MADISON — Head coach Luke Fickell met with the media on Monday, offering some final thoughts on the 42-7 victory over Rutgers, as well as the upcoming matchup against Northwestern.

BadgerBlitz.com has compiled the key takeaways.

The Badgers have improved in a variety of ways over the past two weeks, but Fickell has repeatedly emphasized the offensive line’s role in their success.

According to Pro Football Focus, Wisconsin’s offensive line posted a 92.1 pass blocking grade on Saturday, the highest rating of the Fickell era. Quarterback Braedyn Locke was only sacked once.

The offensive line was given a break when the Scarlet Knights’ best edge rusher, Aaron Lewis, left the game early in the first quarter with a shoulder injury and never returned. Still, the Rutgers defensive line is no slouch, and the Badgers have shown palpable improvement.

“Once you start to see some of those strengths, I think you can kind of focus on them and enhance them. I would say, [what stands out] as much as anything is their ability to play together. We've had consistency up front, in particular, across the board, and I don't just mean that with how the same five guys start. We've been relatively free of some injuries, and other guys have had to play. But I think their ability to figure out what it is that they do well and play together. I think that's where we're doing a really good job up front,” Fickell said.

He was asked later on in the press conference about how closely Saturday’s performance matched his vision of what the offense can be at their best. Again, he attributed their execution to the offensive line.

“You look at the pocket, and you look at the ability for Braedyn to have some patience with it, to be able to move himself a little bit, step up and have a free lane. Those are the things that sometimes people don't talk about. They just look at the shots down the field. And I think that's where [I’m] putting some pressure on the guys up front, saying, ‘Okay, it's not just pound the football. It's not just the run game. It's how clean can we keep him?’ I think he was sacked one time. He probably was only hit a couple times.

“I think that balance is what we envision, but it doesn't happen unless you can not just control and run the football, but that you can protect as well and give [Locke] the pockets that we need to give him. So yes, there's a lot of positives from the guys up front that they're doing a good job, but it's going to continue to grow, and that as people see that they're going to challenge them more in different ways, and they have to be able to handle it. Their ability to adjust and adapt, I think, is where maybe we didn't do as good a job of last year.”

Perhaps the biggest reason Saturday’s game was such a blowout was due to Rutgers running back Kyle Monangai’s inability to get anything going on the ground.

As the centerpiece of the offense, as soon as Monangai began to struggle, the rest of the team seemed to go down with him. In the first half, Monangai finished with just 22 rushing yards on 11 carries, while the team as a whole had just 120 total yards.

Fickell credited the entire defensive line, but emphasized that the win “was about the edges”.

“That didn't mean that we were neglecting the guys that were inside, but I thought that going into the game, the key defensively, and even offensively, was that we had to control the edges. We had to win the C gap. And I thought we did a really good job of that. And that's where it started. I think they [Rutgers] maybe changed a little bit and didn't challenge some of those things quite as much. Maybe it was because we had done a good job the year before as well. But those guys were able to adjust and adapt to some of the things they did a little bit differently.

“They tried maybe some different things, getting the ball on the edge a little bit more early on. They ran a few gap scheme things, just to try to make us play a little bit more honest and see if they could loosen up our edges. But I thought those guys did a really good job. Coaches did a good job of having some mix ups too, where you didn't just sit yourself in the C-gap, you're able to move yourself outside the C gap and then refit the C- gap with either a backer or a safety. And I thought those adjustments and changes that our guys were able to handle gave us an opportunity.”

In a class of exciting young freshmen, the one who’s seen the most game time so far has been cornerback Xavier Lucas.

He impressed in limited snaps early in the season, even catching an interception in his first career game against Western Michigan, but Lucas saw his most involvement yet on Saturday, logging 38 snaps.

“He's been a guy that we've been able to roll. And that's something we didn't have last year. I think the depth at the back end made it really difficult to get some of those guys in and get roles for those guys. But as you see, we're playing some different personnels, and he has, maybe not the starting role, but he has a role as soon as we go to dime, or as soon as we go into a different package, which I think gives him some confidence as well. He's a guy that we knew, walking in the door, he was gonna have talent. We knew that he was going to have to be put in there at some point in time. And then, how was he going to handle that? How is his maturity going to handle that? Can he adjust week in and week out? And he's done a really good job.

“I don't know that he's been targeted… It's not like somebody's coming in and saying, ‘There's a true freshman over there, let's go target him.’ And that's not because he's a true freshman, it's because he has done a good job, when he's been in there, of being consistent. And I would tell you that that's the way he's been in practice, which is the way he's played. And that's not always what you get from a young guy. Usually there is a bit more of a roller coaster with young guys.”

Weeks ago, Fickell voiced his desire to simplify the running back rotation and nail down a hierarchical three-back lineup.

“It's probably one of the things that [I’ve] put on the offense a little more to say, ‘Look, I don't know that you can play four and five running backs. We've got to focus in on who's going to be one, who's going to be the next guy, and then who's the spare.’ It doesn't give them an opportunity to get into rhythm,” Fickell said prior to the matchup against Purdue.

It’s obviously done wonders for the offense in recent weeks, but a victim has been running back Cade Yacamelli, who, despite averaging 8.8 yards per carry, is fourth on the team in carries with just 30 on the season.

Fickell was asked how he can manage a tight back rotation while also giving enough attention to someone who has produced as much as Yacamelli.

“I know it can be frustrating for some, and Cade in particular. There's nobody that's got a higher per-carry average than Cade does. But I think that's a product of the system. And we try to refer to it every week and remind guys that if you do what's best for the team in the long run, it'll be what's best for you. Cade is a prime example of that, and when he gets his opportunities, he's taken incredible advantage of those opportunities. And the way the game goes, the way the season goes, the way that position is, we're going to need at least three and possibly four. You just don't know when, and you don't know how, and it takes a lot of maturity.”

A central cog in Wisconsin’s recent offensive explosion has been receiver Vinny Anthony. He caught two passes on Saturday for 81 yards, including a 47-yarder that set up their third touchdown of the day.

This followed two straight performances with a 50+ yard touchdown reception. His 26.1 yards per reception are currently first in the country.

Fickell was asked about his development.

“I would say where he was when we walked in the door, just physically to where he is now, is a far cry. And that happens because guys mature, guys continue to grow, and he's done that. He's gotten bigger. I think he's gotten stronger. Has he gotten faster? I think he's quicker. I think he's more explosive in some of those situations. And now we're giving him some more opportunities… and you can see confidence start to grow. It's twofold. When he's got confidence in himself, in reverse, the coaches have confidence in him, and the quarterback's got confidence, and we give him some shots and some opportunities.”

Perhaps no other player has improved throughout the course of the season as much as defensive lineman Elijah Hills.

He entered the season as an unknown transfer from Albany, never thought to be a core member of the rotation. But the 186 snaps he’s logged this season, per PFF, are top-10 on the defense.

“I do think there's a confidence level there that he continues to show week in and week out. And I think that's something that you didn't know from spring. That's something you didn't know even from fall camp, just because it's kind of a monotonous, repetitive thing. And then how guys handle Saturdays is always a little bit different. So when you get new guys like that, you kind of are curious how that's going to happen. And I can tell you, he's continued to grow. He had confidence, but you can see that confidence is continuing to grow.

“The ability for us to play six guys or five guys, and they're all a little bit different, I think bodes well for some of the things that we want to be able to do. And it gives him an opportunity to make some more of those havoc plays, because he is a little bit different than the other guys playing up front.”

On Thursday of last week, the NCAA released a study on online harassment, shedding light on how players and coaches of all sports are treated on social media.

Fickell was asked about the study, and how he addresses it with his players.

“I'm one of those guys, like ‘Guys we got to be able to handle that we’re being treated a little bit differently now, as close as you are to pro athletes. There are some things out there that [are] going to take maturity to handle.’ And I'm not saying it's right, I'm not saying it's good, but I don't think there's any of them that could just delete it completely and not look at it. I think it's something we're going to have to continue to address with college students. I mean, it's not going away, and the more they're seen in the light of a pro athlete, the more that I think that they're going to have to expect to be able to handle. It's something, I think, more-so the coaches dive into. We do worry when guys hit a wall, or you can start to see some things that bother them, and we'll take them individually.

“But it's something that’s not going away. And it's something that, from within your own program, if you don't have a great culture and you don't have a great relationship between the coaches and the kids, I think it could be something that could linger and cause some damaging effects.”

Slot receiver Will Pauling has now suffered a game-ending injury in back-to-back weeks. He took a hard hit to the head late in the second quarter against Rutgers and looked quite shaken up, but Fickell confirmed that it wasn’t a concussion or anything “major”.

“I mean, he'll obviously be a little bit questionable from the start of the week, but I think that there was some good news, that there wasn't a concussion.

“So we just have to see where he is and how he feels. And like I said, it's early on right now, but with a lot of guys like Will, we do need to continue to be smart during the week. There's a balance to what you're doing, but you are starting to get to that second half of the season. And we kind of talked about this as we move forward, this a different league now, and you do have to be able to handle things a little bit differently as you get to that mid-second half of the season.”

Finally, Fickell was asked about the challenge that the Northwestern Wildcats pose.

They have a 3-3 record and don’t seem nearly as threatening as the following opponents on Wisconsin’s schedule. But after their 24-10 beatdown of the Badgers in Camp Randall last season, Fickell didn’t downplay their threat level.

“It's a really solid football team. I think they do the things they do really well. They're physical. They play well up front. I thought last year they controlled the line of scrimmage, and particularly better than any other game that we played last year. And when I say they controlled the line of scrimmage, that's probably me not wanting to say that they dominated us up front on both sides of the ball, but in a lot of ways, they dominated us up front on both sides of the ball and in a lot of other areas.

“I don’t know that it’s a different team. Obviously the quarterback is different, and obviously there's some personnel things that are different, but it's a very sound football team that doesn't beat themselves. They're going to put the ball in the quarterback's hands, and make plays both running and throwing, and they're going to be physical and square and sound up front defensively. And you know it's going to be a challenge. And anytime you go on the road, like I said, it takes an incredible amount of focus and discipline.”

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