Luke Fickell admits Week 1 will tell a lot about Wisconsin's team

Game day is going to have a very similar feel to it inside Camp Randall this weekend when Wisconsin opens its season against Buffalo. It’s also going to be very different too, though, considering all the new faces in Madison, including Luke Fickell.

Fickell shared his thoughts on how he thinks the lead-up to their opener against the Bulls will go during his press conference on Monday. He feels fairly positive considering how they’ve tried to prepare throughout the offseason but admitted that no one really knows since it’s a new season for a new staff that has several new players on the roster.

“There are some things you can’t prepare for. I mean just the nature of how everybody is on game day? There’s some I’m still curious about,” said Fickell. “That’s the great thing with being with a bunch of the guys, have coached with them, been in those situations. You’ve got a better idea of how they are on game day. But there’s no, really, preparation.”

“We have a mock game on Friday, we had some big scrimmages that were very competitive. We had a spring game where you try to make it as competitive as you possibly can. But it’s different,” Fickell said. “I think that you’ve got an idea and you go into this. You’ve got a plan, you’ve talked out a million things. I’m sure they’re sick of talking through all the different situations and how we will handle things.”

That’s where Fickell noted that the lack of preseason games makes such a big difference at this level. In the NFL, the professionals have a chance to work through some things before things get real in the regular season. However, that’s not a luxury that they have in college as they dive right into the action in the fall.

“That’s the uniqueness of college football – not having any of those, so to speak, preseason games or scrimmages where you can legitimately work through some of those situations with a new staff,” said Fickell.

Sometimes you really just don’t know until you do. That’s why Fickell is ready for this weekend’s 3:30 p.m. EST kickoff to get here so that he and everyone else can figure out what exactly the Badgers might have on their hands for this season.

“I think we’re in a good place but Saturday will tell a lot too,” Fickell said.