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Luke Fickell admits frustration with officiating but blames Wisconsin after UCLA loss

ByMark Knight
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Oct 17, 2026; Pasadena, California, USA; Wisconsin Badgers head coach Luke Fickell looks on during the second half against the UCLA Bruins at the Rose Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
Oct 17, 2026; Pasadena, California, USA; Wisconsin Badgers head coach Luke Fickell looks on during the second half against the UCLA Bruins at the Rose Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Wisconsin fans were able to sleep off the loss to UCLA, but the frustration over the officiating didn't go away. It feels like the game was absolutely hijacked by the officials, and neither team was ever able to get anything going. The defenses were solid for each team, but it was the refs that stole all the momentum. And if the wrong or miscalled penalties did change the game, it negatively affected Wisconsin.

There were at least a handful of really wrong calls that Badger fans were furious about. And that was just in the first half. You can read about that here. But after the game, Luke Fickell was going to take the high road with the officials. He clearly wasn't pleased, but he did not go on the rant that many fans were probably hoping for.

“You know, I was on the officials. I don't know if it was rightfully so, to be honest." Fickell said, "I mean, we didn't do a good enough job, and it comes back to us." The Badger head coach stayed focused on the fact that many of the penalties that were rightfully called against Wisconsin were undisciplined and aggravating for the coach.

"I know there were some bigger ones on the PIs that cost us on, like, third and 15 or 16. But the taunting penalty, the roughing the passer penalty, the undisciplined things that," Fickell said, "I can handle aggressive mistakes. I can handle aggressive penalties at times. There's going to be those. We had quite a few stupid penalties, and it's got to fall back onto the discipline of ourselves.”

He was then asked about a very specific penalty called against Malachi Coleman that went viral on the internet for how wrong it was called. He shook his head, searched for words, and said he didn't get a good explanation: "It was called a blindside block." Fickell left it there, frustration evident in body language alone.

Luke Fickell wants Wisconsin to focus on the penalties that they can clean up

Related: Wisconsin's Kevin Heywood throwing a teammate under the bus after UCLA loss can't happen

For Fickell, the big thing was that there are plenty of penalties that need to be cleaned up by the Badgers. There shouldn't be a reason for the refs to blow whistles. By being dumb with certain things, they put a target on their back, and the game felt more and more rigged.

Don't be surprised if Fickell sends in some video footage to the Big Ten officiating and handles a lot of this behind the scenes. It was a very poorly officiated game, and you could say "both ways," but it hurt Wisconsin way more than UCLA.

At the end of the game, Wisconsin had 10 penalties for 108 yards to UCLA's eight for only 78 yards. The fact that there were 18 whistles in the game is a lot, but also think about the obvious whistles that were missed and then think about the phantom ones. It was a frustrating game, Fickell agrees but he wouldn't get into it with the reporters.

The focus is on fixing what Wisconsin can fix and control what Wisconsin can control.

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