MADISON – Before Wisconsin football coach Luke Fickell got too far into his weekly press conference Sept. 8, he took care of some housekeeping matters:
The Billy Edwards update.
Fickell didn’t have any new information to add about the Badgers starting quarterback, who missed a 42-10 win over Middle Tennessee on Sept. 6 due to what is reportedly a strained left knee.
Wisconsin (2-0) plays at No. 18 Alabama (1-1) on Saturday, Sept. 13 at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
“He’s throwing the ball around, he’s here constantly getting treatments and things like that,” Fickell said. “I think it’s going to be where he really feels as we get later towards the week.
“We’re going to have to protect Billy from himself, I know that … he’s a guy that’s going to be prepared and always wants to go.”
Fickell also didn’t have any new info to share on center Jake Renfro, who also did not play Saturday due to an undisclosed injury.
Here is what else we learned from Fickell’s 20-minute press conference.
QB Danny O’Neil’s performance was as good as intially thought
After review the game Danny O’Neil’s play at quarterback was every bit as solid as Fickell thought right after the game.
O’Neil completed 23 of 27 passes for 284 yards and three touchdowns. His one clear cut mistake was the ball he threw to running back Dilin Jones in a congested area that was picked off by Middle Tennessee nose guard Damonte Smith.
O’Neil’s passing yards were the most for a Badgers QB in his first start. His 85% completion percentage was the most for a UW quarterback since at least 1995.
Fickell called it a “pretty clean game for us.”
“I think we only had a few incompletions and those in particular might have been things that were rushed and more open for him,” Fickell said. “But all in all, what we asked him to do, I think he did a really good job of and was happy after evaluating the game film and watching and seeing the decisions he made, where he threw the football, how he threw the football.”
Alabama’s Bryant Denny Stadium will test UW’s communication skills
The Badgers will play in the seventh-largest college football stadium. Bryant Denny holds 101, 821 fans, which makes it larger than every Big Ten stadium except Michigan (107,601), Penn State (106,572) and Ohio State (102,780).
The noise level, according to Fickell, is going to require some special preparation. He expected the experience to be similar to what the team experienced last year at Iowa, which was louder than Fickell had expected.
“All week we’ll be going with some different cadence things and put a little bit more on the guys up front to make sure we’re all on the same page,” he said. “We started that last night in our Sunday practice. Can you really get the noise as loud as it’s going to be on Saturday? I don’t think we can, but we’ll surely try.”
Fickell likes potential of linemen Colin Cubberly, Emerson Madell
The lineup changes to the offensive line that the Badgers made ahead of the Middle Tennessee game left the right side to Colin Cubberly and Emerson Mandell, both redshirt freshmen.
Cubberly played right guard. Mandell worked at right tackle. It’s a tandem UW could use a lot together for years.
“When you’ve got some young guys it’s obviously nerve racking as well, but it’s exciting too to see those guys because you know there’s going to be a growth every day, every week,” Fickell said. “Sometimes you’ve got to live with some of those things but I think we saw enough in last week’s game to say, ‘Hey this is what the future looks like and those guys and their ability to work together is going to be a really good thing.'”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin football coach Luke Fickell updates Billy Edwards’ status
