Badgers Football 2025-2026

Voyageur

Cheesehead
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Despite all the smoke coming from the Wisconsin media, Fickell's Badgers are not expected to even be good enough to get into a bowl game. Las Vegas is offering the Badgers at 5.5 wins for the year. Not exactly a great year, in fact another dismal year under Fickell. Could it cost him his job? How far will Wisconsin let his team fall before they pull the plug on him?

The kicker in this whole thing is a transfer QB who might just have more game than the odds makers think. How good can Billy Edwards actually be? In spring ball, a lot of people said he really looked good and can compete. Is that enough to add at least two more wins to that total of 5.5? Edwards, by the way, is a one and done. He's out of eligibility after this season. In the wings? Sophomore transfer from San Diego State, Danny O'Neil, who quite frankly might or might not be good enough to compete in the Big 10. We won't know until he takes meaningful snaps. My opinion. He's good, but not good enough to put 10 wins on the board at QB. I put Carter Smith, a freshman, ahead of Hunter Simmons as the #3 even though Simmons has some experience and Smith is a total newbie.

Our running backs are a serious question mark at this point. Yacamelli, Dupree, and Jones. Yaco is the one with substantial experience, but the other two have talent. How good are they? None of them are really that substantial a threat to be a national top 20 RB for the year. This is not the kind of running back room that the Badgers are used to having, and that's troubling.

We're set at TE with Ashcraft and Seagraves. McGohan & Stec might develop as good ones as well. I'm not worried about this spot.

Wide receivers are a big question. So is the chemistry they'll have with our QBs. I think the roster is pretty thin here and going to be a problem all year. But that's conjecture. I just don't see them as that good.

Despite the gloom people see in our offensive line, I don't think they're that bad, but it won't matter because we don't have the RBs, QB, and WRs to complement their play so they're going to look bad no matter what.

Our defense? It could finish as one of the lowest ranked defenses in the conference. The number of games that they give up 30+ points is going to make people wonder what they're doing for coaching. The reality is, we don't have the guys coming in to make the lineup better.

To be honest, I think this may well be Fickell's last year as the Badgers head coach. This team could be the worst team they've had in nearly 3 decades and since he's been there, it's been a continuous downhill slide.
 
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