Under head coach Luke Fickell, the Wisconsin Badgers did something they hadn't done in 22 years: They didn't go to a bowl game. They didn't get enough wins to qualify, with only five total wins from 2024 and needing six. It was deflating for the fanbase and the coaching staff. There are a handful of issues at play that Fickell has worked to address.
He's changed the offensive coordinator to Jeff Grimes, who fits with the identity of Wisconsin football better than the previous one did (Phil Longo). Fickell also went out and got a better quarterback; last season, Wisconsin had one of the worst-performing QBs in the Big Ten. Fickell went out and got Billy Edwards Jr. who last season was a middle-tier QB in the Big Ten. This doesn't sound as exciting as it should be, but it's a huge jump forward, even if he doesn't grow and evolve under Grimes (which he should).
Fickell said that the defensive line was the biggest weakness last season
However, Fickell said they needed to improve one issue more than any other. If there's one area that he identifies as the most significant weakness and the primary reason they struggled last year, it's along the defensive line.
In an interview with Pete Thamel on ESPN at the beginning of May, Fickell mused on many things, but when asked to address his biggest concern, he said it was physicality up along the defensive line.
""Physically, the second half of the season, we couldn't hold up and I mean that in particular on the defensive front...It's a grown man's league. If you don't have grown men, it's going to be really, really difficult.""Luke Fickell
He reiterated this point multiple times to Thamel, but when he really started to look back on the season, he noticed that they couldn't match up on the defensive line, especially in Big Ten play. He said, "When it comes down to it, and we're 5-2 and playing Penn State, and you've got Oregon after that, you really are in a decent place where you started playing better. And the truth is, at that point in time, it's when the depletion started, and whether it's a close game here or a close game there, physically the second half of the season, we couldn't hold up. And I mean that in particular on the defensive front, and that's what really cost us."
Fickell has done so much to address the problems this offseason, and he's about to jump into the hardest schedule in the Big Ten and a top-5 strength of schedule in all of college football. Hopefully, these changes have done enough to keep up and fix the biggest issues from last season.