MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin doesn’t want to refer to itself as “Running Back U” until it performs at a level that would make Ron Dayne, Jonathan Taylor and other former Badgers ball carriers proud.

That task gets easier if Wisconsin starts resembling “O-Line U” again.

Wisconsin earned those nicknames during its glory years as superstar backs dominated games with help from future NFL linemen. The Badgers didn’t run the ball nearly that well while going a combined 9-15 the last two seasons.

“We’re not going to say that we’re anything that we’re not yet,” new running backs coach Jayden Everett said. “We know what we have to do. We know what being a running back at the University of Wisconsin means.”

They got reminders from Wisconsin royalty during spring practice, which ended Wednesday. Dayne, who won the Heisman Trophy in 1999, and other former Badgers star running backs have visited.

“They just preach doing the little things … making sure that not only we know what we’re doing but what other people are doing, how the O-line’s blocking — just little gadgets that can really help us with our game,” running back Abu Sama said.

Wisconsin rushed for 116.67 yards per game last year to rank 116th out of 136 Bowl Subdivision programs. The Badgers averaged 3.31 yards per carry to finish 127th. The last time Wisconsin had lower averages in each of those categories was 1991.

In some respects, the issues stem to the beginning of Luke Fickell’s coaching tenure in 2023 and his hire of Air Raid disciple Phil Longo as offensive coordinator. In Fickell’s debut year, Wisconsin attempted more passes than runs for the first time since at least 1946, which is as far back as its records go.

Yet the problems remain even after Longo’s November 2024 firing. Wisconsin ran 60.9% of the time last year but ranked 135th — ahead of only UMass — in total yards per play, total yards per game and points per game.

Fickell’s future at Wisconsin likely depends on whether the Badgers get more productivity from their running backs.

“Coach Fick said the room’s kind of average right now,” running back Darrion Dupree said. “I took that to heart. The running backs took that to heart.”

Staff and personnel changes

Fickell and offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes are back from last season, but the Badgers made staff moves elsewhere. Everett arrived from Minnesota. Wisconsin’s fifth offensive line coach in the last six seasons is Eric Mateos, who spent the last two years at Arkansas.

Wisconsin also overhauled its roster.

Dupree returns from last year’s team, but Sama rushed for 1,933 yards at Iowa State over the last three seasons. Other transfer portal additions at running back include Bryan Jackson (formerly at Southern California) and Nate Palmer (TCU).

“The best thing about that group is there’s a competitiveness within it that’s going to be interesting to see as we work through fall,” Fickell said.

Wisconsin’s rushing attack adds a wrinkle with new quarterback Colton Joseph, who ran for 1,007 yards at Old Dominion last season.

The Badgers also need their offensive line to regain its lost reputation.

Issues on the offensive line

Wisconsin had 20 offensive linemen earn first-team all-Big Ten honors from 2004-21, and 11 of them also made the Associated Press All-America team. No Wisconsin offensive linemen have been first-team or second-team all-Big Ten selections the last four years.

“We talk about earning our ‘W’ and living up to the expectation of Wisconsin offensive linemen,” guard Colin Cubberly said. “We need to be able to build up to that and earn our ‘W.’ There’s been guys who’ve come here and have the same number as you. We need to play to that standard every day. Good is not good enough. We need to be great.”

Cubberly and Emerson Mandell are the only returning linemen who started multiple games for Wisconsin last season. The Badgers lost two experienced linemen to Big Ten rivals as Joe Brunner transferred to Indiana and Jake Renfro left for Illinois.

Wisconsin retooled through the portal. Mateos knew what he wanted.

“You think of great players in sports that take games over, you think of hoopers who just get in a zone or whatever, a quarterback who can’t miss or a wideout who can’t be covered,” Mateos said. “I think a Wisconsin O-lineman is like, ‘Hey, run it again. Run it again. Run it behind me. Hey, it’s power. It’s coming right here.’”

Wisconsin gets Kevin Heywood back from a torn anterior cruciate ligament that sidelined him last season. Portal additions include P.J. Wilkins (Mississippi), Austin Kawecki (Oklahoma State), Blake Cherry (Arkansas), Lucas Simmons-Johansson (Florida State) and Stylz Blackmon (Augustana).

Mateos plans to make sure they have the right mentality for run blocking.

“There must be a passion for the physicality,” Mateos said. “I think so much of what gets taught with tempo offenses — that’s been a big thing over the years — is, like, how fast can we run the next play. That, I think, has made O-linemen more concerned about conserving energy rather than just emptying the tank on that play.”

Mateos wants them going full throttle more often. That could help Wisconsin regain its status as RBU.

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MADISON – A second three-judge panel on Tuesday dismissed a challenge to Wisconsin’s congressional maps, ruling it has no authority to act on the claims without further input from the state Supreme Court.

“Until the [state] Supreme Court says otherwise,” the lawsuit’s claims are “non-justiciable and non-cognizable under Wisconsin law,” the judges wrote.

The law firm that brought the suit said it would immediately appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court.

The decision is one of two cases that have been under consideration by separate panels composed of three judges from different counties appointed by the liberal-led state Supreme Court. The lawsuits, filed in July 2025, followed multiple failed attempts to redraw the maps, which are currently represented by six Republicans and two Democrats.

This case, brought by Law Forward representing the group Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy, contends the current maps amount to an anti-competitive gerrymander.

Republican members of the state’s congressional delegation and others sought to dismiss it.

“The three-judge panel got it right,” said Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty deputy counsel Lucas Vebber, an intervenor in the case. “This is a victory for the rule of law in our state.”

The state’s high court issued orders Nov. 25 concluding the two legal challenges constituted “an action to challenge the apportionment of any congressional or state legislative district” under a 2011 state law that requires such challenges to be heard by a panel appointed by the Supreme Court.

It was the first time the 2011 law had been invoked in a redistricting case.

The three-judge panel, led by Dane County Circuit Judge David Conway, wrote in its April 28 order that while plaintiffs presented a “detailed theory to support their claims,” the state Supreme Court already held in 2022 that the “partisan composition of electoral districts raises a non-justiciable political question.”

The panel, “as an inferior court, is obligated to obey them,” the judges wrote.

“The Supreme Court is the ultimate interpreter of our state constitution. When the Court speaks, its words are final unless and until it says otherwise. Because this panel is bound by the Court’s interpretations, it must alternatively dismiss Plaintiffs’ claims for failure to state a cognizable constitutional cause of action,” the panel wrote.

A separate three-judge panel last month rejected a parallel case on similar grounds.

“This is the first anti-competitive gerrymandering case ever filed in Wisconsin courts, and it deserves to be heard,” Law Forward director of litigation Doug Poland said in a statement. “

Under the 2011 law that required these challenges to be heard by panels of circuit court judges, the order may only be appealed to the state Supreme Court.

“We will therefore appeal the case to our state supreme court and look forward to the opportunity to prove that the state’s congressional maps must be redrawn to ensure that Wisconsin voters are given a real choice in voting for congressional district candidates and that the legislature does not dictate which political party’s candidate will prevail by skewing the composition of districts to protect incumbents and political parties,” Poland said.