INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Around this same time last year, the Wisconsin football team's contingent of players arrived at Big Ten Media Days hungry to end a drought.

It had been two years since the Badgers played in the Big Ten Championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium, an unacceptable stretch for a program that had reached that game six times from 2011 to 2019. Three of those appearances came under Paul Chryst.

"That doesn't cut it here. I came here to win championships," outsiders linebacker Nick Herbig said last July. "I didn't come here to sit on my couch and watch it on TV."

Yet that's what the Badgers did for a third straight year this past December. They sat and watched as Michigan beat Purdue to capture its second consecutive conference title en route to the College Football Playoff.

But much was different this time around. So much had already changed or would down the line. The energy within the UW program was on its way up.

After a tumultuous regular season in which UW fired Chryst after a 2-3 start, athletic director Chris McIntosh swung big. He lured proven-winner Luke Fickell away from Cincinnati, where the veteran head coach spent six seasons, leading the program to the CFP in 2021-22.

Expectations — both internally and externally — have continued to mount since then. And just like the last four years, the Badgers being the favorites to win the Big Ten West was a topic at Big Ten Media Days on Thursday.

"I would much rather put things up with people doubting us," Fickell said. "I love the negativity of that sort. But the culture and the nature of the kids we have and their maturity level, they've been through these situations and can handle them."

The expectations go beyond Cleveland.com's preseason Big Ten poll, released before media days earlier this week. Some experts have pegged the Badgers as a College Football Playoff party crasher, including Phil Steele, who released his annual season-preview magazine earlier this summer.

Steele, known for his accuracy in the world of predictions, ranked Fickell's Badgers as his No. 1 surprise team for the 2023 season. Steele defines surprise teams as "non-preseason top-10 teams" he thinks has a chance to reach the CFP.

This isn’t the first time a Fickell-led team has been on that list.

"In 2021, I picked the Cincinnati Bearcats (Fickell's old team) as my highest-ranked Group of Five team and finished my writeup by saying, 'the Bearcats have a shot at being the first ever Group of Five team to make the playoff.' Some guy named Luke Fckell did exactly that as they faced No. 1 Alabama in the playoff.

While those forecasts have made the offseason entertaining for the fans, the players have tried to tune it out. None of it will mean anything if they don't perform, a lesson the Badgers have learned enough over the last two seasons.

In 2021, they could’ve clinched a trip to Indianapolis with a win over Minnesota in the regular-season finale but failed. Last season, as overwhelming division favorites, they stumbled out of the gates and finished in fifth place.

"People will say what they want to say," inside linebacker Maema Njongmeta said. "If you let them tell you how good you are, you'll have to listen to them tell you how bad you are. We're keeping our heads on straight and getting ready for camp."

Quarterback Tanner Mordecai, a transfer from SMU, said he wasn’t aware of the Badgers' standing in the preseason poll. He doesn’t keep up with such news.

"I honestly keep the outside distractions to a minimum," the sixth-year senior said. "I know a lot of guys say that, but I really do. As far as expectations go, we have our own. We lean on our own standards and rules more than what someone is tweeting. We focus on our own and try not to focus on what other people think as much."

By all accounts, everyone has embraced that approach as the Badgers enter another season as favorites in the West.

"It's all internal. We put it on ourselves," running back Braelon Allen said. "We just want to make sure we're playing to the best of our abilities."

*Chat about this article in The Badgers' Den

*Check out our videos, interviews, and Q&As on our YouTube channel

*Subscribe and listen to the BadgerBlitz.com podcast (as seen on Apple, Google, Spotify and wherever you listen to podcasts)

*Follow us on Twitter: @McNamaraRivals, @MHoganReports, @TheBadgerNation, @RaulV45, @seamus_rohrer

*Like us on Facebook