MADISON — When you suffer a loss as humiliating and demoralizing as the one Wisconsin did Saturday, a 24-10 defeat at the hands of Northwestern to push the losing streak to three, new issues tend to come to light.

For the Badgers, that was a perceived lack of buy-in expressed by multiple players after the game. Safety Hunter Wohler specifically ripped his team for a lack of effort, and mentioned that there’s going to be some “weeding out.”

“It’s really annoying. Especially for the seniors and all the older guys that’ve put in all this hard work, and we see guys slacking off or not being fully bought in like Hunter said,” defensive lineman James Thompson said. “People that say they’re gonna do this, do that but not actually doing it. That’s like a shot in the back. You put your blood, sweat and tears and you see that everybody’s not bought in, it’s like, ‘Can I really trust you when I’m on the field?’”

Now, Wisconsin football is faced with a critical two-game stretch with a situation nearly identical to what it was a season ago. Once again, the Badgers must face Nebraska and then Minnesota, needing to win at least once in order to become bowl-eligible.

After the loss to Northwestern, quarterback Tanner Mordecai also had some strong words for his team. He mentioned that he wanted to see “who in this program has a give-a-sh*t factor.” According to the quarterback, the response from his teammates early in the week has been satisfactory.

“I think guys have taken the right approach. We just had a really good Tuesday practice. But yeah, I’ve been happy with the energy and how people have attacked,” he said.

The rest of the select few players made available to the media this week tended to agree.

“This is a rough situation that we’re in right now, but there’s not a lot of people sulking around,” Thompson said. “We know we got a job to do. I feel like everybody’s on 10 right now trying to make sure we’re prepared the right way.”

“Guys worked really hard today,” offensive lineman Tanor Bortolini said. “There was that energy, that passion to get better today.”

When a team is searching for answers like these Badgers are, sweeping changes can sometimes occur in an effort to try to catch lighting in a bottle. According to the players made available, no such changes occurred this week. However, Sunday’s practice and team meeting apparently featured more of an open dialogue between players and coaches than what’s transpired in previous weeks.

“Usually, just kinda like the hierarchy of things, you’re not gonna go up to your coach and say what’s on your mind. But I think, Sunday, you know, (the coaches said) ‘we wanna know what you have to say, we wanna know what your thoughts are. Because we’re not where we wanna be, and we wanna figure out why,’” Bortolini said.

“We had a team meeting Sunday; we got everything ironed out there,” Mordecai said. “I think people have communicated more. I think we’re on the same page as far as what we feel and what we wanna do going forward.”

“I think it gave the coaches a good opportunity to see it from our side, and vice versa, us a good opportunity to see it from their point of view,” Bortolini continued.

For the seniors on this team, there’s no shortage of motivation to close out the season strong with senior day around the corner and a potential last time running out of the tunnel in Camp Randall Stadium.

“You gotta understand it’s our last home game here for guys like me, Marty (Strey),” defensive lineman Rodas Johnson said. “What do you wanna leave on the table?”

“I at least wanna leave with, you know, hearing the uproar in the stadium,” he continued.

Wide receiver Chimere Dike agrees that the team has worked hard in response to the losing streak this week, but acknowledges that it’s meaningless unless the Badgers get it done on Saturday night.

“I’m satisfied with the way we practiced today and the energy that we had. Obviously, the only way to truly satisfy is to go out and win Saturday,” he said.

Mordecai, often described as the “ultimate competitor,” naturally agreed.

“I mean, for me it’s real hard to have fun when you don’t win. I wanna win. Winning takes care of everything.”

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