Luke Fickell Has One Big Thing Left to Prove With Wisconsin

The Badgers finally look like they're turning a corner under Luke Fickell, but there's one team he still hasn't figured out.

Oct 24, 2026; Madison, Wisconsin, USA; Wisconsin Badgers head coach Luke Fickell walks onto the field with his team for warmups before the game against the USC Trojans at Camp Randall Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Wahl-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

I'll admit it. Wisconsin's win over USC changed the way I'm looking at this team.

I wasn't sure what to make of the Badgers after that 17-7 loss to UCLA. Actually, I was probably closer to writing them off than believing they were about to turn things around. Then they beat No. 16 USC 24-7.

And it wasn't one of those games where Wisconsin got a couple of lucky breaks and somehow hung on. The Badgers were more physical, the defense dominated and USC never really looked comfortable.

I'm not ready to say everything has suddenly been fixed under Luke Fickell. We've seen too many ups and downs over the last few years for me to go that far after one game. But I'm starting to wonder if we're finally seeing the kind of team Fickell has been trying to build.

There's just one team I need to see him beat before I'm completely sold, and that's Iowa.

Fickell has to figure out Iowa

Oct 17, 2026; Pasadena, California, USA; Wisconsin Badgers head coach Luke Fickell looks on during the second half against the UCLA Bruins at the Rose Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Being 0-3 against Iowa is bad enough. When you start looking at what happened in those games, it gets a lot worse.

Wisconsin has been outscored 94-16 and out-rushed 734-347 in Fickell's three games against the Hawkeyes. Iowa also has a 7-1 advantage in turnovers and hasn't turned the ball over against Wisconsin in either of the last two meetings.

Those aren't three close games that came down to a bad bounce or one mistake late. Iowa has pretty much had its way with Wisconsin.

The last two have been especially rough. Iowa ran for 329 yards in a 42-10 win two years ago, and Wisconsin carried that loss with it afterward. The Badgers even did 42 pushups after practices as a reminder of the score.

Then the Hawkeyes came to Camp Randall last season and beat the Badgers 37-0.

So much for the pushups.

That's 79-10 over two years. At some point, if Wisconsin is going to get where Fickell wants to take this program, the Badgers have to stop getting pushed around by Iowa.

That's why Saturday means a little more to me than just another Big Ten game.

Wisconsin is 5-2 and 3-1 in the Big Ten. The Badgers have won at Penn State and now beaten a ranked USC team at home. They're starting to give us some reasons to believe this season could be different, and the defense is probably the biggest one.

In the 24-7 win over USC, Wisconsin held the Trojans to minus-17 rushing yards and 241 total yards. The Badgers picked off Jayden Maiava twice and sacked him five times. That's the kind of defense Wisconsin is going to need at Kinnick Stadium.

I don't expect the Badgers to go there and suddenly score 40 points. That's probably not how this team is going to win games anyway. But if this defense is really as good as it looked against USC, this is the kind of game where it should matter.

This one would mean a little more

I don't want to downplay beating USC or winning at Penn State. Those are good wins, and they're a big reason I'm looking at Wisconsin differently than I was a few weeks ago.

But Iowa has been a problem for this program. The Hawkeyes have won four straight in the series, Wisconsin hasn't won the Heartland Trophy since 2021 and the Badgers haven't won at Kinnick Stadium since 2018.

Now Wisconsin gets another shot in the 100th meeting between the two programs.

It probably won't be pretty. Iowa enters the matchup allowing 14.3 points and 82.9 rushing yards per game, and Wisconsin just won a game in which it threw only 14 passes. This has all the makings of the kind of game where every possession matters and nobody cares what the final box score looks like.

I'm fine with that. I don't need Wisconsin to look great Saturday, and I don't need Colton Joseph to throw for 300 yards or the Badgers to suddenly become something they're not.

Just find a way to beat Iowa.

I've seen enough over the last couple of weeks to start believing Fickell may finally have Wisconsin moving in the right direction. Beating Iowa won't erase everything that happened over his first three seasons, but it would take care of one thing he still hasn't been able to do.

And after the way the last three meetings have gone, that would mean something.