Monday July 13 Links and Banter
WHERE ARE OUR WORLD CUP GAMES
We're all enduring a World Cup-less afternoon and we all deserve a little fun. Let's take a dive into the Madison Popcornskunks' 2025 season.
What were the expectations?
Transient Buckeye: I don't remember expectations for Wisconsin being particularly high going into 2025. The general mood around the program was "Wisconsin had better be improved if Luke Fickell still wants to be coaching there in 2026." But I don't know that there was a whole lot of belief that the requisite levels of improvement were going to happen.
Kind of...: Expectations were: "I hope our QB doesn't get hurt like what happened in 2023 and 2024, because have you seen the schedule?"
HoustonBoiler: While I don't really know, I have to believe that wisconsin fans were expecting a step toward returning to a pre-Fickell type of season.
So, how'd it go?
Transient Buckeye: In three words...
The opener against Miami of Ohio was a 60-minute snooze-fest, with Wisconsin's offense looking positively Ferentzian. This was a harbinger of things to come. There was a bit of a recovery against MTSU, but then the Badgers spiraled into a six-game losing streak. They looked vaguely competitive in maybe two of those six games. By early November, Luke Fickell's name was at or very close to the top of every hot seat ranking in the country. And yet, he survived (see next section)!
Kind of...: The starting QB got hurt in the first half of the season on a non-contact play.
HoustonBoiler: In a different grouping of three words:
What were the highlights?
Transient Buckeye: Wisconsin's run defense was pretty scrappy all season. If the rest of the team had performed at the same level, they'd have been at least okay-ish. The Badgers won every Big Ten game in which they scored more than ten points. Ordinarily, this would be a very strong indicator that a team has had a successful season. However, there's a big "but" attached to that statement, which we'll get to shortly.
Wisconsin looked a lot better over the final month of the season. Not good, mind you, but better. They started November with an upset over Road Washington. They got taken apart by Indiana in Bloomington, but that game wasn't as bad as it probably should've been. Then they had their best performance of the season, a decisive victory over former coach Bret Bielema's Illini squad. Illinois was pretty good in 2025, but the Badgers handled them convincingly. The late-season surge seems to have been just enough to convince the Wisconsin athletic department to give Luke Fickell one more year to get things turned around.
Kind of...: The highlights were:
1) Beating Washington on a dreary night where Wisconsin's leading passer was the punter.
2) Beating Bert.
HoustonBoiler: Beating Washington and Bert.
And the lowlights?
Transient Buckeye: 2025 was not a season that Badger fans are going to remember fondly. In fact, they'd probably prefer to forget large chunks of the season altogether. The six-game losing streak that started with a road trip to Tuscaloosa and continued through the Badgers' first five Big Ten games saw Wisconsin outscored 181-41 (Is that bad? It feels bad.). In the middle of that losing streak, Wisconsin took consecutive shutouts at the hands of Iowa and Ohio State. The Badgers were the only Big Ten team to lose to Maryland in 2025, getting shelled 27-10 by the Terps. In nine Big Ten games, Wisconsin scored more than ten points just two (2) times, and they scored more than 13 points just once, with that explosion coming in the aforementioned Illinois game. Calling Wisconsin's 2025 offense lifeless is an insult to zombies everywhere.
Kind of...: Through seven conference games, Wisconsin had scored 47 points, i.e., less than a TD per game. I, a Wisconsin fan, was doing deep historical research to determine if Wisconsin was fielding the very worst offense in modern B1G history. Then the Badgers went and dropped 27 on Illinois (thanks for not getting off the bus, Bert), to let the 0-11 1981 Northwestern Wildcats (75 points in 9 games--8.33 ppg--keep that crown). Still, I'm pretty sure Wisconsin had the second-worst scoring offense in B1G conference play since at least 1980: 9.0 ppg.
NOW, find footage of a college football game from 1981. Watch for as long as you can tolerate. I'm pretty sure you'll agree with me that 9.0 ppg in 2025 is CLEARLY WORSE than 8.33 ppg in 1981.
IT IS QUITE REASONABLE TO DECLARE THAT LAST YEAR WISCONSIN HAD THE WORST OFFENSE ANY OF US HAVE SEEN ON A BIG TEN TEAM IN OUR LIFETIMES, AT LEAST IN CONFERENCE PLAY.
HoustonBoiler: Purdue only scored less than 10 points on two occasions and scored 13 or more in six B1G games.
Any memorable and or absurd moments?
Transient Buckeye: For what felt like the 37th year in a row, Wisconsin lost its season-opening starter at quarterback to injury before the beginning of conference play. Is Angry Wisconsin Quarterback-Hating God (AWQBHG, pronounced "AWK-wab-hog") a thing, now? [with apologies to MGoBlog].
Oh, yeah! And Wisconsin converted a 4th and 19 against Ohio State when their punter scrambled for 20 yards. It was Wisconsin's second-longest offensive play of the day. The Badgers were very B1G West against OSU, putting up 144 yards of total offense–and 374 yards in punts.
Kind of...: Memorable? The defense was positively heroic in the two conference wins, especially the win over Washington. Absurd: Did I mention that Wisconsin won that game with the punter as the leading passer? You want absurd:
Wisconsin went six straight games without breaking 100 yards passing.
Over the first five of those games, they gained less than 1,000 yards of offense, total (i.e., less that 200 ypg).
Only UMass--who went 0-12 and lost to...Bryant--averaged fewer yards and fewer points last year than Wisconsin. But for whupping up on 3-9 MTSU, Wisconsin would've been dead last in both categories.
HoustonBoiler:
