Polzin: ‘Big-boy football is coming to town’ But is Wisconsin football ready for it? (2024)

Those fans who had stuck around until the final snap Saturday were advised there will be a “Stripeout” in the stands at Camp Randall Stadium in a week.

Left unsaid was that there’s the potential for a wipeout on the field when No. 4 Alabama rolls into town.

The University of Wisconsin football team has offered little evidence during its first two games of the season to indicate it has the skills or schemes to compete with the best teams on its schedule. So much for the notion that the Badgers’ first two games of the season would provide proof of progress or reason for hope that they could have a fighting chance in their biggest nonconference home game in decades.

Back-to-back wins against what should be inferior opponents, this one a 27-13 victory over South Dakota, instead have left an antsy fan base with a feeling of dread of what’s to come.

The Badgers are 2-0 for the first time since 2020, so that’s something. However, the manner in which Wisconsin has arrived at that record has left plenty to desire.

“We know what lies ahead and we’ve just got to have a good week, we’ve got to continue to get better,” Wisconsin outside linebacker Aaron Witt said. “But we’re 2-0. There’s nothing really you can complain about.”

Well, there’s plenty actually.

The Badgers trailed in the fourth quarter in the opener against Western Michigan, and they were clinging to a one-score lead over the Coyotes (1-1) until the midway point of the fourth quarter Saturday.

It took an 11-play, 85-yard touchdown drive for the Badgers to finally create some breathing room. It took three 15-yard penalties by South Dakota on that series to help Wisconsin move down the field. It required Luke Fickell to go for it on fourth down rather than take the points and the two-score lead, a bold move that paid off when Chez Mellusi bowled into the end zone.

So many Wisconsin fans have a vision of how this new era in the program is supposed to look. People want it to be pretty and sexy sooner than later, and Mellusi said he believes that’s a fair request.

“There’s a level of football that I think we have to play and a standard that we have for ourselves and people expect that out of us,” Mellusi said. “I don’t think we’ve played our complete game of football yet, especially myself included. I think I left some things out there today as well.”

Yes, Mellusi understands that the Badgers have to play a complete game, or something close to it, to have any chance to stick with Alabama. (Keep in mind that Alabama was struggling against South Florida hours after Wisconsin’s win.)

“I would say so,” Mellusi said. “Big-boy football is coming to town. I think the whole team is excited.”

But are the Badgers ready for it? That question was posed to Fickell after the win over the Coyotes. He answered four questions about this game before the one about Alabama arrived.

“Well, how ready are you, right?” Fickell said. “Top team in college football in the last 20 years. You guys knew it. It was daunting, it’s been hanging over the top of your head from the time you walked in the door here. But it’s also to say, 'Hey you’ve got to find a way to continue to measure yourself.' And it doesn’t mean that you didn’t measure yourself in the first couple weeks. You were challenged incredibly.”

Too incredibly, if we’re being honest. Was it too much to ask for one of the Badgers’ first two wins to be easy? This one appeared headed that way after Wisconsin finally showed some explosiveness on offense while jumping out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter.

Over the next two quarters, it was hard to distinguish between the Big Ten program and the No. 6 team in the Football Championship Subdivision.

Fickell said in his opening statement Saturday he was anticipating a battle with the Coyotes.

“I think some people just assume that, 'Hey, you guys are going to blow out these first couple (opponents) and things are going to roll,'" he said. “But I had a good idea that we were going to be tested.”

But wait, what’s wrong with assuming that the Badgers would roll either in Week 1, Week 2, or in both games?

“Because if you assume, you make an a-- out of both you and me,” Fickell said, turning the question right back at me without even needing to add the curse word for emphasis. “So why not? That’s not what we do. You guys can do as you please, but I think that’s kind of the realities of what we have to deal with every single day.

“We can’t write the scripts. Winning is not easy. Don’t get me wrong, guys, we all have a vision of what it is we want it to look like, and if there’s anybody that loses more sleep of it, I promise you that you didn’t have as long a week as I did.”

Wisconsin safety Hunter Wohler later fielded the same question that had been directed at Fickell: Are the Badgers ready for Alabama?

“Yeah,” Wohler said without hesitation.

What gives him that confidence?

“Games aren’t ever going to be perfect,” he said. “But the way that this team has responded when things aren’t going our way, that gives me a lot of confidence going forward.”

If there’s one thing these first two weeks have done, they’ve forced the Badgers to win the fourth quarter both times. Finishing games had been an issue for this program in previous years, so their ability to do it twice in the span of nine days shouldn’t be overlooked.

But it’s one thing to finish strong against Western Michigan and South Dakota, and something completely different to do it against Alabama … and Southern Cal … and Penn State … and Oregon.

“We’ll find out where we are,” Fickell said.

That they will. If Wisconsin stays in the game long enough against Alabama to test if its fourth-quarter mettle is for real, that should be considered a success. But if Wisconsin fans have hit the exits long before any announcements that arrive when the clock hits 0:00, it’ll be another sign of just how much work is required of Fickell to get the Badgers back to playing big-boy football.