Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell is expecting the best version of Alabama when his Badgers take on the Crimson Tide on Saturday afternoon at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Alabama moved up two spots in the AP Top 25 poll to No. 19 this week following its 73-point win over ULM that came after an eye-opening loss at Florida State, one that brought out detractors for Kalen DeBoer.
Unbeaten through two games, the Badgers haven’t forgotten last year’s 42-10 loss to Alabama and Fickell was asked this week if he sensed his team was ready to perform as a three-touchdown underdog on the road.
“It doesn’t matter how I feel,” Fickell said Monday, via Badger247. “The truth is, and what matters is we got to get ready. And you know, all I can say is, from last week’s performance in particular, the first half, it just wasn’t as clean as we needed to be for what we wanted.
“And I didn’t say, score more points. I didn’t say get more stops. I didn’t say, get more turnovers, just being the fact of, hey, when we take the field, are we playing to the level at which we want to play, and executing to the level at which we want to play?”
Fickell said he wasn’t worried about his team’s preparation or focus ahead of their battle with Crimson Tide.
Alabama’s last home loss to an unranked, nonconference opponent came against ULM in November 2007 during Nick Saban’s first season.
“I mean, it’s not like there’s going to be some speech that needs to be had on a Tuesday to get guys fired up to prepare for this one,” Fickell said. “It’s just the ability to say, Now, when you get to that moment at 11 o’clock, can you have the calmness? Can you have the patience about yourself to go out and execute like you have all week, and you have all through fall camp, you know, with the expectations that are in front of you?”
In his first start at Wisconsin last week, quarterback Danny O’Neill completed 23 of 27 passes for 283 yards with three touchdown passes during a 42-10 cleansing against Middle Tennessee. O’Neill, who played at San Diego State last fall, was playing in place of Maryland transfer Billy Edwards Jr., who injured his knee in the season opener.
Fickell was unsure of Edwards’ status for Alabama and said Wisconsin’s offense would be prepared “either way” if his starter is unavailable. The Badgers are also dealing with an injury to veteran center Jake Renfro, who missed the Middle Tennessee game due to an unspecified ailment.
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