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Wisconsin players focused on ‘cleaning up’ issues, moving forward to Ohio State game
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It’s not going to be quite the showdown we expected to see. When we saw No. 6 Wisconsin was headed to No. 4 Ohio State on Oct. 26, we just kind of assumed both teams would be undefeated.
That won’t be the case, however. Not after Wisconsin suffered a 24-23 upset loss to Illinois on Saturday in Champaign, the first time the Badgers have been defeated all season. Now, there’s some concern about whether or not Wisconsin will pose a real threat to Ohio State next Saturday.
After the game, a few Wisconsin players spoke to the media about the loss, as well as moving forward. Obviously there’s plenty of disappointment to go around, but the Badgers aren’t giving up.
“I’m not sure. I thought all of the guys, I thought we seemed pretty prepped,” said tight end Jake Ferguson, when asked if he thought Wisconsin was looking ahead to Ohio State. “I think we just left a lot out there. Just clean up tomorrow and on to the next week.”
That’s also the mindset for offensive lineman David Moorman. He says that all of Wisconsin’s goals are still in front of it.
“If you look at it, we can still accomplish all of our goals,” Moorman said after the game. “I think this group is really resilient. All offseason we kinda had the mindset that things might not always be perfect, but we gotta learn from it and get better. I’m super proud of this group, I think we fought until the very end. We gotta bounce back.”
Wisconsin will have to play much better to compete with the likes of Ohio State. The Buckeyes have had no trouble with any of its first seven opponents this season, winning each game by at least 24 points.
Ohio State defeated Northwestern 52-3 on Friday night.
The two teams will meet in Columbus on Oct. 26, with kickoff scheduled for noon ET on FOX. Even with Wisconsin’s loss, it’ll be a huge game with College Football Playoff implications.
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB