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Week 3 at Alabama will measure Wisconsin Badgers true progress under Luke Fickell

The stakes are high for the Wisconsin Badgers against Alabama, with Luke Fickell desperate to show the progress his team has made under his leadership.
Lorin Cox|
Sep 14, 2024; Madison, Wisconsin, USA; Wisconsin Badgers head coach Luke Fickell looks on during the fourth quarter against the Alabama Crimson Tide at Camp Randall Stadium.
Sep 14, 2024; Madison, Wisconsin, USA; Wisconsin Badgers head coach Luke Fickell looks on during the fourth quarter against the Alabama Crimson Tide at Camp Randall Stadium. | Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

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The Wisconsin Badgers' Week 3 game at Alabama is far from a must-win. No one really thinks they can win.

But how the Badgers perform in Tuscaloosa will show everyone what kind of progress the team has made under Luke Fickell.

It's not about pulling off the miracle upset. It's about showing that the program is heading in the right direction and getting closer to the powerhouse schools like Alabama, not farther away.

Last year's loss to the Crimson Tide felt season-defining, not because they lost but how they lost that game.

Wisconsin didn't look like they belonged on the field in that 2024 matchup. It was the first signs of a team starting to quit and not looking fully bought-in or engaged with the messaging from the sidelines.

The Badgers looked more like the Group of Five schools the Crimson Tide normally beat up on in non-conference play than an actual Big Ten challenger.

Fickell can't afford to let that kind of performance happen again, and it doesn't get any easier traveling to Tuscaloosa instead of the friendly confines of Camp Randall Stadium.

If this Saturday is another 42-10 blowout, it will call into question all of the changes and positive momentum the team seemed to be building this offseason.

The doubts will get even louder. Fickell's seat will get even hotter. And the team will develop a reputation of shrinking in big games and not having the toughness to hang with more physical teams.

Wisconsin has to put up a fight in a game that no one expects them to win. Keeping the score close in a respectable loss will go along way toward the fanbase building confidence that this coaching staff has the team going in the right direction.

It's the closest thing to a moral victory you'll see in college sports, and Fickell needs one here badly.

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Lorin Cox
LORIN COX

Lorin Cox is the managing editor of Wisconsin Badgers on SI. He has been covering Badgers sports since 2014, when he was an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin. He previously wrote for the Wisconsin State Journal, NBC Sports Chicago and USA Today Sports Media Group, and he is a former analyst for Pro Football Focus.

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