Sunday’s 41-13 loss to Notre Dame gave Wisconsin an early snapshot of where things stand as the Badgers head into a critical 2026 season. And while the final score was lopsided, the opener still offered a few clear winners and losers from a stock-report standpoint.
The biggest offensive bright spot was Coleman, who immediately looked like a player Wisconsin can build around in a wide receiver room that entered the season with plenty of uncertainty. He finished with four catches for 76 yards and a 28-yard touchdown in the second quarter, and his 75.4 PFF grade was the best of any Badgers offensive player. For Coleman, it was a breakthrough in more ways than one: it was his first career game with more than two receptions.
That showing mattered because Coleman hadn’t had much of a chance to shine before arriving in Madison. The Lincoln, Nebraska, native spent his first three collegiate seasons with Nebraska and Minnesota, where his role was limited.
But the former No. 67 overall recruit and No. 11 wide receiver in the 2023 class, per the 247Sports composite rankings, flashed the traits that made him such a highly regarded prospect. At 6-foot-5 and 205 pounds, he can create problems for defensive backs, and against Notre Dame it was his downfield route running that stood out most.
With Western Illinois and Eastern Michigan coming next, he has a real chance to turn one strong debut into momentum before Big Ten play arrives.
On the defensive side, Cheeks was one of the few Wisconsin players who seemed to set the tone from the jump. He delivered a strip-sack of CJ Carr on Notre Dame’s opening drive, helping force a three-and-out, and never really let up from there.
By the end of the night, the fifth-year senior had two solo tackles, a sack, a tackle for loss, a forced fumble and a pass deflection. The box score was strong enough on its own, but his 85.5 PFF grade - along with an 89.3 pass-rush grade - underscored just how disruptive he was across 43 snaps.
Wisconsin needs that kind of production. With Mason Reiger and Darryl Peterson III gone, someone has to emerge as a steady pass-rushing threat, and Cheeks looks like the early answer.
He already showed in 2025 that he can contribute, finishing with 25 tackles, three sacks and 5.5 tackles for loss while starting three of 12 games. The next two weeks against Western Illinois and Eastern Michigan could give him more chances to stack numbers on top of the impact plays.
West also earned a bump after a strong season debut. Early in the second quarter, he hammered a 70-yard punt that rolled and died inside the one-yard line, setting off the Lambeau Field crowd.
He finished with five punts for 225 yards, a 45.0-yard average, and two punts downed inside the 20. One more might have been added if the gunner had handled West’s third punt cleanly instead of letting it turn into a touchback.
That was a welcome response after a rough finish to 2025, when West managed only a 29.3-yard average on four punts in a loss at Minnesota. He’s become a bit of a fan favorite thanks to the 24-yard pass in Wisconsin’s upset win over Washington and a 20-yard run against Ohio State last year, but the real value here is simpler: Wisconsin would love to have a punter who can be consistently productive. The 70-yard bomb won’t happen every week, but the Badgers can live with plenty of nights like this.
Not everyone came out of the opener looking better, though. Wilkins had a difficult assignment against a Notre Dame front seven that controlled the game up front, and the Ole Miss transfer struggled badly at left tackle. He posted a 49.3 PFF grade, second-worst on the offense, and had issues in both pass protection and run blocking.
Wilkins was on the field for most of the night, playing 53 snaps, but Wisconsin did give Florida State transfer Lucas Simmons-Johansson eight snaps after he had competed for a starting tackle job during the offseason. Wilkins is a fourth-year player, yet he still hasn’t locked down a full-time role.
Last season he started two games and played 186 snaps for the Rebels, all at guard. At 6-foot-6 and 335 pounds, he has the size to play on the edge, but Wisconsin still has to figure out whether he can actually hold down the left tackle spot.
Kamara also came away from Week 1 with his stock down. With Mason Posa and Cooper Catalano leading the linebacker group, Kamara entered the season as a movable piece who could complement that duo.
Instead, his debut was quiet and uneven. The Kansas transfer played 18 snaps without recording a statistic, and he was out of position on Nolan James Jr.’s receiving touchdown in the fourth quarter.
His final PFF grade was 53.7.
Kamara is an intriguing athlete at 6-foot-4 and 243 pounds, but he still has to prove he can be a dependable weekly contributor. In 2025, he logged 13 tackles, 0.5 sack and 1.5 tackles for loss.
He wasn’t brought in with the kind of expectations that would put him in direct competition with Posa or Catalano, so this isn’t a major alarm bell. Still, his grip on the third linebacker spot doesn’t look firm, and Thomas Heiberger could move ahead of him if Kamara doesn’t show more in the coming weeks.
Beyond the individual stock report, the game also raised broader questions about Wisconsin’s coaching staff. Luke Fickell and his group have a lot to prove in 2026, and even if few expected an upset or were shocked by the margin, parts of Sunday felt uncomfortably familiar.
Fickell’s timeout usage was particularly puzzling, including a second-quarter decision to use one on fourth-and-10 before Wisconsin ultimately punted from the Notre Dame 36-yard line. There also wasn’t much urgency late in the first half or after the Badgers fell behind 27-10 in the third quarter.
Offensively, Jeff Grimes had a brutal matchup to solve against Notre Dame’s defense, and some of the early quick concepts were promising. But as the game slipped away, the play-calling lost aggression. Defensively, Mike Tressel’s unit battled hard in the first half, especially against the run, but the soft zone approach gave CJ Carr room to settle in and help Notre Dame pull away after halftime.
The players still have to make the plays, and Sunday wasn’t decided by a timeout or a single coverage call. But it was still a rough afternoon for a staff with plenty to prove, and those sideline issues could matter a lot more once Wisconsin gets into tighter Big Ten games.
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Luke Fickell Finally Explained Wisconsins Second Half Collapse
Wisconsins Week 1 loss to Notre Dame left the Badgers with more questions than answers after a strong first half gave way to a flat finish. Luke Fickell addressed that collapse by pointing to something less visible than conditioning, saying the team was mentally and emotionally worn down as the game wore on, even as Notre Dame kept its intensity level high.
Fickell also noted that Wisconsins roster included a lot of new players, which made sustaining that early performance even more difficult in a demanding opener. For the Badgers, the explanation matters because it frames the loss as more than a simple physical fade, and it leaves the real test in how quickly they can absorb the lesson and show growth the next time they are in that spot. [Read more 🡒]
Wisconsins Front Seven Just Made The Badgers Biggest Defensive Debate Clear
For a defense that spent much of the first half looking organized and disruptive, Wisconsins snap counts from the Notre Dame loss offered a revealing snapshot of where the front seven stands right now. The Badgers were competitive early before the game slipped away in a 41-13 defeat, and the workload split along the front reflected both the trust the staff has in a few key pieces and the rotation it is still trying to sort out.
Sebastian Cheeks and Mason Posa emerged as the most noticeable positives, while Dillan Johnsons rough afternoon underscored how uneven the group can still be when the game wears on. The second-half drop-off made the discussion even more pointed, because Wisconsins biggest defensive question is no longer whether the front can flash - it is which combination can keep doing it for a full game. [Read more 🡒]
Wisconsin Fans Have A New Reason To Revisit The Dilin Jones Exit
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His style has looked like the kind that can thrive when the blocking is cleaner and the lane opens on time, which only sharpens the questions around what he was walking away from in Madison. Wisconsin has dealt with its own offensive line issues, and those struggles were part of the backdrop around Jones exit. Now the Badgers are watching him settle in quickly somewhere else, while the reason the split happened in the first place still hangs over the conversation. [Read more 🡒]