Wisconsin bye week grades: The RB's have held it down for Luke Fickell's offense

Any Wisconsin Badgers fan over the age of 10 can likely remember a time when one of the five best running backs in the country typically resided in Madison, Wisconsin. That said, since Luke Fickell took the reins as the team’s head coach, things haven’t been as sunshine and rainbows in the Badger backfield.

That said, a strong offseason in which multiple solid talents were acquired in the transfer portal, on top of retaining the team’s leading rusher in 2025, had Wisconsin looking as if it was poised to return to the glory days. That said, a wealth of injuries and somewhat rocky play leaves the grade a bit up in the air as of now:

Midway Badger Backfield Verdict: B-

It truthfully is hard to grade what the running back crop has done thus far, purely based on injury. Abu Sama and Bryan Jackson have both missed a hefty amount of snaps due to injury, but even when on the field, both have struggled a tad.

Sama currently posts a team-high in yards per carry, sitting at 6.8, but a massive portion of that total is riding on the back of two carries he had against Western Illinois. When you take away the 103 yards that those two runs combined for, he’s sitting at just 3.4 yards per carry on the year.

The Iowa State transfer’s main issue this year has been his unwillingness to work in between the tackles. On almost every run of his, Sama is always looking for a way to bounce it to the outside for a bigger gain, often leaving yards on the table as a result.

Jackson, on the other hand, has been solid as a short-down back, consistently picking up a few yards when the team needs it. However, his lack of burst or elite agility limits his ability to work outside of the tackles, making him somewhat predictable as a runner.

Darrion Dupree has been the team’s purest runner and threat out of the backfield thus far. He currently sits second on the team in rush yards (behind Colton Joseph) and has more receptions and receiving yards out of the backfield than any other back combined.

We are yet to see that big run from Dupree, something he hung his hat on the past couple of seasons. But multiple massive plays down the stretch of the Penn State game, on top of his multifaceted abilities, make him easily the best-performing Wisconsin back of the season to this point.

Overall, the room has some time and space to grow, but has done what’s necessary to this point to fuel some wins.

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