By: Will Tappa
In the ever-present wintery mix, the Wisconsin Badgers’ 13-10 win over the Washington Huskies was a streak-breaker for the ages. Luke Fickell and company fought through injuries, public outcry, and the aforementioned weather to top the Huskies in a Big Ten West-esque battle in front of a few thousand of the Badgers’ most loyal supporters. This marked the first top 25 win in Fickell’s two-and-a-half-year tenure, along with the first Big Ten win in over a year.
The reported crowd of 70,000 plus had dwindled to less than half that by the time freshman linebacker Mason Posa took down Washington quarterback Demond Williams for the game-clinching tackle. The fans who stayed had endured more than an abysmal offensive showcase; they had fought alongside their team through one of the worst stretches since the Don Morton era in Madison.
But they never stopped believing.
The fans who stayed ran onto the field as time expired, finally rewarded for supporting a team that had broken their hearts in every imaginable way. The hope among the crowd was that this was a turning point, and that their Badgers had fought through the rain and cold of Fickell’s tenure, with better days ahead.
The feeling on the field was one of hope and excitement, but as with any field storm, there were critics. In the social media era, a consistent narrative has surrounded any field storm, with keyboard warriors debating the validity of any given field storm. Right on schedule, many Twitter/X users were quick to call the celebration in Madison “pathetic”, “embarrassing”, and “an overreaction” (Fox College Football).
This sentiment has no place in college football, where only a handful of teams have a chance at hoisting the ultimate title. Teams have to celebrate when they can, where they’re at and right now, Wisconsin is in a deep, deep hole. In the NIL era, most teams would dig themselves out with millions of dollars, but the Saturday field storm could be a sign of the Badgers building back more organically.
Before NIL, teams relied on culture, facilities and quality development to attract recruits. The Badgers thrived in this landscape, turning low-rated recruiting classes full of corn-fed Wisconsin kids into nine wins, year after year. A questionable NIL strategy, ill-fitting coordinators, and several quarterback injuries led to the current state of the program, bringing a 2-6 record into Saturday.
The spark that lit the improbable fire didn’t come from an expensive portal addition, but instead from several freshmen who didn’t plan on seeing the field this season. The freshmen linebacker duo of Mason Posa and Cooper Catalano combined for 30 tackles, while first-year, 4th-string signal caller Carter Smith ran in the lone Badger touchdown of the day. The young quarterback was especially well-received by the Badger faithful, who, in turn, helped propel their team to victory after finally being given something to cheer for.
With the current state of the transfer portal, cynical fans have been targeting these promising Badgers as flight risks even before they stepped on the field, but Posa and Catalano have tried their best to ease these fears, reupping on their commitment to the program (SI). Getting back to a team built on home-grown talent is the only path forward for a program that likely can’t compete with the top dogs monetarily.
Even if it didn’t look pretty, the 13-10 win reminded many fans of the way Wisconsin used to win. A suffocating defense will nearly always outperform an air-raid offense on a cold and wet Wisconsin night. More importantly, it reminds donors of a bygone era of Badger football that might just be on the way back.
Fans of those 9-win Badger teams wouldn’t have stormed the field against 23rd-ranked Washington, but this is a new era of college football, and a new chapter for Wisconsin football. A field storm is exactly what this program and its fanbase needed to get back to Badger football.
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