It's accountability season, and coaches around the country are raising their hands saying, "blame me" for losses. Alabama fans are calling for Ryan Grubb to be fired, Texas fans want Steve Sarkisian to give up play-calling, Washington fans have grown tired of Jedd Fisch, and Penn State fans are baffled that Matt Campbell isn't very good.
For Badger fans, it will take the whole season to determine whether Luke Fickell gets more time or we turn to Jake Dickert or Jason Eck. But for now, there are three coaches who need to take accountability for the loss to UCLA.
1. Luke Fickell for a lack of discipline and overall loss
Let's start at the top: Fickell already said in his post-game press conference that he deserves blame for the loss. However, let's staple a couple of things to his chest. The first is the lack of discipline; sure, the refs officiated a terrible game, but there were still some flags that showed a lack of discipline from his players.
They had a week to prepare, but it looked like the first game of the season: rusty and out of sync. He also gets the blame for the overall loss as the head coach.
2. Jeff Grimes for a bad and useless offensive game plan
This is the person who deserves most of the blame. If we are putting together a pie chart, Jeff Grimes' slice is the biggest. Why? Well, his offense stunk. This Badger team had two weeks to prepare for this UCLA defense, and it looked like they had zero plan. They had one successful drive, maybe two if you count the missed field-goal drive, but even that was clunky.
He didn't set his quarterback up well. He should know by now that Colton Joseph needs to hit a few quick passes to find his rhythm. He can't just run, run, take a shot, punt. That's not going to work for Joseph; we need to find him some rhythm and get him going. He passed for 66 yards on the day, and some of that is on Joseph (of course), but his offensive coordinator helped him out very, very little.
There better be a cleaner plan for USC this week, or we may need to be talking about a conversation with Grimes too. He's had one good game this season as a playcaller.
3. Mike Tressel for his third down defense
One of the most aggravating parts of the UCLA game, outside of the awful officiating, was the third-down defense for Wisconsin. The Badgers let the Bruins convert third-down tries all day long, with ease. UCLA went 13-for-20 on third-down conversions, and many of those 13 conversions were 3rd and LONG.
UCLA converted on third down with distances of 16 yards, 13 yards, three different times from six yards, five yards, and all the smaller distances too. That's just not going to work. This doesn't even count the times that penalties bailed UCLA out. It was a problem, and it needs to be fixed; third-down defense has to be better.
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