Wisconsin doesn’t have much time to linger on the bruising start it took in Green Bay. The Badgers were back at work quickly after their 41-13 loss to Notre Dame, and Luke Fickell made it clear Tuesday that Saturday’s home game against Western Illinois is about more than just getting a win.
"I've said to our team that this is where the season starts," Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell said Tuesday. "And not in particular because we weren't focused on the first game, but in the first shot at adversity, what are you going to do?
How are you going to respond? Are you going to continue to grow?
"And so the most important thing for us is to get back to business, focus on ourselves. It's a short week, which in some ways can be a really good thing, because you got to get right back at it really, really quick."
That opening loss wasn’t as lopsided early as the final score suggested. Wisconsin trailed only 13-10 at halftime, but the game tilted on a few damaging mistakes that piled up fast.
A muffed kickoff return late in the first quarter gave Notre Dame a short field and led to the Irish’s only first-half touchdown. Then came the back-breaking moment in the third quarter: quarterback Colton Joseph threw a pick-six that pushed the Badgers behind 27-10.
From there, Wisconsin had no real answer. In the second half, the Badgers produced only a field goal and one punt before the clock expired on their fourth possession.
Joseph finished 19 of 30 for 217 yards, one touchdown and the interception. He also ran 12 times for just three yards after entering the season with 1,007 rushing yards last year at Old Dominion.
The ground game never got rolling for Wisconsin either. The Badgers totaled 67 rushing yards and averaged 2.2 yards per carry, with a long run of only eight yards. Abu Sama, a senior transfer from Iowa State, handled most of the load with 15 carries for 49 yards.
Western Illinois comes in at 1-1 after taking a 41-10 loss to Illinois State, a game that got away almost immediately. The Leathernecks were down 17-0 after the first quarter.
"Certainly a lot of frustration, disappointment overall at how we played," Western Illinois coach Joe Davis said afterward. "As I told the team, when you play a football game like we did tonight, you're not going to beat anybody."
The Leathernecks used two quarterbacks in the loss. Starter Cason Carswell, the 2025 Ohio Valley Conference's Offensive Freshman of the Year, went 9 of 18 for 140 yards and led Western Illinois’ only touchdown drive.
Kennedy McGill, a transfer from Central Washington, also saw plenty of action. The dual-threat quarterback completed 14 of 22 passes for 123 yards, ran 12 times for 18 yards and guided a long drive that ended with a field goal.
Illinois State’s run game was the biggest problem for Western Illinois, as the Redbirds piled up 239 rushing yards and three touchdowns. That number is at least something Wisconsin can study closely after a rough debut on the ground of its own.
The matchup also comes with a simple historical note: Wisconsin is 3-0 all-time against Western Illinois, with all three games played in Madison. The Badgers won the most recent meeting, 37-3, in 2014.
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The latest test added another layer of proof, as Wisconsin handled No. 19 Texas A&M in a five-set match and kept building momentum ahead of a meeting with Texas. What has stood out so far is not just that the Badgers have survived the schedule, but that they have done it against ranked opponents in a way that keeps their rsum pointed in the right direction. The next challenge should say even more about where this team stands when the caliber of opponent only keeps rising. [Read more 🡒]