All it took was Luke Fickell to speak his mind at the podium to help give his Wisconsin Badgers a refined sense of focus. Much has been made about the up-and-down nature of the team during their Week 1 win over the Miami RedHawks. While the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders seem to pose even less of a threat of an upset, Fickell knows his players are not going to be looking ahead to Alabama.
Truth be told, many Wisconsin fans might be. It is only human nature. A road date at Bryant-Denny is far more captivating than Derek Mason's lowly team from Murfreesboro coming to town in Week 2. That being said, Wisconsin did not enter this season with grandiose expectations. It is about getting back to a bowl game and then some, as opposed to pushing for the playoff like Alabama fans hoped.
It might not seem like much, but Fickell's thoughts on not overlooking Middle Tennessee do resonate.
Luke Fickell believes his Wisconsin Badgers will focus one game at a time
During Tuesday's press conference, Fickell responded to this with tremendous overall conviction.
"Well again, we've got so much to do and so much to work on. There's a competitive maturity within this team that I don't worry about something like that."
He then followed by saying "it's another unique week" for the Badgers for devolving into coach speak.
"It's another unique week in the sense that we played on a Thursday night, so your schedule isn't really in tune. So today is Tuesday, which is a Wednesday for us practice-wise. So there's a lot things that the nature of it is, 'Hey, we're going to have an extra day of practice.'"
Fickell's comments on the matter seems to hint at Wisconsin playing far better this week than last.
Here is everything Fickell said at the podium on Tuesday ahead of Wisconsin's Week 2 home game.
How crucial is it for Fickell to have his team playing with confidence heading into the Alabama game?
Middle Tennessee game has to serve as a building block for Wisconsin
Even if Alabama is down in the dumps after getting embarrassed on the road in Week 1 vs. Florida State, this is still one of the greatest programs in college football history. Kalen DeBoer is proving to be no Nick Saban, but he was so well-respected coming in from Washington. Frankly, DeBoer gave off similar vibes to that of Fickell after taking over in Madison following his amazing run over at Cincinnati.
One thing that people tend to forget is everyone largely responds to failure the same way. People hate getting embarrassed and will put in the necessary work, at least temporarily, to try to avoid from that happening again. However, not everyone handles success the same way. Some celebrate a bit too much, while others get back to the grind. Wisconsin is hoping Fickell still operates from the latter.
Wisconsin may have won in Week 1 in shutout fashion, but Fickell knows that type of performance is not going to beat Alabama, even if it does prove to be a year from hell for the Crimson Tide. The Badgers must win as a collective on Saturday to improve to 2-0 with a shot at redemption vs. the Crimson Tide over what happened last year in Madison. Week 2 should tell us a lot about both teams.
How Wisconsin plays is the only thing that matters, but Fickell's message was heard loud and clear.