Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell explains impact of Indiana's success, challenge of containing Hoosiers
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MADISON – Wisconsin football coach Luke Fickell held his weekly press conference Monday, Nov. 10, inside the McClain Center practice facility.
During the 24-minute session, he talked about the team’s quarterback situation, Indiana's turnaround and the challenges the second-ranked Hoosiers will present when the teams play at 11 a.m. Saturday at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Indiana.
Here is what we learned:
No word on Danny O’Neil
As has been the case in most weeks, Fickell didn’t have an injury update in time for the Monday press conference. Quarterback Danny O’Neil went down with an apparent leg injury during the second possession against Washington. He was carted off the field.
As a result freshman Carter Smith and graduate Hunter Simmons are considered co-No. 1s. on the depth chart. The injury situation likely means that the No. 3 QB will be walk on Milos Spasojevic.
Indiana’s success provides hope for teams like Wisconsin
When Wisconsin lost to Indiana two years ago, it was just the third win of the season for the Hoosiers. Since Curt Cignetti took over at the start of the 2024 season, Indiana is 21-2 with a 15-1 mark in the Big Ten.
The impact of that success, Fickell said, is the hope it provides other programs. He was on the other end of that spectrum at Cincinnati when it became the first non-power conference program to make the College Football Playoff.
"As soon as you do something that maybe somebody hasn't done or wants to do, then you become that (hope)," he said. "'Hey, see everybody can do it.' That's the beauty of what it is that we do."
How have the Hoosiers flipped their fortunes so quickly? The answer might be too complex to answer quickly.
“I can't pinpoint exactly what it is, but there's a lot of things that have obviously gone into it,” Fickell said. "Great coaching is one of them. Great quarterback play is definitely another."
Indiana's big-play ability will challenge UW's improving defense
In the last two games Wisconsin’s defense has held its opponents to significantly fewer yards than their average. Oregon, which entered played 45th in the country while averaging 421.5 yards per game finished with 335. Washington, which entered play 28th in the nation with 438.6, finished with 250.
The challenge is much steeper this week. Indiana is ranked sixth in the nation in total offense with 487.0 yards per game and is the second-most efficient passing offense behind Ohio State.
"I think we've, you know, been more disciplined in what we've done,” Fickell said. “I think we've been sounder in what we've done. We've done a good job at eliminating the big plays. I think those kinds of things are going to have to stay intact.
“We're going to have to do a really, really good job at tackling and tackling well in space. I think that obviously as explosive as they are, I think one of the best things they do is in open space and even in the box, is that they break tackles and they create larger plays just because of it.”
Punt protection has to get better
The punt Washington blocked in the second quarter Saturday marked the third punt block allowed by the Badgers this season. Only two teams had more punts blocked.
Indiana, meanwhile, is one of 19 teams in the land with more than one block this season.
On the play Aaron Witt had to choose between blocking a rush up the middle or one from the edge. He took the guy coming up the middle and the edge rusher made the block. Washington recovered the ball at the Badgers 1 and scored its only touchdown of the day two plays later.
Fickell thinks the issue had more to do with protection than Sean West’s ability to get off the kick quickly.
“If there's one thing that Sean even last year as the scout punter and even the beginning of the year this year is we couldn't block a kick of his because he had a really good internal clock based on where things were coming from,” Fickell said. “With that all being said, our job is to not put him in that situation and we've got to do a better job of it.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin football's Luke Fickell explains impact of Indiana's success
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