After the disappointment of Week 1 against No. 4 Notre Dame, Wisconsin is walking into a very different kind of matchup this week. The Badgers are set to face Western Illinois, an FCS program that comes in from a much lower level of the sport and, by the numbers, has not exactly been a juggernaut there.
But if Western Illinois head coach Joe Davis is feeling overwhelmed by the challenge, he isn’t showing it. At his weekly press conference, Davis made it clear he has plenty of respect for what Luke Fickell and his staff have built in Madison.
"Have a lot of respect for Coach Fickell and his staff. They’ve done an excellent job of rebuilding their roster this offseason with a lot of transfer additions and creating some more depth," he said.
That transfer-heavy makeover is exactly what Davis is seeing on film. Wisconsin’s new pieces were on full display Sunday night, with players like quarterback Colton Joseph, wide receiver Malachi Coleman and tailback Abu Sama helping raise the offense’s ceiling.
Davis singled out Joseph in particular.
"Very impressed with the quarterback they signed from Old Dominion. Very very athletic player, very very accurate.
Certainly, you’re not the Offensive Player of the Year in your league for nothing. So we’ll have our hands full, there’s no doubt about it.”
The accuracy mention stands out, but the bigger point is simple: Wisconsin’s quarterback situation is drawing real attention now, even from an FCS head coach preparing for a major uphill climb.
Davis also made it clear that Western Illinois isn’t approaching this as anything less than a serious business trip. Even in a buy game - the kind where Wisconsin pays a smaller opponent to come to Madison - he framed it as the most important game on the schedule because it’s the next one.
“All due respect to Wisconsin, this is the most important game of the season for us because it’s the next game. And that’s how we treat it," Davis said.
Still, he isn’t pretending the matchup is even. Davis compared it to Western Illinois’ own opener against a top-5 FBS team and said Wisconsin presents a roster loaded with problems for an opponent to solve.
“Probably a little similar situation to us in their opener, playing the No. 4 team in FBS. But man, we’ll have our hands full.
They don’t have a lot of weaknesses on that football team. They’re big, they’re physical, they’re fast.
We’ll have to come with a great plan Saturday night," he said.
In Other News...
Wisconsin Fans Have A New Reason To Revisit The Dilin Jones Exit
Dilin Jones did not need much time to make his new school look like a good fit. The redshirt sophomore running back left Wisconsin for LSU and quickly moved into the Tigers starting job, giving his new fan base an immediate look at the kind of runner the Badgers once hoped to build around.
His first game there offered a reminder of what Wisconsin lost and why the separation made sense for both sides. Jones handled 23 carries for 113 yards and two touchdowns, showing the physical style that made him intriguing in the first place, while Wisconsin continued to wrestle with the offensive line issues that helped push him toward a fresh start. [Read more 🡒]
Wisconsin Already Has One Troubling Week 1 Reality Up Front
A lot of the early discussion coming out of Wisconsins loss to Notre Dame centered on the obvious bright spots, and there were a few. Coleman gave the Badgers a useful debut with four catches and a touchdown, Cheeks flashed on defense with a sack and a forced fumble, and West helped flip the field with a booming 70-yard punt. For a season opener, those are the kind of individual moments a staff can point to while trying to sort out the bigger picture.
The concern comes up front, where Wilkins had a rough afternoon against Notre Dames defense. His issues in both pass protection and run blocking stood out in a game where Wisconsin needed steadiness more than anything else, and that makes the conversation around the offensive line feel a little more urgent already. One game is only one game, but for a team trying to establish itself, the first real test exposed a spot the Badgers cannot afford to let linger. [Read more 🡒]
Wisconsin Faces A Week 2 Wrinkle Western Illinois Hasn't Settled
Western Illinois has already shown a little more backbone than the version of the program Wisconsin has typically seen on the schedule. The Leathernecks are coming off a 4-8 stretch over the past two seasons, a step up from the winless years that once defined the program, and they opened this season with a win over Northwestern College before falling to Illinois State. For a Badgers team trying to keep its footing early in the year, the opponent carries a little more uncertainty and a little more edge than the average Week 2 name on the slate.
The biggest wrinkle is under center, where Western Illinois is still sorting out its quarterback situation. Kennedy McGill and Cason Carswell are both captains, and the coaching staff has not settled on how to divide the snaps between them. That leaves Wisconsin preparing for a game plan that could shift depending on who gets the nod and how the Leathernecks choose to use both passers, a small but meaningful variable this early in the season. [Read more 🡒]