It should not be this hard, but Luke Fickell always finds a way. Taking timeouts with him into the next game, it is so abundantly clear that the Wisconsin Badgers have the wrong man leading the football team. That being said, there has never been a better time than right now for the Badgers to get their first win in league play and against Power Four competition this year. Iowa is so unbelievably beatable.
With the overall likelihood of this game devolving into a good, old-fashioned Big Ten West punt fest, have you seen what the projected over/under total is for this oe? This year's rendition of Heartland is giving the bettors some 36.5 points to work with. ESPN BET had the Badgers getting 3.5 points at home. ESPN's matchup predictor is giving Wisconsin a 37.4-percent chance of pulling off the upset.
After doing the math, the projected final score for this game is Iowa 20 and Wisconsin 16.5... We are talking about a game where neither team is expected to score three touchdowns and extra points. Because of the implied low-scoring nature of this game, that might actually give the Badgers as good of a chance as ever. Mike Tressel's defense showed up vs. Michigan, while Fickell totally mailed it in.
Even if he ends up going with Hunter Simmons again, keep in mind that Mark Gronowski is banged up.
The Iowa game has become almost as winnable as the Maryland one was
At 2-3 on the season, 0-2 in Big Ten play and currently riding a three-game losing streak, if Wisconsin is serious about winning a single conference game, much less getting to bowl eligibility with a 6-6 record, it starts by beating Iowa to the punch on Saturday night with good defense, great special teams and "timely" offense. Simmons might be able to do some things, but Fickell cannot be trusted.
So if Mike Tressel's Wisconsin defense can play with the same level of togetherness we have seen at times, especially for the better part of the Michigan game, an upset could happen in the Badgers' favor on Saturday night. While a win will only delay the inevitable of Fickell's long-overdue termination, we all want to believe Wisconsin can turn the corner with some of these players that are on the roster.
In the end, the first team to score three touchdowns is going to win this game. Unfortunately, that may not happen... So if it comes down to putting maybe two drives into the end zone, kicking a bunch of fields goals, and playing great defense, Wisconsin might have a shot in this after all. Of course, Gronowski may take this game over and put it too far out of reach for Simmons to pull off the upset.
Wisconsin needs to find ways to win games without the false hope of an injured Billy Edwards Jr...