Alabama presents ‘daunting’ test for Wisconsin as Luke Fickell, Badgers near long-awaited showdown
The Wisconsin coach was candid about the marquee matchup.
Wisconsin scored no more than 28 points in either of its first two games of the 2024 college football season, and with the Badgers struggling to separate from their FCS and Group of Five opponents, the line for next week’s showdown with Alabama ballooned to two touchdowns in the Crimson Tide’s favor. Hosting Kalen DeBoer and his program will be, by far, the biggest challenge of the Badgers’ young campaign, and it is one that coach Luke Fickell said has been hanging over his head since he took the job nearly two years ago.
Both sides are 2-0 entering the marquee Week 3 clash, and both were locked into tight games over the weekend despite being overwhelming favorites. Alabama eventually separated from USF with a monster fourth quarter and now carries momentum into the daunting atmosphere of Camp Randall Stadium after Jalen Milroe and Jam Miller exploded late in that contest.
“It’s the top team in college football in the last 20 years,” Fickell said after Wisconsin’s 27-13 win over South Dakota, via Badger247. “You guys knew it. It was daunting. It’s been hanging over the top of your head from the time you walked in the door here. But it’s also to say, ‘Hey, you gotta find a way to continue to measure yourself.’ It doesn’t mean that you didn’t measure yourself in the first couple of weeks. You were challenged incredibly. But you’ll be challenged in a completely different way, and we’ll find out where we are.”
