Luke Fickell shoulders blame for loss to Northwestern: 'That's embarrassing'
Luke Fickell was visibly frustrated after Saturday’s lackluster showing by Wisconsin. When addressing the media after the game, Fickell said he did not have much of an opening statement due to the embarrassing nature of the performance.
The head coach of the Badgers took the blame for the loss to Northwestern but also admitted it’s “very difficult” to determine where Wisconsin is at and what needs to be improved on moving forward:
“There’s not much of a statement. That’s embarrassing. I take the blame of it, and not having guys ready. Not at any phase of the game. There’s not a whole lot I can say,” said Fickell. “I’ll answer questions, but it’s very difficult to determine where we are and what we need to continue to move forward, but we’re going to have to do that.”
In response to one question, Fickell said the Badgers will continue to push forward, but the team must take everything one day at a time. That includes determining which players are invested and want to be with the program to put in the work.
“We will find a way, and we will continue to push. That’s kind of what I said in the locker room afterwards. There’s a lot of things we’ve got to figure out in these last few weeks,” Fickell explained. “We can’t look at next Saturday yet. We’re gonna have to look at tomorrow and we’re going to have to be one day at a time and one practice at a time, one moment at a time. And find a way with the guys we’ve got and the guys that want to be here and the guys that want to do it to push forward to do the things we can do and do them better.”
Star safety Hunter Wohler echoed similar sentiments of his head coach after the loss, calling out Wisconsin as “soft” and said the players did not do what was asked of them during the week. While the coaches will catch some flack, Wohler believes this current skid and state of the program is “100%” on the players.