SOTC Update: Wisconsin Badgers

Luke Fickell has entered 'hot seat' territory as the Badgers have continued to slide since his arrival. This is the State of the Chart™ update for the Wisconsin Badgers.

Feb 23, 2025

State of the Chart™ Recap Edition

Live All-In Ranking: 62nd
Offense: 88th
Defense: 37th
2024 Results: 5-7 (3-6 in Big Ten)

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|||||| STATE OF THE CHART™ SUMMARY

The seat is officially hot for Luke Fickell and his staff here in Madison. Missing out on bowl games is not an acceptable result, even if injuries played a big role. The mis-fire on the offensive side has been glaring as they were forced to make a move, relieving Phil Longo of his duties mid-season. The injury to quarterback Tyler Van Dyke was unfortunate and backup Braedyn Locke was not up to snuff against this ridiculous schedule. The offensive line did their part and were particularly adept at keeping some really good defensive front sevens at bay. That didn’t translate to offensive success and as that offense stalled out, it put added pressure on Mike Tressel’s defense, who stepped up in a big way given the circumstances. Despite not creating any pressure or havoc in opposing backfield, this group limited big plays and tackled with the best of them. They went through a three-game stretch allowing just 16 points to three Big Ten opponents, even if they were three of the weakest offenses (Purdue, Rutgers and Northwestern). As a whole, they finished on a five-game losing streak and were non-competitive down the stretch, creating many questions about Fickell’s ability to bring this program back to its once proud level. They try again on the offensive coordinator hire with Jeff Grimes coming in from Kansas to try to jump start things with a new, exciting quarterback in Billy Edwards Jr. (Maryland). The defense should remain solid and they are going to have to be as they face yet another just brutal slate of games that may be even tougher than what they faced in 2024.

|||||| HEAD COACH AND COACHING STAFF

This seemed like the perfect hire back in late 2022 after Luke Fickell led the Cincinnati program to new heights. He had ties to Ohio State and he would bring the Badgers back to their rightful place amongst the Big Ten elite. Fast forward two years and they missed a bowl game for the first time in 22 years. That’s not okay in Madison. Fickell’s seat is hot and he needs to turn in a successful 2025 to keep his job. Don’t let the contract extension fool you, this is standard practice for the Wisconsin athletic department. There is (apparently) a reason for it. Regardless of his contract situation, he can be fired for ‘cause’ and that would be not winning football games — even if injuries have not been kind to the Badgers over the past two seasons.

Coaching Staff Notes/Changes:

Fickell made a change in-season by removing offensive coordinator Phil Longo from the position. He was silent and even standoffish when it came to naming who would replace him for the remainder of the season. Ultimately, this off-season they are making the move to Jeff Grimes, who led the Kansas offense this past season and has experience as an OC at Baylor and BYU. He took over for Andy Kotelnicki, who bolted for Penn State last off-season, and kept the Jayhawks offense humming. This is a different animal, as Longo found out very quickly after a successful run at North Carolina. This needs to be a home run hire for Fickell and this offense.
While the offense was a mess, the defensive side under Mike Tressell was holding their own. They played a brutal schedule and while they did not put up eye-popping surface-level team stats, this could have been worse if not for this unit.
He convinced a sitting defensive coordinator, Western Michigan DC/LB coach Scott Power to join the staff as a defensive assistant — the official title is ‘assistant defensive backs’ coach. Again, this shows the chasm between a coordinator level position at the group of five level, compared to just being on staff at a big-time program. Power will likely move up the ranks as long as he can help Fickell stick around. That role opened up after Jack Cooper was promoted to safeties coach in December.
Fickell also moved Kenny Guiton from wide receivers coach to quarterbacks coach and backfilled that wide receivers opening with Jordan Reid, coming in from Western Michigan.

Note: This is a “dynamic” article; meaning we will update any information that comes in this “off-season” and post a note when impactful moves are made or news breaks.

|||||| 2024 SCHEDULE / RESULTS ANALYSIS

This came in as the 14th most difficult schedule in all the land according to our SOS+ metric. Having to play Alabama, Penn State and Oregon is no fun. Plus road trips to USC and Iowa are also certainly tough situations. The rest of the Big Ten slate was manageable, but they dropped ‘toss up’ games to Nebraska and Minnesota (rather convincingly) at the end of the season to really drive home the rough state of the program. There was a stretch right in the middle that the defense dominated and they took home three straight Big Ten games against Purdue, at Rutgers and at Northwestern. They were sitting at 5-2 and feeling alright despite being well aware of the gauntlet that awaited them.

||||||| POSITION GROUP CHECK-INS

OFFENSE: The woes of this group were well documented and fairly obvious. They ‘get’ of Tyler Van Dyke to come in from Miami was widely praised as a good move. He was injured at Miami but showed flashes of brilliance. That injury bug bit again as he tore his ACL on the first drive against Alabama. When you are a top program, you need to have backups who can come in and do the job. This unit was not prepared for that. Braedyn Locke was handed the keys to the offense and he was not great. Sure, things were stacked against him and overall the offense under Longo just couldn’t find any continuity. The injury woes started before the season even started when starting running back Chez Mellusi stepped away from the game to focus on his health. It didn’t help that they faced the 5th most difficult schedule against opposing defenses, which made overcoming injuries even more difficult. They finished up at 22.6 points per game (108th in FBS) and struggled, particularly in the passing game. The lone bright spot was the offensive line that held its own against some of those fearsome defenses, limiting tackles in the backfield (36 TFL allowed; ranked 10th), with just 13 sacks allowed (13th). The quarterback is the key to this offense — see Jalon Daniels at Kansas — and if the offensive line play continues to hold up, this could be turned around if Billy Edwards Jr. is given adequate time to operate. If things break down, he has the athleticism to make plays with his legs.

||| QB

The injury bug struck the last two portal pick-ups here as Tyler Van Dyke tore his ACL early in the Alabama game. Braedyn Locke did what he could, but it was not pretty. They (again) hit the portal to bring in Billy Edwards Jr. from Maryland. He is athletic and dynamic at times, but needs to limit the mistakes he made in the passing game if this is going to work. They also bring in Danny O’Neil, who started as a true freshman at San Diego State and retains three years of eligibility. They are planning for the future to try to curb this portal rental that is becoming a theme. Carter Smith is coming in from Florida in the ‘25 class to develop.

||| RB

Tawee Walker came in for a season after making a name for himself at Oklahoma. He did fine here, racking up over 800 yards and ten touchdowns. He transfers out to Cincinnati for his final year. Darrion Dupree was a true freshman who racked up some carries and impressed. Interestingly, as of now, they haven’t added anybody via the portal or ‘25 class. They may be going in-house with Dupree, Cade Yacamelli and Dillin Jones as their committee.

||| WR

Will Pauling led this group with 75 targets out of the slot, but managed to haul in just 42 of them, even with a low 8.1 average depth of target. He transfers out to Notre Dame. Vinny Anthony II was No. 2 and was much more efficient with his opportunities. He returns with Trech Kekahuna moving to the primary slot role. They add in a couple of high-upside guys with Jayden Ballard and Mark Hamper to join the mix. Ballard was a 4-star recruit back in ‘21 but hasn’t been able to crack the Buckeyes rotation. Hamper was Idaho’s leading receiver with 960 yards and six touchdowns. He can move around the field and he may be asked to take on a big role. This group should wind up on par talent-wise with last year but they need to take a step forward.

||| TE

The Badgers used to churn out tight ends to the NFL on a regular basis. Now, they went to more of an Air Raid style of offense that hasn’t been including them as much. Riley Nowakowski showed out as a really superb pass blocker but didn’t do much in the passing game. He is moving on to Indiana next year. That leaves Tucker Ashcraft, who showed a bit more promise as a pass catcher. He’ll remain in that backup role as they coax former Ball State Cardinal Tanner Koziol to join up and potentially give them as asset in the passing game from this position. It should be noted that the Kansas offense didn’t really feature a tight end much in the passing game either, so a big shift is not expected, though Koziol could earn that shift by showing out as a true threat.

||| OL

This was the lone bright spot of the offense. They held their own against some really elite competition. They will lose two starters, including their best lineman, LT Jack Nelson to the NFL. RG Joe Huber is also moving on, leaving 3/5 of this line in tact. They have a pipeline of talent ready to step up into these roles. As of now it appears they are going to trust Kevin Haywood, who will be a sophomore in ‘25, to step into that starting LT role. So far, no additions in the portal. If this group can stay solid and performing at a high-level, it will at least give this new offense a chance to succeed.

DEFENSE: When it was all said and done, 23.1 points per game allowed against the 6th toughest slate of offenses is nothing to sneeze at. They did with a sit back and react style with very little pressure applied in the backfield, tallying just 42 tackles for loss (dead last in FBS) and managing just 17 sacks (121st). When you don’t apply pressure up front, it usually causes problems on the back end. That didn’t happen though. They held opponents to just 177.7 yards per game (14th) and limited explosive plays. They allowed just 18 plays over 30+ yards all season, that ranked 3rd in all of FBS. They went through a stretch in the middle of the season where they absolutely dominated, granted it was against three of the lesser offenses in the Big Ten (Purdue, Rutgers and Northwestern), but any time you put up a three-week stretch allowing a total of 16 points in conference play, that’s impressive. They did allow teams to wear them down in the run game though and ultimately, that did them in. The Big Ten has plenty of programs willing to trudge through the game and they managed 165 yards per game at a 4.63 yards/attempt clip (94th). Mike Tressel did what he could with this unit that was forced on the field quite a lot as the offense didn’t sustain many drives and the pressure was on to keep them in games. They were exposed against

||| DL

This actually shows as an unspectacular group, mainly on the interior as the Badgers play a lot of EDGE rushers that fit in the linebacker group. That’s why the “PT” doesn’t show as much here. This group only managed only four sacks all season. It just so happens the two who contributed those are leaving, Curt Neal is transferring to Illinois and Elijah Hills has run out of eligibility. They are clearly very aware of the difficiencies here and they hit the portal HARD to spice this up, getting three very capable defensive linemen, including Jay’Viar Suggs (LSU), Corey Walker (Western Michigan) and Parker Peterson (Tulane). This will be a much improved group and will get in the backfield more often in 2025.

||| LB

This group picked up the slack from the group in front of them but still didn’t get in the backfield much at all. They had some solid run stuffers though, led by the trio of Jake Chaney, Darryl Peterson and Jaheim Thomas. They will lose both Chaney and Thomas, returning Peterson and Christian Alliegro, who should step into a bigger role. He showed well in his 1/2 snaps in ‘24. Leon Lowery Jr. didn’t get the time he wanted and is heading to Illinois. UNC transfer Sebastian Cheeks is another name to know as his player-level data suggests he is a star in the making.

||| DB

This group kept everything in front of them and did so with the front seven getting very little pressure. S Preston Zachman is developing into a star and Nyzier Fourqurean and Ricardo Hallman formed a very good 1-2 combo at the corners. Austin Brown is a well above average nickelback and is one of the best tacklers on the team. Starting S Hunter Wohler is heading to the NFL next year. They lose a ton of depth from this group, including three others who factored into the rotation. They are hitting the portal to bring in four new faces and with Zachman, Fourqurean, Hallman and Brown all returning — this should remain a shut down unit.

SPECIAL TEAMS: This group was a mixed bag. Punter Atticus Bertrams has a booming leg and the punt coverage team did a solid job limiting any returns, holding opponents to 4.7 yards per return (ranked 22nd). Kicker Nathanial Vakos, an Ohio transfer, struggled at time and finished just 12/19 on the season, though he did nail all three of his attempts beyond 50 yards. Hunter Wohler was a serviceable punt returner but certainly replaceable. Tyrell Henry had nearly as many attempts but didn’t show much with them.

Reader feedback is requested and encouraged! Who knows these teams better than their passionate fan bases? We don’t pretend to know it all and would love your feedback. We will update/edit based (and credit) for anything that is brought to our attention. Let’s do this together…

|||||| TRANSFER PORTAL TRACKER

For the third straight season the Badgers go to the portal to get their starting quarterback. The past two instances have not worked out. Both Tanner Mordecai (2023) and Tyler Van Dyke (2024) struggled to get anything going, partially due to poor play but also because of injuries. This season, they’ll hit up Maryland to take a great athlete and the hopeful savior of the offense in Billy Edwards Jr. They get back to their roots and bring in a really impressive tight end from Ball State as Tanner Koziol will try to mimmick his success at the group of five level in the Big Ten. They get a few really good defensive linemen to boost the trenches on the defensive side. They do lose star CB Xavier Lucas to Miami despite their attempts to hold him to his NIL-related commitments and cited tampering on the part of the Hurricanes’ staff. There is a lot more to this story, so click here if you’d like to read more. The impacts of the portal here aren’t as bad as the big number shows as its more of a volume game. They lost a lot of players. Ultimately, it will come down to how things turn out with Edwards Jr. at the helm of the offense.

Below is a screen shot of the full, live Transfer Portal Tracker over at CFBDepth.com. Click the image or the button below to view it in its entirety…

Live Wisconsin Portal Tracker >

|||||| 2025 RECRUITING CLASS

A solid, if not unspectacular showing from the staff here. They are shut out of 5-stars, but do get quite a few high(er) 4-stars and that includes who they hope is the future of the program in Carter Smith, out of Fort Myers, Florida. Described as a ‘scrappy, dual-threat’ quarterback with unorthodox throwing style, but a winner. Overall, this group will go down as a top-25 ranked class with a focus on the offensive line and defensive lines. This staff knows that you win in the trenches in the Big Ten and they are loading up and now they must develop as these are the guys who will be asked to sustain any turn around that needs to come in 2025.

Here is a snapshot of the 2025 Recruiting Class+ with a link to the live page with updates throughout the cycle:

2025 Wisconsin Recruiting Class+ >

|||||| 2025 SCHEDULE LOOK AHEAD

Miami (OH) will be no slouch coming in week one and it would be good for the Badgers to have to play somebody to get things kicked off. They have to travel to Tuscaloosa for the backend of that home-and-home. The Big Ten slate looks different and as brutal of a schedule they had in 2025, this looks even more difficult with Purdue coming off the books (replaced by Washington) and they have to go Eugene for the Oregon game this season. They swap out Penn State for Ohio State (thank you) and have to travel to Michigan (instead of USC) and Indiana (instead of Nebraska). Not the kind of schedule you look for when seeking a turn around.

There is a lot of movement and decisions to be made throughout the off-season, including more portal moves, winter workouts and spring ball. Get all caught up with the full-on State of the Chart Magazine coming in July. If you missed the ad before, get more information and give us your e-mail to stay in the loop on everything SOTC!

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