Whose stock is up and whose stock is down ahead of Week 10 for the Badgers?
The Wisconsin Badgers came up short in their upset bid against the Penn State Nittany Lions this weekend, losing 28-13 on Saturday. While the Badgers led at halftime, the Nittany Lions outscored them 21-3 in the second half to pull out the victory.
Head coach Luke Fickell explained in his weekly press conference that Wisconsin has already shifted all of its focus onto their upcoming game against the Iowa Hawkeyes and still feels good about where they are at as a program.
Here’s whose stock is up and what stock is down ahead of Iowa week.
Stock up: Defense
While the second half wasn’t quite as pretty, the Badgers defense still played very well in the first half and for most of the second half. Wisconsin primarily limited Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton in the run game, as well as Tyler Warren in this matchup. Penn State only scored one touchdown in the first half which kept the Badgers in this game.
The second half wasn’t as pretty since Penn State scored 21, but one of those touchdowns was a pick-six from Braedyn Locke so the defense only allowed 21 points in this game total.
Overall, it was a solid outing from the Badgers defense who were clearly just out of gas by the end of the game.
Stock down: Offense
The offense’s lack of time of possession killed the defense just like it did against USC. There were way too many three-and-outs in this game which killed any momentum the Badgers had to rally and win this matchup. The Penn State defensive line stuffed every inside zone run play, which prevented the Badgers from doing anything offensively.
I was confused at why Coach Longo didn’t give running backs like Cade Yacamelli any carries in this game when it was clear that Tawee Walker and Dillon Dupree were not gaining as much yardage as normal.
It was also interesting as to why they didn’t target Vinny Anthony and CJ Williams on deep passes more because they were effective in this ballgame and helped Wisconsin march down the field.
I expect the offense to look a lot better at Iowa, but it wasn’t a pretty game for this Wisconsin offense last weekend.
Stock up: Recruiting
Wisconsin had a lot of important recruits and commits in attendance Saturday and it seemed to go very well. Big-name commits like Mason Posa and Eugene Hilton Jr. were excited to be back while four-star recruits such as Victor Singleton and Kaden Gebhardt spoke positively about their visit and experience at the game.
Even though the Badgers didn’t win, the fact that they led at halftime and were only down 14-13 heading into Jump Around proves to these players that Coach Fickell is building something special in Madison and they could be a part of that culture and rebuild.
I have to shout out Pat Lambert for his excellent job as Director of Recruiting. He’s been a fantastic addition to the Wisconsin football staff and has seemingly built good relationships yet again with a number of recruits in the 2026 class.