Luke Fickell Says This is Where Wisconsin Football's 'Season Starts'

After Wisconsin lost 41-13 to Notre Dame in the 2026 opener, competing ferociously with the Irish in the first half before crumbling in the second, head coach Luke Fickell's post-game press conference was all too familiar.

“I don’t have a great explanation for the second half. I could give them a lot of credit, I thought that we held the energy and created a lot of momentum in the first half, and in the second half we could do none," he said.

Obviously, you never want to hear your coach appear dumbfounded as to how his team just collapsed spectacularly after looking quite competitive for two quarters. Unfortunately, this isn't the first time Fickell's had the same flabbergasted attitude after tough losses.

“That’s as low as it could be. I apologize," Fickell said after the Badgers lost 37-0 at home to Iowa last season. "I’m dumbfounded in a lot of ways.”

Tuesday morning, Fickell managed to contextualize the second-half collapse against the Irish a little more articulately.

“Obviously the second half was not the way we wanna go about out business. Some things showed that we have to correct," he said. "To be honest with you, it’s a bit of a wear-down of us.”

But a refrain that Fickell mentioned both immediately after the game and during his Tuesday morning game week presser? The notion that the Badgers' season starts now.

“I’ll tell you guys what I told the guys in the locker room: the season begins now," he said after the game. "The season begins for us when we get punched in the face.”

“I kinda said it after the game, I said it to our team, this is where the season starts," he doubled down Tuesday morning. "The first shot of adversity, what are you gonna do? How are you gonna respond, how are you gonna grow?"

Does the season really "start now" for the Badgers?

Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

I understand the logic behind the phrase. Fickell is trying to convey that it takes adversity to find out who his team really is, which isn't false by any means.

However, it comes across as somewhat tone-deaf for a fanbase that's been starved for wins and relevance since Fickell took over. Regardless of what the coach actually means by that phrase, it's reasonable for Badgers fans to be uneasy that he's repeating a phrase he said verbatim after Wisconsin got blown out by Alabama in Week 3 last season.

Does anyone recall what happened after the Alabama loss last fall? Wisconsin returned home and kicked off BIg Ten play against Maryland, only to get smoked by a Terps team that proceeded to loose out the rest of the season.

This is of course a different team with a different schedule, but repeating the same exact phrases from a dismal 2025 campaign when you're desperately trying to turn a program around is certainly a choice. The definition of insanity comes to mind.

But regardless of what I perceive to be a poor choice of words given how his tenure has unfolded in Madison, I also disagree that this is where the season starts.

Is Fickell going to find out what he needs to know about his team against FCS Western Illinois? However that game unfolds, it's not going to tell Fickell what his team will look like in Big Ten play; the Leathernecks are simply too overmatched to glean all that much from Week 2.

Week 3 against Eastern Michigan of the MAC will be more telling, but again, these are buy games in which Wisconsin is expected to flatten their opponent. I'd argue the season starts on Sept. 26 in Happy Valley at Penn State. That's where Fickell is going to really learn what kind of team he has.

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