Because Wisconsin’s lopsided opening loss to Notre Dame came on a Sunday night in Green Bay, the Badgers had less time to stew before starting to prepare for Western Illinois’ visit on Saturday in Madison, Wis.
“I’ve said to our team that this is where the season starts,” Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell said Tuesday. “And not in particular because we weren’t focused on the first game, but in the first shot at adversity, what are you going to do? How are you going to respond? Are you going to continue to grow?
“And so the most important thing for us is to get back to business, focus on ourselves. It’s a short week, which in some ways can be a really good thing, because you got to get right back at it really, really quick.”
Though the Badgers trailed just 13-10 at halftime in their 41-13 loss to Notre Dame, the correctable mistakes began early.
Wisconsin (0-1) handed the Irish a scoring opportunity with a muffed kickoff return late in the first quarter, which led to Notre Dame’s lone first-half touchdown.
Quarterback Colton Joseph, the Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Year last season at Old Dominion, threw a costly pick-six midway through the third quarter that put the Badgers down 27-10.
Wisconsin simply was outmatched in the second half against Notre Dame. In addition to the pick-six, the Badgers managed one field goal and one punt. The clock ran out during their fourth possession of the half.
Joseph completed 19-of-30 passes for 217 yards and one touchdown, along with the costly interception. Joseph, who ran for 1,007 yards last season at Old Dominion, carried 12 times for three yards against Notre Dame.
The Badgers managed 67 yards on the ground, averaging 2.2 yards per carry with a long run of eight yards. Abu Sama, a senior transfer from Iowa State, got the bulk of the work with 15 carries for 49 yards.
While Wisconsin stayed competitive last weekend into the third quarter, Western Illinois (1-1) fell behind 17-0 in the first quarter against Illinois State en route to a 41-10 defeat Saturday.
“Certainly a lot of frustration, disappointment overall at how we played,” Western Illinois coach Joe Davis said afterward. “As I told the team, when you play a football game like we did tonight, you’re not going to beat anybody.”
The Leathernecks split the work between two quarterbacks. Starter Cason Carswell, named the 2025 Ohio Valley Conference’s Offensive Freshman of the Year, completed 9 of 18 passes for 140 yards and directed WIU’s lone touchdown drive. Kennedy McGill, a dual-threat transfer from Central Washington, completed 14 of 22 passes for 123 yards, ran 12 times for 18 yards and led a long march for a field goal.
Illinois State rushed for 239 yards and three touchdowns against Western Illinois, which should give the Badgers hope that they’ll show improvement on the ground Saturday.
Wisconsin is 3-0 all-time against Western Illinois, all at home. The Badgers won the last matchup 37-3 in 2014.
