Wisconsin Football Captain to Observe Teammates ‘Give a Shit’ Factor

Luke Fickell and the Wisconsin Badgers football team thought they were giving their offense a shot in the arm against Northwestern when they announced that quarterback Tanner Mordecai would be starting against the Wildcats just three weeks after getting surgery on his hand. 

That veteran leadership and toughness was precisely what the Badgers needed — on paper. But the outcome of the embarrassing 24-10 home loss to Northwestern has now called into question everyone’s buy-in from the top of the program down to its players. 

It’s become clear the problem for the Wisconsin Badgers goes beyond a lack of identity — there’s a clear faction of the roster that isn’t giving the team everything they have — and Mordecai will be holding them accountable. 

Wisconsin Football Captain Wants to See Teammates ‘Give a Shit Factor’

Tanner Mordecai — who laid it all out there and played hurt to spark his team completed 31-of-45 passes for 255 yards passing and ran for another 25 yards on the ground. However, the Wisconsin football team didn’t punch in its first touchdown until the game had 11 seconds remaining. 

The offensive struggles have been bad. There are no two ways around it — Phil Longo’s offense doesn’t have a strength to hang its hat on. Averaging just 21.2 points on the season, the Badgers have only mustered 11.3 points per game during this three-game losing streak.

Those numbers are hard to wrap your head around when you consider that Wisconsin entered the year with a sixth-year starting QB, a relatively experienced offensive line, one of the better 1,2 running back tandems in the country, and a wide receiver room lauded as the deepest in recent memory. 

“I’m very embarrassed. It’s very frustrating,” said Mordecai after the game. “I’m pretty emotional right now, right after getting my ass handed to me. I’m frustrated. I don’t know what to tell you.

“If you deem yourself a competitor, you better feel like this. Either play somewhere else or don’t play the game at all.”

Mordecai joined the Wisconsin football program hoping to elevate his NFL draft stock in Longo’s high-octane offense — but things haven’t even remotely gone according to plan.

That said, he intends to keep his teammates in line during the final two weeks of the regular season to ensure they’re taking care of the things they’re capable of controlling, like being on time, bringing energy, taking care of themselves physically, etc. 

“I want to know who has a big give-a-shit factor in this program,” Mordecai said. “I’ll be paying attention to that.”

There’s both a standard — and a floor that the Wisconsin football program shouldn’t be under — and right now, the Badgers have fallen well under that floor. These are tough times — and the hope is through strong leadership from the top down, the players who haven’t bought in will be weeded out. 

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