Luke Fickell on facing Alabama in Week 3 as part of 'daunting' 2024 schedule: 'It's very motivating'

Wisconsin will play one of the bigger nonconference games of the season with Alabama coming to Madison. It’s a major matchup that is providing a sense of urgency for the Badgers according to Luke Fickell.

Fickell spoke about getting to play ‘Bama while at the network desk during Big Ten Media Days from Indianapolis on Tuesday. As he put it, it’s creating an early emphasis on how Wisconsin prepares and begins the season considering the Crimson Tide are coming to Camp Randall.

“How do you attack the season, right? You’ve got to have a plan,” said Fickell. “We’ve got to be ready coming out of the gates. I’m not trying to say we weren’t going to be ready coming out of the gates last year. But we’ve got to understand if we’re not firing on all cylinders in week one? We can’t grow to week two. Which then we can’t grow to week three which is going to be the greatest test to say where are you?

“Not that you’re not tested in week one too,” Fickell continued. “But, regardless of what happens in one and two, we’re going to have a lot better idea of where we are as a staff, where we are as a program, where we are as a team in week three because of the challenges, because of the hype, because of all those things being said.”

Fickell doesn’t necessarily like that the game with Alabama has forced him to further examine that early portion of their schedule in that way. However, one positive it has provided is a source of inspiration and a rationale as to why they’re getting as ready as they currently are.

“As a coach, it’s daunting, right?” Fickell admitted. “I mean I don’t want to look at the schedule. I didn’t look at it until about six weeks ago. Everybody asked – I knew Alabama was on it.

“As I go to these next 39 days, it’s very motivating,” added Fickell. “It’s put in front of our guys to understand there’s a reason that we’re practicing the way we are. There’s a reason we did some of the OTAs we were doing. There’s a reason we’re attacking the way we’re doing.”

It’s still over a month until Wisconsin opens the season and a little under two until the Tide comes in for the game on September 14th. Fickell and the Badgers have until then with their preseason and first two games to prepare for that major meeting.

“We have got to be making sure that we’re a lot further along, not just for week one and two, but because of the challenge that we’re going to be able to find out a lot about ourselves,” said Fickell.

Chaney, Nelson: ‘A lot of work’ needs to be done before Wisconsin thinks about Alabama

Jake Chaney and Jack Nelson were honest about Wisconsin’s matchup with Alabama in September.

They were both on the same page saying there’s no worry about it right now. There’s a lot for them to do before thinking about the Crimson Tide.

“I mean, it’s tough talking about ‘Bama right now,” Chaney said on Big Ten Network. “There’s a lot of work needed to be done to even say we’re close to playing Alabama. I mean I think there’s a lot of work that needs to be done to say we’re ready to play Western Michigan and South Dakota. Those are great programs and we don’t have an easy schedule at all.”

“I think Jake hit it on the head,” Nelson said. “It’s a great opportunity to prove ourselves against a great program and a good chance to showcase what we’ve got. But, like he said, we’re not really looking forward to that just yet. We’ll look forward to it on that Monday of the game week.”