Apparently, the Wisconsin Badgers need to get the UCLA Bruins on the schedule more. They are how a bad football team busts a slump. During the Badgers' first bye week of the season, they had to have taken notice about what happened on the Banks of Lake Michigan over in Evanston. No, it was not pretty, but the lowly Northwestern Wildcats got a narrow second victory on the season over UCLA.
It may have only been a 17-14 win for the Wildcats, but it just goes to show that Northwestern has far from given up on head coach David Braun. Anyone who follows college football knows this has been a tough road to hoe for him. He took over for longtime head coach Pat Fitzgerald amid scandal during his first season on the job. Yes, his team nearly collapsed in the fourth quarter, but it got the job done.
As far as what Luke Fickell could maybe learn from this game is when your team plays competitively, you always have a chance, no matter how little talent you make think you have on the football field. Northwestern did everything in its power to give away this game, but UCLA was unable to take it from them. Braun may get a win here, but Fickell has to recognize how close he came to potentially losing.
Once again, Fickell is the luckiest man on the face of the earth because Wisconsin did not play today.
Luke Fickell can learn how to win close games from ... David Braun?!
Look. There is no way around this. Northwestern is not a good football team, neither is Wisconsin, and UCLA might be downright awful. That being said, it is hard to win in college football, and being able to win games when you do not always have the best pieces is the sign of a good coach. While Braun still may be that, his time in Evanston may have been extended just a bit by winning this one.
Not to say that Fickell would have lost this game if he were coaching the Wildcats, but he has the far more talented team of the two in the Big Ten, and they have the same record. The only difference is Northwestern just got something that might evade Wisconsin all year long, and that is a conference victory. Again, getting UCLA on the schedule was a huge boost, but you still have to go out and win it.
Ultimately, Fickell is having the time of his life seeing Sam Pittman struggle mightily vs. Notre Dame, as well as Hugh Freeze not exactly looking the part at Auburn. Maybe Jackson Arnold is not a good quarterback after all? Either way, Wisconsin has to recognize that even though the Badgers are down, they are not completely bereft of talent. Northwestern is closer to bereft than it is not, but it did win!
Wisconsin may not be the worst team in the Big Ten after all, but is this really the company to keep?