Luke Fickell Loves What he Sees From Young Badgers Defender: 'Just Scratching the Surface'

Wisconsin's dominant defensive effort in the Badgers' win over No. 16 USC was largely due to the well-known stalwarts of defensive coordinator Mike Tressel's unit.

Linebacker Cooper Catalano led the team with 10 tackles. His fellow inside backer Mason Posa notched five tackles, 2.5 tackles-for-loss and 1.5 sacks. Edge rusher Sebastian Cheeks tallied five tackles and 2.5 sacks.

Those three are arguably the top three players on the Badgers' defense, and they've created havoc all season long; it was a dominant but ultimately unsurprising performance from the core of Wisconsin's front seven, even if the Badgers' overall dominance against USC was still shocking.

But one less-heralded player, partially thrust into action because of an upper-body injury to starting safety Marvin Burks Jr, had a career game Saturday night against the Trojans: Sophomore safety Cairo Skanes.

Skanes made his presence felt pretty quickly. After USC went 3-and-out on its first drive, Trojans' quarterback Jayden Maiava threw an interception to Badgers' nickel Bryce West on his second drive. USC desperately needed to get something going on offense on its third possession, but Skanes had other plans. On a third and short, Wisconsin sent the inside backer Catalano on a blitz. He sped up Maiava's process and forced the quarterback into an extremely uncharacteristic bad throw, right into the waiting arms of Skanes:

Jayden Maiava has thrown his 2nd interception of the quarter, this time to Cairo Skanes#Badgers pic.twitter.com/NhlK3gQPks
— Carter Lowe (@carterjlowe) October 25, 2026

Skanes wound up notching four tackles, one pass-breakup and the above interception on a career-high 65 snaps.

“He’s been able to do a lot of different things for us," head coach Luke Fickell said this week. "Two weeks ago, he got thrown in, even this past week, at nickel, where I don’t know if he took any reps during the week at. He’s a guy that the game isn’t too big, the game isn’t too fast. I still think he’s just scratching the surface of what he is and what he’s going to be. He’s a guy that’s very very valuable to us, and his name might not be mentioned or talked about as a starter, but in everything we do, this guy’s a starter for us.”

That's pretty high praise from Fickell. Right off the bat, his freshman year in Madison, it was clear as day this staff had high expectations — and big plans — for Skanes. He burned his "redshirt" last year (while that was still a thing in college sports) and played 80 snaps as a true freshman. They weren't just garbage time snaps, either; he totaled 53 snaps between Wisconsin's two blowout losses to Ohio State and Iowa last fall.

Skanes' interception off Maiava was his first big play in the Cardinal and White. But the multi-faceted, lanky defensive back is a crucial part of this backfield with his versatility and athleticism, and if the starter Burks is forced to miss any more time, get ready for a lot more Skanes.

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