When the Wisconsin Badgers took to Barry Alvarez Field inside Camp Randall Stadium against the Washington Huskies, Luke Fickell had earned three votes of confidence from Director of Athletics Chris McIntosh. Still, he had yet to earn one from Badgers fans. Under Fickell’s stewardship, Wisconsin football had lost six consecutive games, had not beaten a Big Ten foe in over a year, and was 0-9 against ranked opponents.

With 60 minutes of complementary football, Fickell just might have changed some hearts and minds.

“The whole locker room has been behind Coach Fick since day one,” linebacker Cooper Catalano said in a post-game interview. The Germantown native logged a game-high 19 tackles–the most by any Badgers freshman since at least 1995.

Catalano and Mason Posa, both true freshmen, led the way for a classic Badgers’ victory achieved first and foremost through its defense. The duo combined for four of Wisconsin’s nine tackles for loss.

“They’re just doing a great job. They’re playing the game the way it’s supposed to be played,” Fickell boasted of the pairing thrust into the starting lineup due, in part, to injuries. “They have that energy. They bring that energy. They have a communication side to them, too. There’s some natural–I don’t want to say alpha but–there’s some natural things that you don’t teach.”

As the late hours on Saturday turned to the early hours on Sunday, Talkin’ Badgers went live to break down the Catalano, Posa, backup punter/unexpected leading passer Sean West, and the fourth-string turned gutsy go-to-guy Carter Smith of it all.

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