After the failed Air Raid experiment in Madison, Luke Fickell and the Badgers parted ways with offensive coordinator Phil Longo after the loss to Oregon. Now the head coach at Sam Houston State, Longo saw some familiar struggles with the Bearkats in their season opener.
Despite the success of quarterback Hunter Watson, who started over former Badger Mabrey Mettauer, the Bearkats got blown out by Western Kentucky 24-41. Watson threw for 209 yards and added another 91 on the ground, but the offense as a whole sputtered for the most part. The offense was held to just 2-of-14 on third down and really struggled to sustain drives.
For any #Badgers football fans who are curious about Phil Longo, Sam Houston opened with a 41-24 loss at Western Kentucky. Sam Houston's defense was awful, but the offense converted just 2 of 14 third-down chances and finished 0 of 3 on fourth down.
— Jeff Potrykus (@jaypo1961) August 24, 2025
Phil Longo's offense struggled to keep up against Western Kentucky
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The former Wisconsin coordinator praised Watson in his first game, but said the team needed to play more complimentary football.
"We needed to do more to help the defense," said Longo. "But we had some lack of execution on offense and I think that will be the plan to fix headed into week number two." Sounds familiar in so many ways for Badger fans. This is the type of nonsense that was sold week in and week out in Madison.
In the end, the defense is what really fell short for Sam Houston State. The defense yielded over 500 yards to the Hilltopper offense and had no answers all night. The offense had its struggles as well, and the Bearkats have a lot to figure out moving forward.
Ultimately, it is just week one, and Wisconsin will surely experience some growing pains themselves in a new offense, but a blowout loss to start the year won't do much to silence the now growing list of Longo critics that now includes Ole Miss, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and even Sam Houston fans.