Spring practice kicks off for Wisconsin football on March 13 as the Badgers look to turn the page on one of the program’s worst seasons in recent memory.
Coming off a disappointing 5-7 finish—their first year without making a bowl game in over two decades—Luke Fickell and his revamped staff have 15 practices to start laying the foundation for a much-needed reset in Madison.
Wisconsin welcomes 34 new faces to the program, between 19 transfer portal additions and 15 early-enrollee freshmen, highlighting how much turnover the program has experienced this offseason.
With a 12-13 record through his first two seasons at the helm, Fickell is searching for signs of tangible progress as he works to get Wisconsin back on track.
“I’ve been coaching for a good while, playing this game for a good while, and I don’t know that I’ve been in a position and situation like this, to be honest with you,” Fickell told reporters. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, a lot of things to get done, a lot of things we got to fix up and correct.”
That process starts with major changes to the coaching staff, most notably moving on from Phil Longo and hiring Jeff Grimes as the new offensive coordinator. Grimes will be tasked with restoring the program’s physical identity after Longo’s Air Raid experiment failed to take flight.
Meanwhile, defensive coordinator Mike Tressel returns for his third season at Wisconsin, but he has plenty to prove after an up-and-down 2024 season calling plays for the Badgers’ defense.
One of the biggest areas for improvement? Finishing games.
The Wisconsin Badgers were outscored 72-15 in the fourth quarter of their seven losses last season, a staggering statistic that defined their inability to close out winnable contests. They'll also begin the season with an empty trophy case after losing all three rivalry games in 2024.
The Badgers will have until April 24 to start sorting through key position battles, implement new schemes, and set the tone for a critical 2025 campaign.
Here are five storylines to follow as Wisconsin heads into spring practice.
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