Wisconsin enters 2023 under new head coach Luke Fickell with a tremendous opportunity at hand.
College football is changing, with USC and UCLA joining the Big Ten and the College Football Playoff expanding in 2024. Those drastic changes likely aren’t the last, making it nearly impossible to predict what the sport will look like in five years. For now, one thing we know is what 2023 will look like–and it lines up favorably for the Badgers.
The team gets Iowa and Ohio State at home, avoids Michigan and Penn State, gets East-West crossover matchups against Indiana and Rutgers and still gets a ticket to Indianapolis if it wins the West. It’s a near-perfect slate for Fickell to begin his tenure in Madison, even with the Buckeyes on the schedule.
The month is June and we’re still more than 80 days from the season kicking off. But I’m here to circle a trap game that has a chance to be a season-wrecker if things go poorly: October 21st at Illinois.
First, the context: the game is sandwiched between a tough matchup at home against Iowa and a likely national television spot against Ohio State. Wisconsin hasn’t lost at home to Iowa since 2015, but the game is always one to circle due to the physicality and toughness of the Hawkeyes. With the Buckeyes set to visit Madison the following week, the Illinois game is also a classic lookahead spot before a season-defining contest.
Season, the matchup: Illinois has already turned a corner under Bret Bielema and boasted one of the best defenses in college football last season. The program lost a lot of talent from last year’s team, but Bielema has already raised the week-to-week level of play since taking over.
Wisconsin could easily enter the Iowa-Illinois-Ohio State stretch undefeated if it takes care of business at Washington State and at Purdue. If that is the case, I’d bet the team is 6-0 and in the AP top 10 after Iowa visits Madison.
But what happens next? The talk in Madison will be the Buckeyes’ visit to town just a week later. Those inside the program will need to put that aside and take care of business down in Champaign, Illinois.
Before the season kicks off and we learn who will contend in the Big Ten West, I’m circling the late-October trip to Illinois as a scary spot for the 2023 Badgers.