This does not have to be this hard, but Luke Fickell always seems to find a way. During every weekly press conference he conducts as the Wisconsin football coach, he says sound things at the podium, only to later be unraveled by a word salad mess of total nonsense. Last week, he tried to compare playing at Bryant-Denny to that of at Kinnick. This week, he downplayed being able to stop the run...
Wisconsin enters Big Ten play with a 2-1 overall record in the non-conference. Even though they got absolutely crushed by the Alabama Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa last week, the Badgers still have a top-five run defense in college football. They are allowing just 46.3 rushing yards per game. This has them fourth in the country behind only BYU, arch rival Minnesota and Texas Tech. This is good, right?
Well, Fickell had other thoughts on the matter, so let's unpack what he had to say about this topic...
Luke Fickell downplays the importance of having a great run defense
Fickell did address that this is an area of strength for the team, but he does not like its pass defense.
"Yeah, I mean that was an emphasis for us. We did a good job at defending the run, but there's a balance to everything that you do. I've always said I don't want to be the No. 1 rush defense in the country, which might mean that you're not real good at the pass defense, and I don't know that you want to be the No. 1 pass defense in the country."
He then painted himself into a corner before saying Georgia and Alabama had been elite at both.
"I'm not saying you don't, right? There are some rarities where you've seen a Georgia or Alabama team in the last whatever amount of years that were a really, really, really good defense and led the country in rush defense, but there's a balance to what you got to be able to do, and that's what we didn't do a good enough job of both on Saturday."
Here is everything Fickell had to say during his weekly press conference heading into Week 4.
This is the latest example of how Fickell is slowly but surely starting to lose the plot at Wisconsin.
Luke Fickell's run defense comment is his latest self-inflicted indictment
The recipe for success in Wisconsin is not that difficult. A coach worth his salt recruits heavily in the trenches, particularly with the local product. He then establishes the run with one bruising bell-cow back after another. From a defensive standpoint, it has always been about 11 guys coming together and playing in unison. It starts with run defense, hoping to set up the defensive backfield for success.
Simply put, the pieces are not coming together under Fickell, and he knows this. Running the Air Raid under Phil Longo was doomed from the start. What it did was effectively neuter the offensive line and its overall ground-and-pound philosophy as a program. It is in Wisconsin's blood to play this way. It trickles down to all areas of the team. A defense can only hold up for so long if the lines are not good.
To tie a bow on this, Wisconsin needs to take pride in its rush defense. There are not many teams in the Big Ten who can spin it as effectively as Alabama can within the context of Kalen DeBoer's offense. To say that stuffing the run is not that important comes across as coaching malpractice. For a former nose guard himself, can you even believe what he is saying? Just do not lose to Maryland...
Wisconsin's most important game of the year is only a few days away, but are the Badgers prepared?