Luke Fickell on Wisconsin's defense: 'There's a lot of things we want to see better'

Wisconsin finished the 2023 campaign with a top-40 defense. However, head coach Luke Fickell isn’t satisfied. After the Badgers’ 35-31 loss to LSU in the ReliaQuest Bowl, Fickell weighed in on his hopes for his team’s defense.

“There’s a lot of things we want to see better,” Fickell said. “I’m not going to point a finger at one thing. They did a good job. There’s max protections where you’re not going to get there. There’s other opportunities where you got to get there. You got to win some of those one-on-ones. You got to win those two-on-ones. That’s what it comes down to.

“You got to give ’em credit. They did a heck of a job up front. But, yeah, we do. We need to find more ways. Sometimes that’s blitzing. We did a fair share of that. But when it comes down to it, as they throw the ball around, it’s hard with the guys you’re trying to cover back there to think you’re going to send five and six every other time.”

Wisconsin’s stellar defense couldn’t slow down LSU’s locomotive offense. The Tigers tallied 492 total yards in the win, nearly 150 more yards than Wisconsin’s average opponent’s output. Worse, LSU was without its Heisman Trophy quarterback Jayden Daniels.

Daniels sat to remain healthy ahead of the NFL Draft. Instead, Garrett Nussmeier exploded in his first start behind center. Fickell knows his team can’t allow similar circumstances next season if they want to take the next step.

Luke Fickell builds an even better defense

“What it comes down to is we just got to execute better,” Fickell said. “The guys played their butts off. They played as hard as they possibly could. They worked at it. They practiced at it. We got to do a better job at execution.”

Wisconsin will have even more assets on defense next season. Fickell and Co. have already added seven defensive players in the transfer portal, headlined by USC linebacker Tackett Curtis and North Carolina LB Sebastian Cheeks.

In his lone season at USC, Curtis tallied 40 tackles, two sacks, two fumble recoveries and a forced fumble. While Cheeks doesn’t boast similar statistics, he certainly has enticing potential. Cheeks has suffered injuries throughout his career, but was a four-star prospect coming out of high school.

Wisconsin currently has the No. 10 incoming transfer class, according to On3’s Transfer Portal Team Rankings. They have the best transfer class in the Big Ten.