WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. – The news was positive every time Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard got the analytical report from video coordinator A.J. Van Handel, even though the results on the court were not. Despite some early flaws guarding back cuts and allowing dribble penetration, the Badgers were holding Pittsburgh under a point per possession. He just needed Wisconsin to take and make some better shots.
That, and John Tonje hoisting the Badgers on his back and carrying them over the finish line.
The resilience, toughness, and guts of the No.19 Wisconsin was on full display in front of a packed Colonial Hall at the Greenbrier Resort, as the Badgers got 33 points from Tonje and sound offensive execution in the second half to erase a 14-pint deficit in an 81-75 victory over Pittsburgh.
It’s the third November championship for Wisconsin (7-0) in the past four seasons and a victory that could serve as a springboard in the coming weeks, not to mention a nice thing to show the selection committee in four months.
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Here are my takeaways from the foothills of the Alleghany Mountains.
Tonje Led The Second Half Charge
Tonje said that he hopes to live in Madison when he’s retired from playing basketball. At the rate he’s going, he might have to come back anyway for his jersey retirement.
Tonje was the hero again for Wisconsin and treated as such, going into the crowd to celebrate with the vocal fan base that made the trip and mobbed by his teammates while waiting to do his postgame television interview. It was the only time anybody got the better of him after halftime.
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Shaking off a 2-for-8 start, Tonje was 9-for-11 in the second half. He was 6-for-6 from the line, relentlessly going inside and getting rewarded because Pittsburgh kept reaching. Knowing the primary defenders on him were starting to rack up fouls, and that the Panthers haven’t shown to be a particularly deep team to this point, Tonje kept his head down and kept attacking.
“I was trying to be aggressive from the start,” said Tonje, who made all nine of his two-point shots in the second half, most coming at the rim or in the paint. “I didn’t shoot the ball well early, but I just kept with it. My coaches and teammates believed in me. I stayed with it and did everything I can in my power to get the win.”
After falling into the trap of taking quick shots or long-range jumpers, a problem that plagued the Badgers last season, Wisconsin found the gaps in Pittsburgh defense. UW scored 54 points in the second half, registered points on 83.3 percent of its possessions, and averaged a robust 1.8 points per possession.
“I don’t think we started the second half with the type of force that’s necessary,” Pittsburgh coach Jeff Capel said. “We allowed them to climb back into the game and really get into a great rhythm offensively, and then they just became really tough to guard … Their physicality wore us down.”
Tonje scored 25 of the second-half points but he had help. Kamari McGee scored eight of his 10 points in the last half and hit all three of his shots, including a pair of clutch three-pointers that were timely in the final six-plus minutes, one giving UW the lead and another extended it to four with 2:54 to go.
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“We kept at it,” said John Blackwell (14 points). “We kept getting to the rim (and) stayed aggressive. Obviously, our shots weren’t falling in the first half, but we didn’t quit. We told ourselves at halftime just keep going. The shots are going to fall. We trusted each other.
“JT did his thing by getting to the rim, doing what he do best.”
Named the tournament’s most valuable player, Tonje averaged 24.0 points and 6.5 rebounds per game over UW’s two wins.
“He just drives and throws his body around,” Capel said of Tonje, one of only six players nationally to have two 30-point games this season. “We weren’t able to sustain the discipline required to guard someone like that. You can’t reach. He does a really good job of getting his body into yours. He’s really strong with the ball. He exposes it. You think you can swipe, and he gets a great whistle, and he’s earned that because it’s consistent.”
Wisconsin Is Handling Top Guard Play
McGee said Friday that the close call against UTRGV Monday was not a wake-up call for the Badgers, only that it emphasized the need to be better polished in defensive areas. Call it what you want, but the Badgers’ defense took a major step in slowing down guard play in West Virginia.
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Pittsburgh’s backcourt of Ishmael Leggett and Jaland Lowe averaged 33.2 points, 12.4 rebounds, 8.0 assists, and 4.5 steals per game. They combined for 43 points, 14 rebounds, seven assists, and eight steals in Friday’s win over LSU. They managed 33 points on 32 shots.
“I just tried to match his energy,” Blackwell said of guarding Leggett, who finished 6-for-15 and 0-for-4 from three. “I know he picked up some quick fouls and he sat. All I can do is try to match his energy, because he’s a great player.”
The Badgers also took away Lowe’s ability to cleanly pass the ball. He finished with five assists but committed four turnovers.
“If we can guard ball screens as much as possible two on two and not have to send quite as much help, we knew we were going to have to plug the paint,” Gard said of the plan for Lowe.“Try to force him into some mid-range stuff. I didn’t think we were good at it early. He got loose on us, pinched us off, and got a couple lobs to Corhen, but I thought we got better with the back side of bumping the roller and plugging the lane. We forced him into some tougher shots.”
Wisconsin caught a break when Damian Dunn (13.0 ppg, .526 3FG) rolled his ankle and injured his hand two minutes into the game and didn’t return. Freshman guard Brandin Cummings replaced him and managed only two points.
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With how poorly Wisconsin’s offense was in the first half (36.7 percent, .794 points per possession), the Badgers leaning into their defense was critical.
“We have to give all credit to the coaches,” Blackwell said. “They prepared us well to know what their tendencies are, what they like to do. We just trust each other. Our bigs got our back if they get past us with good wall ups. We just trust our technique.”
Frustrating opposing guards has become a common theme.Arizona preseason All-American Caleb Love generated more technical fouls than made three-pointers against UW’s guards. He finished 2-for-13 from the floor and scored six points before fouling out
In Friday’s semifinals against UCF, which possessed a guard trio of Jordan Ivy-Curry, Keyshawn Hall, and Darius Johnson that scored 62.4 percent of its points, the Badgers’ ability to challenge them with movement and spacing held the group to 9-for-36 from the floor.
Wisconsin Showed Growth vs Physical Rebounders
The Panthers have proven to be one of the better rebounding teams in the country in the season’s first month. Having won the rebounding battle in five of its first six games, Pitt wasaveraging 41.2 rebounds per game, was 21st nationally in defensive rebounds (30.83) and had four players averaging at least 6.0 rebounds per game.
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They took the Badgers to task in the first half. Finishing the first half plus-four on the glass, Pitt’s first 11 points were all on actions toward the rim, mostly on back cuts behind UW’s defense, dribble actions where a Pitt player hit the cutter, or a guard attacking the paint to hit an open pull-up jumper.
Even after reserve forward Zack Austin switched things up with a three-pointer, Pittsburgh went right back to the post with an alley-oop and multiple driving layups. The 6-10 Cameron Corhen was the biggest benefactor of UW’s lapse defense, as the 68.0 percent FG shooter had 11 points on 5-for-6 shooting in the opening half.
Wisconsin 2-for-10 to start and was largely absent in the glass when shots went up. UW started 0-for-5 from the perimeter and most attempts didn’t have a red jersey close to the rim. UW’s first offensive rebound came at the 10:54 mark, but the possession ended with Blackwell airballing a three-pointer with the shot clock about to expire, a possession that didn’t include a post touch.
Wisconsin was averaging .533 points on its first 15 possessions. UW raised it modestly at halftime because Blackwell, McGee, Tonje, and Nolan Winter (11 points) started getting to the rim and converting.
The inability to match a team’s frontcourt physicality has been an underlining theme when the Badgers have faced Power-Four schools. Arizona outrebounded UW, 52-28, including 24-2 on the offensive glass, and gave up 13 boards to forward Tobe Awaka.
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UCF wasn’t nearly as big as Arizona, but the Knights still outrebounded Wisconsin, 41-39, with all 11 players getting at least one offensive rebound.
Things flipped in the second half. Senior Steven Crowl (6 points, season-high 9 rebounds, 3 assists) helped draw two quick fouls on Corhen, sending him to the bench for five-and-a-half minutes of the second half. He attempted only two shots in the final 12:51 after he returned.
With Corhen out and Guillermo Diaz Graham at the five, Wisconsin’s low-post offense ran more efficiently by creatingmore lanes for Tonje to attack and more space to attack the glass. After getting only two offensive rebounds in the first half, the Badgers had nine in the second half that led to 11 second-chance points.
“Once we got rolling in the second half we went to him quite a bit,” Gard said on Crowl. “I liked his physicality on Corhen. That’s one thing I felt Steve’s advantage was on Corhen on both ends of the floor was he could be physical. Corhen is a really good player but a little lighter than Steve. To be able to keep a big body on Corhen, and when we got him in foul trouble, we were able to go at the rim a little bit more with everybody else.”
Lengthy Delays
The championship game was scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. eastern, roughly 30 minutes following the conclusion of the third-place game between LSU and UCF. The Knights’ collapse made the evening a waiting game.
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UCF led by 20 in the first half, 18 with 12:57 left, and 14 with 8:31 to go, but ended up losing, 106-102, in triple overtime.
When the teams finally took the court, went through introductions, and were ready to start, one of the electronic game-and-shot clocks above the basket shorted out. Unable to restart the system, or find a long enough extension cord, officials agreed to shut off the working shot clock to even the playing field.
Throw in the jump ball needing to be done twice after a Pitt player jumped the gun, the game didn’t officially start until 6:43 local time, an hour, 13 minutes late.
That delayed doesn’t account for the two brief stoppages in play in the second half when the bank of lights that illuminated center court kept flickering on and off.
“I thought we handled all the adversity well,” Capel said. “What we didn’t handle was Tonje.”
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By The Numbers
6 – Wisconsin turned the ball over just six times, including only two in the second half. Averaging 9.4 turnovers per game, Wisconsin has had fewer than 10 turnovers in four games.
17.5 – The Badgers held Pittsburgh to 5-for-23 (21.7) from three-point range and held their two Power-Four Conference opponents to 7-for-40 (17.5) on threes.
30 – After scoring just eight points in the first 10 minutes, the Badgers scored 73 in the final 30 minutes.
60 – Tonje has made 60 free throws this season to lead all Division 1 players. His 63 attempts are tops in the Big Ten and tied for fourth nationally. He’s the first UW player since Brad Davison (2017-18) to have made at least 10 free throws in three games.
300 – Gard coached his 300th game on Sunday, the fourth-most games of any coach in Wisconsin history. He improved his record to 193-107 (.643) overall and 72-22 (.766) in regular season nonconference games.
Warmer temps and storm chances build into Sunday and Monday
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GET TO PLAY A PART TOO. THAT’S INCREDIBLE. I’M EXCITED. VERY, VERY COOL. STILL SOME RAIN A LITTLE BIT THIS MORNING AND I THINK IT MOVES OUT BY 7:00. WE HAD SOME IMPACTFUL RAIN OVERNIGHT. PARTS OF SOUTHEASTERN WISCONSIN, INCLUDING MILWAUKEE’S AIRPORT, PICKED UP MORE THAN HALF AN INCH. IT HAS BEEN A RAINY APRIL SO FAR. WE HAVE SEEN OVER FOUR INCHES OF RAIN ALREADY. WE’VE HARDLY STARTED THE MONTH OR A WEEK AND A HALF IN, BUT ON AVERAGE FOR THE ENTIRE MONTH OF APRIL, WE SEE UNDER FOUR INCHES OF RAIN. AND IT’S NOT JUST THE RAIN THAT WE’VE ALREADY SEEN. THERE IS MORE ON THE WAY. AS WE HEAD THROUGH THE SEVEN DAY FORECAST. THIS IS FORECAST PRECIPITATION THROUGH THE SEVEN DAY FORECAST. MOST OF THIS COMING SUNDAY THROUGH THURSDAY. BUT NOTICE PARTS OF SOUTHEASTERN WISCONSIN. MOST OF THE STATE PICKS UP MORE THAN TWO INCHES OF RAIN OVER THE NEXT SEVEN DAYS. WE’LL SEE ROUNDS OF STORM CHANCES AND EVEN THE POTENTIAL FOR SEVERE WEATHER. NEXT WEEK. IT IS FORECAST TO KEEP A REALLY CLOSE EYE ON RIGHT NOW 41 DEGREES. SOME SHOWERS LIKELY STILL AROUND THERE IN PEWAUKEE. FROM OUR CAMERA AT WAUKESHA COUNTY TECHNICAL COLLEGE. THERE’S ONE MORE AREA OF RAIN THAT’S GOING TO MOVE THROUGH SOUTHEASTERN WISCONSIN OVER THE NEXT HOUR AND A HALF OR SO. THEN WE’RE DRY, BUT YOU CAN SEE SOME CLEARING BACK BEHIND THOSE SHOWERS. WE’LL SEE A LITTLE MORE SUNSHINE EVEN AS WE HEAD TOWARDS 8:00 THIS MORNING. TEMPERATURES WILL BE MUCH COOLER TODAY THOUGH, THAN THEY HAVE BEEN THE LAST FEW DAYS. WE’VE GOTTEN CLOSE TO 70 DEGREES THE LAST TWO DAYS. TOMORROW. TODAY WE TOP OUT CLOSE TO ABOUT 4850 FURTHER INLAND. SO LET’S GO DAY BY DAY AS WE HEAD INTO AND PAST THE WEEKEND CLEARING SKIES TODAY AND MUCH, MUCH COOLER THAN WE HAVE BEEN TOMORROW. WE SHOULD BE DRY JUST ABOUT ALL DAY LONG. THERE IS A REALLY SLIM CHANCE FOR A STRAY SHOWER DURING THE AFTERNOON. RAIN AND STORM CHANCES INCREASE DURING THE OVERNIGHT HOURS. WAY WARMER ON SUNDAY WITH ROUNDS OF SHOWERS AND STORMS IN THE FORECAST. BUT I DO THINK THERE WILL BE SOME DRY TIME ON SUNDAY. MONDAY THERE’S ANOTHER CHANCE FOR RAIN AND STORMS, BUT RIGHT NOW IT DOES LOOK LIKE THERE’S A LOT OF DRY TIME. ON MONDAY. WE SEE MORE STORMS ON TUESDAY, MORE STORM CHANCES ON WEDNESDAY, MORE ON THURSDAY. AND LOOK AT THOSE TEMPERATURES SUNDAY THROUGH THURSDAY. AGAIN, I DON’T THINK ANY DAY IS NECESSARILY A COMPLETE WASHOUT. SO THERE SHOULD BE SOME TIME TO GET OUTSIDE AND ENJOY THOSE TEMPERATURES IN THE 60S AND 70S FUTURECAST HAS THAT LITTLE BIT OF RAIN RIGHT NOW. IT QUICKLY MOVES OUT. WE’LL SEE MORE SUNSHINE AS WE HEAD THROUGH THE AFTERNOON HOURS TODAY AND SUN THROUGH A LOT OF THE DAY TOMORROW. NOTICE BY 3:00, MAYBE A FEW SHOWERS AROUND. THIS MODEL IS KEEPING SOUTHEASTERN WISCONSIN DRY, BUT IT’S OVERNIGHT THAT WE SEE SOME STORM CHANCES INTO SUNDAY MORNING. AND THEN WE COULD SEE A FEW MORE STORMS AS WE HEAD INTO SUNDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING. WE’RE STILL A LITTLE FAR OUT FOR EXACT TIMING ON SUNDAY STORM CHANCES, BUT I DO THINK WE’LL SEE SOME DRY TIME TO GET OUTSIDE AND ENJOY TEMPERATURES IN THE 70S. THEN IT’S AN ACTIVE STRETCH THROUGH MOST OF NEXT WEEK. NO DAY LOOKS LIKE A COMPLETE WASHOUT, BUT ESPECIALLY TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY. WE’LL HAVE TO KEEP AN EYE ON THE POTENTIAL FOR SEVERE STORMS HERE IN SOUTHEASTERN WISCONSIN. AND WITH MORE HEAVY RAIN ON THE WAY. AFTER A SOGGY LAST WEEK AND A HALF OR SO, WE’LL HAVE TO KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR RIVER FLOODING CONCERNS AS WELL. 48 DEGREES FOR A HIGH TODAY, BUT WILL BE WARMER, INLAND. WARMER INLAND AGAIN TOMORROW. BUT EVERYONE SHOULD SEE HIGH TEMPERATURES IN THE 50S. THEN THAT ACTIVE STRETCH RETURNS TO SOUTHEASTERN WISCONSIN. DAILY STORM CHANCES. NO DAY IS A WASHOUT, BUT IF YOU HAVE OUTDOOR PLANS ON SUNDAY, KEEP AN EYE ON THE FORECAST. WE COULD SEE SOME IMPACTS. THAT 73, THOUGH LOOKING NICE AND QUITE A FEW 70S ON THE FORECAST. I KNOW. LOOKING FORWARD TO IT. IT’S JUST SO NICE TO HAVE THE WINDOWS OPEN YESTERDAY UNTIL THAT LAKE BREEZE KICKED IN AND IT DROPPED ABO
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Spring warm-up and storm chances in SE Wisconsin
Warmer temps and storm chances build into Sunday and Monday
Updated: 6:12 AM CDT Apr 10, 2026
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Editorial Standards ⓘ
Friday starts with a few early showers and sprinkles before skies gradually clear. Temperatures will stay on the cool side near the lake in the upper 40s, but inland spots warm into the mid-50s. Friday night turns partly cloudy and cool, with lows dipping to around 35 degrees.Saturday looks mainly dry with a mix of clouds and some sunshine with highs reaching the low 50s lakeside and upper 50s inland before rain and storm chances begin to move in late. Those storm chances stick around through Sunday and Monday, with a noticeable warm-up pushing highs into the 70s both days. Rounds of rain and storm chances are on the way Sunday through Thursday next week. Stay tuned to the forecast this weekend and next week, a few days next week could bring the chance for severe weather to SE Wisconsin.
MILWAUKEE —
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Friday starts with a few early showers and sprinkles before skies gradually clear. Temperatures will stay on the cool side near the lake in the upper 40s, but inland spots warm into the mid-50s. Friday night turns partly cloudy and cool, with lows dipping to around 35 degrees.
Saturday looks mainly dry with a mix of clouds and some sunshine with highs reaching the low 50s lakeside and upper 50s inland before rain and storm chances begin to move in late. Those storm chances stick around through Sunday and Monday, with a noticeable warm-up pushing highs into the 70s both days.
Rounds of rain and storm chances are on the way Sunday through Thursday next week. Stay tuned to the forecast this weekend and next week, a few days next week could bring the chance for severe weather to SE Wisconsin.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed a bill into law Thursday that legalizes online sports betting, making it the 33rd state to allow the practice.
But gamblers in Wisconsin will have to wait months or maybe even longer before they can start to legally place bets. The law Evers signed, which passed the Legislature with bipartisan support, requires the state to negotiate new deals with American Indian tribes that would run the sports betting.
Evers said he would not accept a plan that treats any one tribe better than another.
“The real work begins today,” he said in a statement. “Each of the 11 Tribes must now work diligently-and together-to shape the future of sports betting in Wisconsin. … An approach that exacerbates long-standing inequalities among Tribal Nations is not good for Wisconsinites or Wisconsin. I will not entertain it as governor.”
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Gambling is legal in Wisconsin only on tribal lands under exclusive contracts between tribes and the state. Sports bets can currently be placed only at certain tribal casinos, and online sports betting is illegal.
Under the new Wisconsin law, online sports betting would be allowed only if the infrastructure to manage the bets, such as computer servers, is located on tribal lands in the state. That approach, known as the “hub-and-spoke” model, already is used in Florida.
Under the Wisconsin tribal compacts, a percentage of the money tribes earn through that gambling is returned to the state. In 2024, the tribes paid the state just over $66 million from revenue generated at casinos.
Evers said the new law represents a chance “to support mental health programs and to combat the opioid crisis, two issues that I know plague both Tribal Nations and communities across our state.”
Supporters of the measure include several Wisconsin tribes and the Milwaukee Brewers. They contend people currently are placing bets using offshore sportsbooks or prediction markets or crossing into other states where it’s legal, including neighboring Illinois.
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The Sports Betting Alliance, which represents FanDuel, DraftKings, bet365, BetMGM and Fanatics, opposed the law. They argued that it wouldn’t make financial sense for them to partner with Wisconsin tribes, because federal law requires 60% of gambling revenues must go back to the tribes. They would prefer a state constitutional amendment opening sports betting to all operators.
Evers, who is not running for a third term this year, has originally said he would sign it as long as it had the support of the state’s 11 federally recognized tribes. But he later raised concerns because not every tribe was on board. Evers said Thursday that all 11 tribes are now in active negotiations over how to implement the new law.
Across the U.S., state-regulated sportsbooks handled nearly $167 billion of bets last year, generating revenues of nearly $17 billion after winnings were paid out to customers, according to the American Gaming Association. That marked an almost 23% increase over the previous year.
Wisconsin Badgers offensive lineman Blake Cherry goes through a drill during spring practice. Photo credit: UW Athletics
There was no shortage of things that went wrong for Luke Fickell and the University of Wisconsin football team during its 4–8 season in 2025.
You can point to the countless injuries at quarterback. You can point to an inconsistency at the skill positions. You can point to a lack of offensive identity. All of it is fair. But if you really strip it down from an execution standpoint, most of those problems trace back to one place.
Up front.
“That’s the number one thing offensively is the continuity of those guys up front,” Fickell said when asked about the focus for Wisconsin’s offensive line this spring. “I’m not going to dwell upon the past, but if there’s something that has probably not gone in the direction, individually or unit-wise, it has been the O-line. With the history here and what the expectations are here — that’s one of the big things.”
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That’s not a throwaway line. That’s an acknowledgment.
Because for as much as the quarterback carousel defined last season, the offensive line never gave the offense a chance to stabilize or improve. There was constant shuffling. Players were asked to play out of position. Others were forced into roles they probably weren’t ready for yet.
And the result showed up in the numbers.
Wisconsin fielded the least productive offense in the Power Four last season, finishing No. 134 nationally in scoring (12.8 points per game) and No. 135 in total offense (253.1 yards per game). The run game — a foundational piece of the program’s identity — never found traction.
Then, after the season, more experience walked out the door.
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Starting left guard Joe Brunner transferred to Indiana. Center Jake Renfro left for Illinois. Offensive tackle Riley Mahlman exhausted his eligibility.
Whatever continuity existed up front didn’t last.
So the response was predictable. Wisconsin moved on from A.J. Blazek and hired Eric Mateos as the new offensive line coach, leaning on his prior working relationship with offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes in hopes that familiarity can help this new group get up to speed quickly.
The next step was to go out and add bodies. A lot of them.
Most notably, Austin Kawecki arrives from Oklahoma State as a veteran presence expected to take over the starting center job. Kevin Heywood returns from an ACL injury and is expected to factor in at tackle. And then there’s P.J. Wilkins, an Ole Miss transfer who has primarily played guard in college but is now working at tackle since arriving in Madison.
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That last part matters.
Because Mateos didn’t just inherit this group — he’s reshaping it.
“That’s what I really love about it, to be honest with you,” Fickell said about the offensive line. “I love being in that room right now because there are all new guys. There are some guys who played a little bit in [Colin] Cubberly and Emerson Mandell. But the nature of it is it’s a new group.”
It looks like one, too.
Colin Cubberly brings experience after being thrown into the fire last season. Emerson Mandell, who opened last year as the starting right guard, has shown positional flexibility after sliding out to tackle last season, but is now back working on the interior. Arkansas transfer Blake Cherry is competing on the interior, while younger or depth options like Lucas Simmons and Stylz Blackmon add competition behind them.
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Even someone like Barrett Nelson, currently working back from another injury, is viewed as a candidate for the two-deep at tackle when healthy. There are more options. The challenge is turning that into answers.
“Look, we’ve got to get back to that group being a group,” said Fickell. “It’s not individuals. There are a lot of things we’ve got to be able to do… Yes, they understand the history. Yes, they understand the past. But it’s time to kind of say, ‘Look.’ This is a group that’s got to kind of reestablish the things that we believe in, and we are.”
And that’s where everything ties together. Because this isn’t just about fixing the offensive line in isolation, this is about supporting a completely reworked offense.
Nobody’s expecting this group to snap back to the gold standard of offensive line play that Wisconsin built its identity on overnight. But this is still a program that wants to run the ball, play with physicality up front, and lean into a system that now includes mobile quarterbacks.
Even if returning to an elite level immediately isn’t realistic, they do have to become a Big Ten-caliber unit — one capable of holding its own, creating movement, and giving the offense a chance to dictate terms instead of constantly reacting. Wisconsin has a new quarterback room led by Old Dominion transfer Colton Joseph. A reshaped running back group featuring Abu Sama and Darrion Dupree. A completely different mix at wide receiver. Changes at tight end. All of it depends on what happens up front.
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If the line comes together, the Badgers’ offense has a path toward meaningful improvement after what was one of the least productive units Wisconsin has fielded in decades. If it doesn’t, it’s hard to see much changing, regardless of who’s under center or carrying the ball.
Fickell knows it. The staff knows it. The returning players know it.
Now it’s about proving it.
“I think that’s where a lot of the youth and the newer guys have been really refreshing — a little bit of a changeover,” Fickell said.
Refreshing is one way to put it. Necessary might be a better one. Because for Wisconsin to take a step forward and make it back to a bowl game for the first time since 2023, it starts where it always has. Up front.
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