Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM PRESEASON 2026 39 GAME PREVIEW: WISCONSIN went about as well as you might expect, and Longo was fired midway through the 2024 season. Fickell, who went 57-18 at Cincinnati and took the Bearcats to the four-team College Football Playoff, saw his first non-interim Power Four job go sideways at a shockingly rapid pace. After a third unsuccessful fall, Wis- consin's winter, spring and summer had a clear theme: Everything has to change. Fickell acknowledged at Big Ten Media Days that his tenure has not gone ac- cording to plan, due to a wide variety of factors. "It hasn't been there," Fickell said. "That's not just in the wins and losses, that's in a lot of other things as well: The way we play the game, the physicality, the toughness. We've got to do a hell of a lot better job at doing it, and I can promise you that we will. "Things are obviously moving in that direction. An old coach of mine that I coached for, Coach [Urban] Meyer, used to say, 'Don't sleep on the game.' I always envisioned that 'don't sleep on the game' meant 'don't sleep on the schemes that are developing within the game,' because one day you wake up, and the game will pass you by. "The truth of the matter is as I've re- alized more and more, that wasn't just in the schemes of the game, that was in all of the game. It evolved over the last three or four years. Recognizing the evolution of this game is really critical to what we're doing." That includes NIL, the transfer portal and everything else your brain immedi- ately turns to when you think of modern college football. But perhaps Fickell's biggest problem so far has been keeping his players healthy. Injuries have rav- aged the Badgers, hitting the quarter- back position especially hard. Fickell brought in a pair of transfers in Tyler Van Dyke (2024) and Billy Edwards Jr. (2025), and they played a combined five games for Wisconsin in two years. Preventing that was one of Fickell's top offseason priorities, and he believes his staff has made the changes required to get through a 12-game season. "We've had some critical injuries that have caused us some issues," Fickell said. "We've taken a hard look at the way we train, the way we practiced: spring ball, fall camp, how we'll practice as we get into the season. All things we have to recognize as a football staff and program that we've got to continue to evolve." TURNING TALK INTO ACTION Shortly after announcing Fickell's re- turn, Wisconsin provided its fans with a light at the end of the tunnel. The Badgers played three ranked op- ponents in November and defeated two of them, first with a 13-10 win over Washington and later with a more con- vincing 27-10 victory over Illinois. It wasn't enough to save the 2025 cam- paign after a six-game losing streak, but it was hope, and arguably the two big- gest catalysts returned for 2026. That would be linebackers Mason Posa and Cooper Catalano, both of whom stepped up in the second half of the year when injuries hit their position group. As true freshmen, they com- 2026 NOTRE DAME SCHEDULE Date Opponent (TV) Time (ET) Sept. 6 vs. Wisconsin* (NBC) 7:30 p.m. Sept. 12 Rice (NBC) 3:30 p.m. Sept. 19 Michigan State (NBC) 7:30 p.m. Sept. 26 at Purdue TBA Oct. 3 at North Carolina TBA Oct. 10 Stanford (NBC) 3:30 p.m. Oct. 17 at BYU TBA Oct. 31 vs. Navy^ (ABC/ESPN) 12 p.m. Nov. 7 Miami (NBC) 7:30 p.m. Nov. 14 Boston College (NBC) 3:30 p.m. Nov. 21 SMU (NBC) 7:30 p.m. Nov. 28 at Syracuse TBA * at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis. ^ at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. 2026 WISCONSIN SCHEDULE Date Opponent (TV) Time (ET) Sept. 6 vs. Notre Dame* (NBC) 7:30 p.m. Sept. 12 Western Illinois (BTN) 7:15 p.m. Sept. 19 Eastern Michigan (Peacock) 12:30 p.m. Sept. 26 at Penn State TBA Oct. 3 Michigan State TBA Oct. 17 at UCLA TBA Oct. 24 Southern Cal TBA Oct. 31 at Iowa TBA Nov. 7 Rutgers TBA Nov. 14 at Maryland TBA Nov. 21 at Purdue TBA Nov. 28 Minnesota (NBC) 7:30 p.m. * at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis. Facts & Figures NOTRE DAME VS. WISCONSIN Date: Sept. 6, 2026 Site (Capacity): Lambeau Field (81,441) Kickoff: 7:30 p.m. ET Television: NBC Radio: This game can be heard on Notre Dame IMG affiliates. Series Facts: Notre Dame leads the all-time series 9-6-2. The Irish last defeated the Badgers 41-13 in 2021 at Soldier Field in Chicago, which was their first matchup since 1964. Head coaches: Wisconsin — Luke Fickell (17-21, 4th season); Notre Dame — Marcus Freeman (43-12, 5th season). Noting Wisconsin: The Badgers did not have a player drafted in 2026, their first year without a se- lection since 1978 … Second-year offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes will attempt to improve the No. 133 scoring (12.8 points per game) and total (253.2 yards per game) offense in the country … Of the Badgers' 33 transfer additions, only one (running back Abu Sama III) carries a four-star rating … Expect several tailbacks to get looks behind Sama, including former Southern Cal backup Bryan Jackson … Colton Joseph's 1,007 rushing yards last season at Old Dominion ranked fifth among all FBS quarter- backs … Aside from Mason Posa and Cooper Catalano, Wisconsin's only returning starter on defense is reliable safety Matthew Jung. The emergence of linebacker Mason Posa, who finished his true freshman season with 61 tack- les and 4 sacks, was one of the bright spots for the Badgers last season. PHOTO COURTESY WISCONSIN ATHLETICS