MADISON, Wis. — Cautious optimism spread among Wisconsin’s football players in the week leading up to a massive home showdown against No. 4 Alabama. It was a game, some players said, they had circled for years — not months — because of the incredible opportunity it would provide to showcase the program’s worthiness on a national stage following four straight disappointing seasons.

What went unsaid is that it also was a game that provided an opportunity to be incredibly exposed.

That’s what happened during Alabama’s 42-10 romp of Wisconsin at Camp Randall Stadium on Saturday, in which Badgers starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke was knocked out of the game with a right knee injury on the first series. It marked Wisconsin’s worst home defeat in 16 years, a 41-point loss to Penn State in 2008.

One side possessed multiple playmakers and executed at a high level. The other side didn’t. And for a Wisconsin program still trying to move the meter in Luke Fickell’s second season, this was not the way to do it.

“I’ll give you guys the same message I just gave them: If you haven’t had your ass whooped before, you just did,” Fickell said. “They beat us in every phase of the game today.”

Few people outside the program believed Wisconsin would win, which is why the Badgers were two-touchdown underdogs. But this team wasn’t even close, particularly after Alabama struck in two plays late in the second quarter off a missed Wisconsin field goal to take a 21-3 halftime lead. Maybe a healthy Van Dyke would have helped stem the Crimson Tide a little while longer. However, there were simply too many mental and physical errors across the board against a superior foe to think Wisconsin would have pulled off a miracle.

I don’t think running back Jam Miller had enough open space on that 34-yard touchdown run. Crimson Tide absolutely dominating two minutes into the third quarter.

Alabama 28, Wisconsin 3.

— Jesse Temple (@jessetemple) September 14, 2024

A mass exodus from the student section took place as soon as “Jump Around” finished blaring from the loudspeakers following the third quarter, with only a speck of white shirts from the red-and-white fan “Stripe Out” dotting the otherwise empty bleachers. By that time, the Crimson Tide led 35-10.

Wisconsin athletics director Chris McIntosh fired Paul Chryst five games into the 2022 season following a 2-3 start and ultimately hired Fickell from Cincinnati in late November of that year to help restore the program’s championship-level aspirations. Fickell’s average annual salary is $7.8 million, which means he is paid like a top-20 coach. But right now, he doesn’t have a top-20 program or, arguably, even a top-40 program given the way the Badgers have performed.

Although Wisconsin is 2-1, there is no guarantee the Badgers will extend their 22-year bowl game streak because of a daunting schedule with Big Ten play on the horizon. Van Dyke’s injury status further calls into question what the rest of this season looks like. Fickell said Van Dyke would need an MRI but that “I don’t think it looks real good for him.” Backup Braedyn Locke replaced him and completed 13 of 26 passes for 125 yards with one touchdown.

Wisconsin has attempted to overhaul its roster through high school recruiting and the transfer portal, and it’s become increasingly clear that the transition under a new staff and with new schemes is taking longer than people in the program expected. The Badgers are now 9-7 in 16 games under Fickell, including 0-3 against nationally ranked teams, and it’s still not apparent what they do exceptionally well or even what the identity of the team is coming off a 7-6 campaign in Year 1 for Fickell.

“We know we’ve got a hell of a long way to go to figure out what we are and what we can hang our hat on,” Fickell said. “But I have faith and trust in those guys in that locker room. And that’s what you’ve got to continue to ride with.”

Fickell wanted to establish a physical brand of football in two closer-than-expected victories against Western Michigan and South Dakota that still left plenty to be desired. But the team’s physicality was outmatched against Alabama.

Case in point: Wisconsin failed to convert a fourth-and-1 from the Alabama 39-yard line out of a shotgun formation while clinging to a 3-0 lead late in the first quarter. Four plays later, Crimson Tide quarterback Jalen Milroe threw a 31-yard touchdown pass to freshman receiver Ryan Williams that gave Alabama the lead for good.

Wisconsin doesn’t seem to possess the caliber of running backs it did during its high point. There aren’t enough wide receivers who have been able to consistently stretch the field to make Phil Longo’s version of the Air Raid go. And the Badgers haven’t been able to take care of the ball well enough. They fumbled four times and lost two of them against Alabama, including Chez Mellusi’s third-quarter back-breaker that all but gift-wrapped Alabama a 28-3 edge.

“Obviously, Alabama is a really good football team, but I didn’t feel like they were 30 points better than us,” Badgers receiver Will Pauling said. “We shot ourselves in the foot a lot today. And when you’re playing a team like Alabama, a team that has a lot of talent and skill, those small details, they really magnify the game and they really change the game in big ways.”

Members of Wisconsin’s defense, meanwhile, believed they were ready because they had handled adversity in their first two victories. But playing well in the fourth quarter against lesser foes really wasn’t an indicator they could hang with Alabama. Wisconsin’s defense surrendered six touchdowns on 12 Alabama drives. Milroe looked like the Heisman Trophy candidate that he is, accounting for five touchdowns — three passing and two rushing.

Wisconsin safety Hunter Wohler was the most outspoken player last season when the Badgers struggled, at one point saying after a loss to Northwestern the team was “miles different from what I grew up watching.” He struck a different tone after the Alabama loss, saying: “I don’t fear where we are as a program and as a team.” But not everybody felt as optimistic in the immediate aftermath.

“It’s easy for me to say, ‘Oh, no, you can’t judge us off of that,’” Wisconsin cornerback Ricardo Hallman said. “But at the same time, you guys saw that. Alabama is one of the juggernauts in college football. That’s where we want to be as a team, and we got completely obliterated today, and that was terrible. So it’s easy for me to say, ‘Oh, you can’t judge us.’ But I don’t know really what to say to that. This was an early season test we failed.”

Fickell gave his most impassioned answer after the game when he said he knew this season would be a battle and that he didn’t want to jump to conclusions based on one game. Still, his players understood what Saturday represented. Wisconsin had not played a top-10 nonconference opponent at home since facing Miami 35 years earlier.

That day, Wisconsin took a 3-0 lead early before losing 51-3, leading to chants from the Badgers’ fans of “We scored first.” Wisconsin has tried to find a formula that can lead to some of the success the program found over the previous three decades. But that’s not exactly the Wisconsin team this version wants to emulate.

“I expected to win games like this when I first came here,” Hallman said. “I know what Wisconsin is and what we were before I got here. It’s really frustrating and really challenging because as a program, as history-rich as we are and how many great players on the team that we’ve had, we know we’ve got to be better. It’s just a terrible feeling.”

(Photo of LT Overton and Braedyn Locke: John Fisher / Getty Images)