MADISON — Head coach Luke Fickell met with the media on Monday for the fourth official press conference of the 2024 season. He offered some final thoughts of their performance against Alabama, before discussing the bye week and the upcoming USC road trip.

BadgerBlitz.com has compiled the key takeaways.

Fickell opened his press conference discussing the general value of a bye week, before addressing the outstanding importance of this particular break.

Starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke tore his ACL in Wisconsin’s most recent game, the 42-10 loss to Alabama, giving the coaches an extra week of preparation to tweak the new Braedyn Locke-led offense.

“It's an opportunity for a couple things: to kind of self-scout yourself a little bit, get back to the basics of some of the things that you got to do moving forward and recognizing what you got to be able to do. For us, it was another opportunity for Braedyn Locke to get a lot more reps now that we're in the situation where Tyler is done for the year. So in some ways, it came at a good point for that,” Fickell said.

“It's a tough thing to sit on, from two weeks ago or week and a half ago… what sits in your stomach from how you played in some situations, you want to get back out there and play. But that's a part of growing and getting over those things as well. So it came at a good time.”

Van Dyke, who entered 2024 as a fifth-year senior, played in few enough games to qualify for an additional medical redshirt season, meaning he can technically return next year if he wishes.

It hasn’t been discussed between Van Dyke and Fickell, but the head coach seems eager to have him back, as well as defensive end James Thompson, another fifth-year senior who suffered a season-ending injury prior to the start of the year.

“We haven't sat and talked with him. Obviously, there's been a lot of things that have happened really fast. You know, you could say the same things about James Thompson. These situations happen. You're in the midst of the season. I think guys have to be able to process themselves, where they are and what they're doing. And then we'll sit down and definitely talk with Tyler. We'll definitely sit down and talk with James Thompson,” Fickell said.

“I know this: we love Tyler, and we love what he's done, and hopefully there's an opportunity [where] he wants to come back, that he would have that chance, and obviously put a plan in place for that. That's why we'll go about it, obviously, with his rehab and making sure that he is in our thoughts because he had surgery today, but he'll be in our plans as well.”

After a bye week where he’s begun to see the new-look offense in action, Fickell was asked about how Locke has embraced his heightened role.

“I think that some guys think that, when they're not the guy, that their leadership role has changed. But I tried to explain that as you go in that room in particular, that every quarterback is a leader in his own way. And now it's changed a little bit, meaning that you got to walk out there, you're in front of that first huddle. So maybe it's a little bit different, but it still wasn't different from what you were when you started camp, when you were battling. It shouldn't be much different than when, later in camp, Tyler was named the starter. It just is in front of a different group,” Fickell said.

Because Van Dyke and Locke battled for the starting job during the offseason, Locke entered the regular season with far more experience and comfort with the first-team offense compared to last season, when Tanner Mordecai was named starter from the jump.

“There were balanced reps, with both sides [taking reps] with both the ones and the twos. And so as you look at it now, that was probably a really good thing, and it gave a lot more opportunities to be around those guys.”

This will be the second time in as many seasons Locke was surprisingly thrust into the starting role.

Mordecai left last year’s game against Iowa and missed the next three-and-a-half contests. In his absence, Locke generally underwhelmed, throwing for just 771 yards and five touchdowns in that stretch, but was also a victim of some troubling offensive woes.

Fickell discussed what that experience means for Locke now, with some distance and additional growth.

“A lot of his experiences give him, me, and a lot of the guys around him a lot more confidence because he was thrust into some really tough situations last year. And so all those things kind of work together. I think that it also gives you a better idea of what you need to do, how you need to adjust, because of the strengths that he has. And so that'll give us an opportunity. That's what, sometimes, a little bit of the bye week gives you a chance to kind of hone in and focus on recognizing the things that maybe could be a little bit different based on what he does and what Tyler did,” Fickell said.

“But more than anything, it comes down to him. It comes down to him having those experiences of playing, getting thrust into an Iowa game, and then going to play against Ohio State, and preparing the way that he had to prepare to play. It puts him right back into that position.”

With quarterback injuries in back-to-back years, Fickell was asked if he has changed his practice structure at all to give more reps to quarterbacks deeper in the depth chart, someone like freshman Mabrey Mettauer.

“I would tell you in camp that we did more reps with the threes than we ever have. I would tell you, in spring football, we did more reps with threes than we probably ever have. We actually went out and found some offensive linemen to get us a third group for spring football, just because we had a young guy [Mettauer] that we knew we had to get a lot of reps for, and a lot of times in spring, you don't have the ability, mostly with the big guys, to go to a third group. But we felt like it was really, really important,” Fickell said.

While the quarterback battle benefitted Locke, it put all attention on the top two quarterbacks and took second-team reps away from Mettauer.

“With the makeshift or new guys in the offensive line in particular, [they] maybe didn't get a ton of the two-reps this fall camp, just because it was such a battle going on with Tyler.”

When speaking to the media immediately following the 42-10 loss to Alabama, Fickell wasn’t in the mood for positivity. Most of his comments on the game were quite negative in wording and/or tone.

But when reflecting on the game this past week, he was able to find some silver linings, beginning with the first half.

The Badgers were down 14-3 with 33 remaining in the first half when Nathaniel Vakos missed a 44-yard field goal attempt, giving Alabama the ball back with another chance to add to their lead before halftime. They scored almost instantly, making it a three-score game and crushing morale on the Wisconsin sideline.

“14-to-3 with 40 seconds to go in the half, and you're in position to score some points. You're in position to maybe score a touchdown. You're in position to get the thing to halftime and get to the second half like you envisioned. So there's some positives right there. There's some plays out there. Obviously, the two turnovers are what hurt, but there were some explosive runs and some opportunities for some greater explosive runs that show you that you can lean upon those guys up front a little bit more,” Fickell said.

“But it comes down to making plays, right? I mean, we just kind of hit on it a little bit there in the past. I think when you look back at it, you say, ‘Okay, there's opportunities to make plays. We got to make them.’ And I think that the guys are in positions to make some of those plays, and we just got to do a better job. They have to have the confidence. They have to be a little bit more aggressive. But there's definitely things that we did well that didn't show up nearly as much because of the nature of the game and how it ended up.”

Based on some obvious issues with the offense, Fickell was asked whether or not he was on the same page with offensive coordinator Phil Longo. He didn’t provide any specifics on their relationship or offensive preferences, but instead discussed his general philosophy when it comes to dealing with coordinators.

“Well, there's always a process. If I reflect back on the times in Cincinnati, those defensive guys have some vision of things that you know you want to see, but I also know that I couldn't do a better job, and that's the hard part. What's meddling too much? I don't try to do that. I try to say, ‘Hey, we trust you. This is what we want. This is how we go about it.’”

The majority of Fickell’s answer was devoted to dispelling the notion that their offensive woes are a product of anything serious, instead pointing to moments where they failed in execution or decision-making.

“That's the thing that I think is lost in the whole grand scheme of things. It's not some special play that you call. No, it's called execution. It's called guys winning one-on-ones,” Fickell said.

After the Alabama game, Fickell and multiple players were asked about the identity of the offense, and mostly agreed that they were a run-first program that leaned on their offensive line.

But Locke’s answer was different.

“When we stay in a rhythm, we maintain a tempo and the guys are playing fast, I think we present a lot of problems for people,” Locke said after the loss to Alabama.

Fickell was asked about this quote, and how to balance Locke’s preference with their slower, ground-and-pound tendencies.

“That's part of trying to figure out what each guy does a little bit better than the other. And Braedyn is a guy that knows the offense. He's a guy that can handle things to go, probably, at a greater tempo. So there'll be things that we’ll adjust to him. How much? I don't know. A lot of that tempo stuff is dictated, sometimes, by the flow of the game and in the plan of the game,” Fickell said Monday.

“There's a balance to what it is that we have to be able to do. But I would say that a part of the strengths of Braedyn is understanding the offense, being able to execute it at a high level, at a faster pace, and that'll be something that I think that he can do and will do well.”

Wisconsin’s edge production has been one of the early disappointments of the season. The top outside linebacker trio of Darryl Peterson, John Pius and Leon Lowery have only registered a combined eight quarterback pressures and one sack in three games, according to Pro Football Focus.

Fickell was asked whether this issue has more to do with the scheme or how players have executed.

“Sometimes sacks are the most mis-leading stat in football. But with that being said, we know we have to win one-on-one battles, whether that's pass rush, whether that's running the ball or whether that's blocking… We haven't done a great job of it. And obviously games have dictated a little bit of that. There haven't been as many opportunities,” Fickell said.

“But all in all, we know that both on offense and defense, finding ways to give our guys the ability to be aggressive, so that they can win so they can make plays, is what we're all searching for. That's done in different ways, yeah, but our ability as a whole to allow them to be more aggressive is something that we focused on.”

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