.
I’m not making excuses. It’s a really, really good football team. They played really, really well. There’s no doubt. But we have a greater expectation for just the way we execute some things and the way we play physically. And in the second half, that’s where it really showed. I’ll answer questions and things like that. And I’ll just tell you what I told the guys in the locker room, more than anything, is the season really begins now. And that doesn’t mean that we weren’t riding on this game. That doesn’t mean we weren’t preparing for this game. It doesn’t mean the whole fall camp wasn’t about this game.
But the season begins for us when we get punched in the face because now we get to really find out who we are and what we’re about. Whether it’s 34 new guys, whether it’s 17 new starters, 15 to 17 new starters, a mesh of a bunch of different guys that are going to be really, really good. Now we get to figure out who we really are because there’s nothing like adversity. There’s nothing like getting punched in the face. And there’s nothing like seeing your brothers and seeing how they respond to you, to me, to us, and to the situation. And so we’re going to find out a hell of a lot about ourselves really, really quick here.
On whether Fickell believes Wisconsin started to close the gap in this game…
It’s a 60-minute game, so it’s hard to say that. Unfortunately, there were some things we saw last year a little ways, but I do feel like we were in a different spot. Look, you give them two balls, you know, fumble on the kickoff, which is catastrophic, and then you obviously give a pick-six, and just that energy alone takes a lot out of you.
And so, you know, I was curious, to be honest with you. I was really curious to figure out what we had, and I found out a lot of things. I’m not saying it was all great; that’s for sure. But the first 6 to 8 minutes, I thought, was really going to be important for us to figure out who we are, what kind of leadership we had. I saw some really good things there. It obviously went the other direction in the second half, and that’s really disappointing. But we grow from this, and I’m telling you, we’re going to be in a good place.
On what he saw on the pick-six…
I don’t know. Was there somebody in his face pretty quick? Chris [Brooks], was he not out of his cut fast enough, did Colton let it go too soon? Yeah, I mean, there’s obviously a little bit of timing issues right there. Pressure, I think, maybe had a little bit of a factor with it too. Those are one of those things that you try to ask and you just hear about the timings of things. So, what you have to know is like, look, we weren’t going to go out there and just say, hey, let’s try to keep this thing close. And that’s where I’m not down on the offense by any means, right? I mean, they score coming out of halftime, and I said, guys, we got to go. We’re not going to win this game on a field goal. We’re not going to win this game on one touchdown. So we know we have to continue to push. We know we have to continue to grow. There’s some things we got to continue to get better at. And they were aggressive. It just obviously, that was a big one.
On what he saw from Colton Joseph overall…
Against a very, very good football team and a very, very good defense, I love what I saw from him in body language, demeanor, and poise. Can he make some more plays? Hell yeah. Are there some things out there that we got to get better at? There’s no doubt. But I did see something in his eyes. I see a competitive spirit. I see a guy that threw a pick-six that really didn’t like look like he was completely down on himself. And, you know, you can look in somebody’s eyes and notice some things. And so I felt like he was in a good place.
And, we said, hey, keep rolling here. We got to grow. We know that. I think that’s probably the biggest thing for us. I mean, we prepared. This was a this was a big challenge for us. But I also knew that like this is a journey, man, and we’ve got to figure it out. Everybody asks about, what’s your identity? Well, you know what? You create an identity through a season. And this was one step in a journey that didn’t come out the right way. But we also knew that along this journey, there’s going to be some adversity. We’re going to take some shots, and we’re going to have to find out a way to get back up and get better.
On run defense strength early and second half change…
I don’t know. I know that you got to give them some credit. I think they went back to the run a little bit more maybe in the second half where I kind of assumed maybe they would just try to sling it around, but I think that the combination of being able to move the ball a little bit, getting 4 yards on first down on a run, and then playing off coverage a little bit. And I mean, he’s (C.J. Carr) good, and he takes the free access, and it’s another 4 yards. Now it’s 3rd and 1.
And the second half, we just never got us into situations where we had some 3rd-and-longs. And so they always had the upper hand against the defense. And so when things started to happen, I think we maybe panicked a little bit. Guys started trying to do a little bit too much, but there’s where we got to go back and look at it and figure out what it is that we need to do because we got to be a hell of a lot better.
On any hesitancy calling timeout at end of fourth quarter…
No, we got to go. Yeah, we got to go. I mean, look, this is a journey, and I keep saying that over and over and over again. These guys got to understand, like, we got to get better. And it stinks when you’re in the situation where you are, but they asked me like, what do you want to do? I’m go. Like, we can’t sit on this thing. And just like we said in the second half, they score right off the bat. And I said, guys, we got to go. They score again on a pick 6. I said, guys, we got to keep going. This isn’t like, let’s figure out how we can slow this thing down and get out of here. It’s, we got a chance to be a good football team. We got to have to grow a hell of a lot, not just from this, but from a hell of a lot more things. So, we just got to continue to be aggressive in everything that we’re doing.
On early run blocking success, what happened in second half…
I don’t know. I mean, I think there was times when we did a decent job establishing the run a little bit. I think both sides, I think there’s a few times when you look at the back, and you say, just got to keep getting vertical. I think that there’s one of those things that Abu can do when he can get to an edge. He’s got a burst that’s really, really good. But there’s also some times when you’re just like, man, just keep us getting vertical.
So I think that that’s where we got to figure ourselves out, right? I mean, this whole identity thing is important for all of us. It’s important for our offense. It’s important for us as a defense. It’s important for us as a program. We know we have to be able to establish the run. It’s going to be a team right there that’s going to make it very difficult. Not that anybody’s going to let you run the football. But that’s a damn good football team and good front.
On why Harrison Bortolotti took kickoff after minimal/no reps in camp…
Well, Gene (Eugene Hilton) was one of the other guys, and he had kind of went down, and Harry had been a guy back there, and Nate (Palmer) was the other guy and he was out for 3 weeks in camp with a twisted ankle. We probably weren’t going to bring it out. They were 87 percent on touchbacks last year. Didn’t believe we’d have a ton of opportunities, but after the first one we said, ‘Look, man, that was somewhat of a plan.’
I’m not saying we weren’t trying to be aggressive, but just the first time out there, wanted to put the ball on the 25, and then after that we said we got to go. And love him to death. Obviously a tough, tough one right there. But we’ll have to figure out what it is. We don’t want to just sit back there and not be aggressive. And that’s what we kind of had to do there for the while, because we had had a bunch of guys that had been out in that position. And, you know, we put Gene back in there. He wasn’t quite able to go either.
On Malachi Coleman’s Badgers debut…
Yeah, I love Malachi. I mean, Malachi is a fiery guy. He’s one of those guys that you want him on that wall. We talked about that when he missed a bit of time in camp. He missed some practices, but he never missed a practice because of his emotion, his energy, and his fire, and we’re going to need him. I thought he did a good job tonight. He had some opportunities. Obviously, he had the big touchdown catch. Um, but you can tell when guys, even at the late in that 4th quarter when things aren’t in a good position, who’s really fighting to keep rolling out there. And I think he’s going to be a good one for us.
On how Marcus Freeman has built his program, take anything from that…
They are a very good football team and a very good program. I think we all have to be our own people. And I think that’s where I said it before, that’s where he’s done a phenomenal job of being who he is. He’s not Jim Tressel, he’s not Darrell Hazel, he’s not anything from me or from whoever else he’s been around. He’s done a good job with creating his own identity and putting a good team together. We’ve got to do the same things for us. We’ll keep battling, we’ll keep growing, we’ll keep climbing, and we’re going to do things the way that we do them, but we just got to do them a hell of a lot better.
On if he expected C.J. Carr to take free access throws in 2H…
At times, but no. I mean, there’s things where we want to be able to roll up and buzz underneath and get down on those guys. But we also, not expecting— not everybody takes all those. And that’s where, especially in the second half, I think that’s where they finally said, look, we’re going to loosen them up in the running game a little bit by taking some of these free-access throws and give him credit. He delivers things on time. He does a really good job. He’s got a lot of confidence in it. And yeah, it costs us some issues, and we got to find ways to eliminate some of those things a little bit more in particular, especially against a guy as good as he is.
On if Wisconsin expected ND hurry up offense coming out of halftime…
I thought maybe we would get some of the empty. But I figured that, if they get things rolling, they would definitely try to pick up the tempo. But I mean, it was kind of the flow of the game. I have to give them credit for making some plays in that situation and then staying aggressive when they did. And those were a couple of those bigger chunk plays that put you on your heels.
The second half, as much as we didn’t do a good job at stopping the run and some of that, we didn’t do a good job of tackling defensively. And give them credit for throwing the ball into checkdowns and then guys making guys miss and getting 6, 8, 9 yards untouched on some checkdown throws because they did a better job in the second half even of taking care of the rush a little bit more where the back could chip and get out and then be in a good position. And then we just didn’t tackle well. We missed a lot of tackles in the second half. And I think that’s probably as big an issue as anything.
On the Lambeau experience…
This is an incredible place. I only wish that I had great memories, things would go a little bit different, but it is an incredible venue. I know our kids were excited about being here and playing here. It’s just a bittersweet kind of feeling because this game is about winning. And we didn’t do that tonight.
On decision not to go for it on 4th & 7 at midfield in 4th quarter down 21 points…
I’m not sure which one. We did go for it on a few of them. I mean, that’s right there at that point where we want to get the defense maybe back out there, give them a little bit better opportunity. They weren’t playing very well either. To give them a completely short field if we didn’t get it. We had a philosophy going in, and if it was going to be 3rd, 4th, and anywhere in that 3 to 4 range, we were going to be very aggressive.
We knew that punting and field goals were not going to win games, especially against these guys. That kind of hit the range a little bit. I know the score was probably in your analytics books would have said go, but we tried to stick with the philosophy, just like the field goal we didn’t kick in the first half. [It] was on the right hash at the 37-yard line where kick line’s a little bit more than 35. He’s about 92% from the middle. He’s about 90% from the left hash, and he drops down to 78% from the right hash. So there was a decision right there that, in the heat of the moment, probably would have said, go back and kick it. But we kicked the ball in the end zone, but there was some things we had a plan for, and it just didn’t work out that way.
On WRs vs. ND secondary…
We’ll have to look at it. I mean, they’re a very good front. They’re a very good defense. They’re very good in the back end. They did change some things up. I’ll give them some credit. They didn’t play all the man like they had done in the past. So I think they were able to go to some other things, which is going to be very beneficial for them in the future.
