🏈☹️ SPORTS: FICKELL’S “AIR RAID” CRASHES & BURNS IN PULLMAN, AS COUGARS MAUL BADGERS 31-22! — New Look, Same Problems!
By Paul Wickham Schmidt
Special To Courtside
September 10, 2023
Last year, the Washington State Cougars 17-14 upset of the Wisconsin Badgers at Camp Randall in Madison was the beginning of the end for then-coach Paul Chryst. This year, with new head coach Luke Fickell (previously Cincinnati) and a revamped passing-oriented offense, Badger fans were confident of a different result.
Alas, the over-ranked #19 Badgers’ visit to the unfriendly Cougar’s den in Pullman, Washington ended in another disaster, a 31-22 loss to the “Rump PAC-12 orphan.” (Viewers must have seen the extreme irony in ABC’s insistence on flashing the soon to-be-defunct conference’s bogus “Conference of Champions” logo during commercial breaks!)
The look might be new, but the glaring problems that plagued the Badgers last season, leading to the demise of both Chryst and his interim replacement Jim Leonhard, remained. Underperforming running game (97 yards), lousy line play, inconsistent quarterbacking, turnovers, failure to produce them, and dumb penalties were all on full display for the visitors at Martin Stadium.
New Badger QB Tanner Mordecai, a transfer from SMU, might have looked good on paper (25-40-278-1-0, 129.1 rating). But, what the stats don’t show is two key fumbles lost, one giving WSU a gift touchdown. Also, they mask a bunch of overthrows on potential TD passes or at least big gainers in a game where every yard was precious. His offense settled for three consecutive field goals when touchdowns were needed.
Perhaps jet-lagged, the bewildered Badgers sleep-walked through the first half, trailing 24-9 at the break. Then, in the third quarter, the Badgers dominated, pulling within a missed two-point conversion of tying the game, 24-22.
The Badger defense also rose to the occasion, pinning the Cougars’ offense and their elusive QB Cam Ward back near their goal line. What appeared to be a clear game-tying safety was wiped out on a bad call that somehow passed replay. But, with the Cougars punting from the back of their end-zone, Chimere Dike’s return apparently set Wisconsin up on the State 35 with a great chance to take a lead. But, a dumb personal foul away from the ball moved them back near midfield.
Several plays thereafter, the normally sure-handed Badger running back, Chez Mellusi (12-49) fumbled the ball back to the Cougars. Again, the call on the field and the video replay were questionable, as Mellusi’s elbow appeared to be down before the ball began to come loose. Nevertheless, it was a “one-handed carry” where two hands on the ball were clearly necessary.
Still, all was not lost for Fickell’s team. The defense forced a key 3rd and 6 in Cougar territory. But, they inexcusably allowed Ward to hit Lincoln Victor for a first down at the Badger 45. That reawakened Ward and the Cougar offense who marched down the field for a touchdown that put the game out of reach, 31-22. Several Mordecai overthrows sealed the deal for the Cougs.
Washington State portrayed this matchup is an “audition” for a place in one of the so-called “power conferences,” as the PAC-12 (“the Conference of Champions”) ingloriously dissolves at the end of this season. Good luck with that. They and their fellow “orphans” at Oregon State appear to be victims of negligible media markets, modest alumni bases, and undersized stadiums.
Power conference decisions these days are driven by media markets and greed, not athletic competition. That’s why the ACC recently snapped up Pac-12 football fumblers Cal and Stanford (7 total FB victories last year) over Washington State and Oregon State (17 total FB victories last year). The Cougars and Beavers likely are headed to the American Athletic Conference or some other “mid-major” refuge. Ironically, the good news is that Fickell showed the potential of good football at any level during his Cincinnati tenure when he led the AAC Bearcats to an appearance in the FBS playoffs, something that neither Wisconsin nor Washington State has ever achieved.
Badger fans’ hopes for an immediate turnaround under Fickell were dealt a stunning setback. It’s still a work in progress, with more consistent quarterback play, better play from both the O and D lines, and better production from the running backs a necessity. In particular, the “no-show” performance of highly touted junior running back Braylon Allen was highly disappointing. Coming off a 141 yard, two touchdown performance against an admittedly overmatched Buffalo Bulls defense, he managed only 20 yards on seven carries against the more competent Cougar defenders.
The Badgers dominated the third quarter, giving a glimpse of what this team’s potential might be. Yet, as Fickell well knows, building championship teams takes dominance of games, not just quarters.
Fortuitously, the Badgers have only one currently-ranked opponent (Ohio State) on their remaining schedule. The Bloated-10 Conference, in its wisdom, has stuffed all three of its national contenders, Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State, into its artificially-created Eastern Division. This essentially guarantees that the euphemistically-named “Big Ten Championship Game” will not be a matchup of the two best teams in the conference. Therefore, the Badgers probably have as good a chance as anyone of “winning the West” and being sacrificed to one of these three in what is likely to be a highly lopsided finale.
Next up for the Badgers, things could get easier with Georgia Southern (2-0) from the Sun Belt East visiting Camp Randall next Saturday. That will be Wisconsin’s last “warmup” before opening the Big-10 season against Purdue, last year’s West champs, at West Lafayette on Friday, September 22.