Madison — It's here.

Luke Fickell met with the media on Monday as Wisconsin begins preparation for their Week 1 opponent, the Buffalo Bulls. The Badgers' year one head coach spoke on several topics, including the excitement surrounding opening day, coaching with a new staff and more.

Here are the key takeaways from Fickell's first presser of the regular season:

At his first weekly presser of the season, Fickell radiated the same excitement he did at the onset of spring camp, saying he's trying not to wish the week away to get to Saturday.

"Game one is so unique in college football, with the time that you spend preparing for one game and never having a scrimmage of any sort, or anything where you do anything with anybody else. Week 1 is always incredibly intriguing, I think obviously in year one it's even more so. It's like Christmas morning. I'm excited to get to Saturday just to feel the buzz, to be in the stadium," he said.

Fickell also jokingly addressed a situation that's been a damper on the environment of Camp Randall Stadium early in games — the tardiness of the student body.

"I'm curious to see how our students show up, if we can try to get them in a little earlier and try to start this thing off the right way. It is a 2:30 kick, so it shouldn't be that early for them...that's a suggestion from our players."

Fickell wouldn't give specifics as to what exactly he wants to see in his first game at the helm in Madison, but stressed it's about doing the little things right.

"What does Saturday look like for us? It's about your ability to play clean."

A few days ago, the Big Ten conference announced teams will be required to produce NFL-style game day injury reports. The reports must be submitted at least two hours prior to kickoff. Fickell was asked for his reaction:

"I think most of the guys in the Big Ten like to give their opinion," he smirked. "I like to keep to myself. I'm year one, there's a lot of things I've gotta do before anybody wants to hear my opinion. But I think it's a good thing, to be honest with you. It takes the ownership off of some of the things that are going on out there...I'm not oblivious to understanding what's going on in college football with gambling and things like that. In a lot of ways, it kinda takes that out of the picture. Some people are worried about guys not telling the truth, who's available. We only have to do it two hours before (the game), I don't think it's a big deal. I think we're better off making sure we can eliminate any of those issues that can come up within our program."

Fickell doesn't appear to be very moved by the conference's decision one way or another. Not a whole lot will be altered with the team's game day procedure, but it's still a notable change from the top brass in the conference.

Fickell has assembled a diverse and highly-regarded staff, plucking coaches from all over the country as he aims to mold Wisconsin into his vision. But despite all of the time the team has spent jelling through workouts and spring and fall camp, the new staff still hasn't gone head-to-head with an opposing sideline.

"There's some things you can't prepare for. Just the nature of how everybody is on game day. There's some I'm curious about. Being with a bunch of the guys, coached with them, you have a better idea about how they are on game day. There's no real preparation. We had a mock game on Friday. We had some big scrimmages where it's very competitive. We had a spring game where you try to make it as competitive as you possibly can. But it's different...that's the uniqueness of college football, not having any of those preseason games or scrimmages where you can legitimately work through some of those situations with a new staff. I think we're in a good place, but Saturday will tell a lot too."

Fickell touched on it a few times in his press conference — in college football, there's a few things you simply don't know until you've taken the field against another team.

Every coaching staff has a certain way they go about doing things, and pregame prep is one of the best examples. Pregame preparation is often exact down to the minute, and one of Fickell's biggest goals was getting his team comfortable with his style of game day.

"Everybody's schedule can be a little different...we kinda went through that this week. We did a mock game on Friday, which, I just wanted them to do everything from how they walk into the building to two hours before a game. So we did literally every single thing we would do from the time we walk into the building to the time the ball is kicked off. That's different for them — not saying it's better, not saying it's worse, it's just different. There's some things we've had to revamp based on the things that coach Longo wanted to be able to do in pregame. More than anything, we just wanted to be able to get those things out of the way, because come Saturday...I don't want these guys to have any questions about, 'okay, where do I go for warmup.'"

The dress rehearsal-stye mock game is an element the new regime is implementing, and is likely one of many changes this team is getting used to in the preparation phase.

The head coach stressed the fact that there's no substitute for games in college football many times. He was asked what he can learn and take away from his first game with the Badgers:

"I think on both sides of the ball, I wanna see how physical we play. I think more than anything, I've been hammering at that and about the toughness side of things. So to me, how physical can we play, and that's not just up front. It always starts up front, but on the edges and perimeters as well. How clean can we play?" he said. "They've been in these situations but they haven't been in them in front of 84,000 and in front of national televisions. But I think for me, that's why it's so key in Week 1 we've got to play clean and we've got to play fast."

In some ways, the Badgers are in a better spot than others as they don't play a conference foe in Week 1 and have a chance to feel themselves out as a team against an objectively weaker opponent. Fickell's goals of playing fast and clean, however, would likely stay the same regardless of the opponent.

Linebacker Marty Strey was recently named a team captain, along with wide out Chimere Dike, linebacker Maema Njongmeta and quarterback Tanner Mordecai. For the sixth-year senior walk-on, it's a tremendous honor.

"Marty's been a pillar in everything that we've done. There's been so much change in the past nine months, guys have handled it extremely well, but even for us as coaches he's been a guy you could always count on. When things are different and when things are new, he's a guy that you could look at and always get the reassurance. And you know when you have guys like that, you know that things inside your locker room are continuing to grow. And I think that's really big. It's big in a new year, it's big for a new team in a lot of ways too. Where Marty's role might not be as much defensively, it'll be maybe greater with the special teams, his role within that locker room has really shown because he was elected by his peers and his players. The guys around him, offensively and defensively, look up to him in everything that they do."

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