The Badgers are looking to do things differently in hopes of better results in 2024.
The Wisconsin Badgers are immersed into their fall camp schedule now, with pads coming on after the first week of practices.
They’re currently at UW-Platteville for the first portion of their fall camp work before returning back to Madison next week ahead of the 2024 season.
It’s a crucial period for the Badgers, who are in the midst of figuring out multiple positional battles, including the ongoing one at quarterback, while also trying to figure out their identity with a significant uptick in newer talent this offseason.
However, as Wisconsin is preparing, head coach Luke Fickell did reveal that the team made one major change with their fall camp routine: involving more live-ball situations earlier.
“This was an opportunity for us to play some live ball today,” Fickell said after Saturday’s practice. “And, you know, that’s what we have to do.”
“We didn’t do it last, last camp, to be honest with you. And, you know, we get nervous at times like we’re gonna go live, but there’s a little bit of difference between what we do every single day and going live [provides that] kind of the pressure, you know, more things that happen in space that guys have to be able to see if they can make some plays. So we challenged ourselves today a little bit going live.”
The Badgers went heavy with the live opportunities on Saturday, going 75 plays deep, which Fickell ultimately believes will pay off in the long run, both with the veterans trying to improve and the younger players trying to prove themselves.
“I mean, there’s probably 75 snaps of live ball today, and it’ll bode well for us in the long run, but there’s a lot of things we got to see is our first actual situational football, too,” Fickell said. “And you see the older guys that understand and can handle some things and react and respond, but you also see some of the youth and some of the younger guys and how things are handled.”
As the Badgers incorporate more live situations, Fickell is specifically looking at how the momentum shifts and what his team’s response to those situations are.
“When you actually play like this, you do get to see how the momentum affects the game, or at least the practice,” Fickell said. “And I think it was pretty obvious to see how the momentum shifted and how there wasn’t, there wasn’t a waver. It shifted to the offensive side of the ball. And the thing we’ll get on the defense most about is finding a way to be able to shift it back.”
“And, you know, that’s probably what we didn’t do defensively right there to end practice, but a lot of credit to the offense. So it’s always going to be a winner. There’s always going to be someone that doesn’t win. And, you know, that’s the kind of the nature of the game every day here. And as long as we understand that we can compete, come out tomorrow and see if defensively or whatever can shift that thing and continue to grow.”
For the next two weeks, the offense and defense will be battling things out to best prepare for the regular season coming up at the end of the month.
Will the change in fall camp be beneficial to the team’s early success?