The 2025 season for the Wisconsin Badgers football was a disaster. Injuries, lack of talent, and poor scheming all piled on top of one another and combined for one of the worst single seasons in program history. However, after an offseason of reloading the roster, developing returning talent, and hopefully implementing some schematic changes, things are beginning to look up once again in Madison.
However, as many Badger fans know, things can flip on their head in an instant, turning what looks like a promising season into a nightmare within seconds. Although nobody is rooting for Wisconsin to have yet another disastrous year — outside of Minnesota Golden Gophers football fans — there is still a chance it could happen, and it would likely be due to these two things.
Quarterback Play Fails
Although Wisconsin is by no means known for historic quarterback play, it is still necessary for the Badgers to at least have consistency at the position. Even in the glory days of Wisconsin football, there wasn’t a steady flow of Badger quarterbacks making it to the NFL, but at the very least, they were able to control the flow of the game.
Can’t wait for the Whole College Football World to officially be introduced to Colton Joseph 🦡 pic.twitter.com/nk57PU9OJP
— SleeperCFB (@SleeperCFB) May 22, 2026
Now, entering the 2026 season, the question of quarterback play remains, this time being headed by Colton Joseph, who many consider to be a wildcard talent. The flashes of greatness are definitely there, as it’s clear Joseph can be an elite dual-threat quarterback. However, his completion percentage last season of just 59.7% and the 10 interceptions he threw suggest there may be some underlying issues.
On top of that, the room behind him is very inexperienced, albeit talented, meaning an injury to Joseph or just lackluster play could lead to an entire breakdown of the offensive structure.
Luke Fickell Doesn’t Figure It Out
It really shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that this next season could very well be make-or-break for Luke Fickell. Over the past year or so, he has begun to show the first real signs of promise since joining the program, bringing in multiple extremely talented players and even implementing an RPO-heavy system last season that had some success.
However, Fickell has yet to prove that he can string together a cohesive game plan over the course of an entire season, especially one that leads to consistent wins. Although this season may look like a turnaround year right now, it could very well backfire and become a repeat of the disasters from recent years.
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