Badgers Hit Rock Bottom, Must 'Weed Out' Divided Locker Room
Wisconsin's coaching staff needs to begin weeding out anyone who isn't bought into the program's vision moving forward.
With bowl eligibility on the line, Luke Fickell and the Wisconsin football program laid arguably their biggest egg of the season. The Badgers lost 24-10 at home to a Northwestern team that was better prepared, played with more energy, and, quite simply, wanted it more — despite having an interim head coach on the opposing sideline.
"That's embarrassing, and I take the blame of it and not having guys ready, and not at any phase of the game," Fickell said after the game.
Transitioning from one coaching staff to another is always challenging. Still, it's an even tougher sell when it involves deviating from a philosophy that's defined the Wisconsin Badgers since the Barry Alvarez era.
Thus far, Fickell has faced unique challenges in maintaining the team's locker room culture and winning tradition in his first season. Rumblings of a divided team have started to leak out, leading to coaches and players discussing the need to determine who wants to be here and who doesn't.
"We're going to have to look at tomorrow, and we're going to have to be one day at a time and one practice at a time, one moment at a time, and find a way, with the guys we got, and the guys that want to be here and the guys that want to do it, to push forward and do the things that we can do and do them better," Fickell stated.
Defensive star Hunter Wohler seemed to echo that statement in an impassioned post-game ranting with media members that centered around the team's lack of effort, being soft, and not executing the coaching staff's game plan.
"I think there's some people that are bought in, and we need to get everybody," Wohler said. "This game doesn't happen with one or two people. It happens with a full team."
Wisconsin Must ‘Weed Out’ Divided Locker Room
When Luke Fickell took over the Wisconsin football program, it marked a significant shift in coaching philosophy and culture.
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