I grew up north of Chicago, close enough to the Wisconsin border that Kenosha and Milwaukee were regular parts of my life. I understand Wisconsin culture. I know what the Badgers mean to people there.
I love the place. Real people. Real grit. It’s part of what draws me to places like Sunderland, too. And Wisconsin makes some of the best stuff on earth: beer, cheese and brats, baby. As a kid, I’d drive past the Mars Cheese Castle and think it looked like the most magical place in the world. Honestly, I’m not sure I was wrong.
Franks Diner in Kenosha is another piece of it. I love the ambiance. I love the Garbage Plate. More than anything, I love going there with my mom and dad. Sitting with them in that diner is one of my favorite things to do.
Back home in Libertyville, Illinois, Liberty Barber Shop helped me get a feel for the culture just across the Wisconsin border. I knew Rich, Cully, Tim, and Brad there, all from north of the state border, and the shop had an unmistakable outdoorsy Wisconsin vibe. They knew their neighbors, the conversation was real, and you felt at home the moment you walked in. Man, do I love that shop.
ItThe shop has real history, too. A newspaper archive has a photo of Tim and Cully Vojtech washing its windows back in 1987. Anyone who went there during Rich’s years will remember the proprietor and barber with the magnificent, ZZ Top-style beard. Cully served the shop and its community for 44 years before retiring in 2024. That kind of staying power tells you something about a place. Brad and I still talk to this day. He’s a hardcore Titans fan and occasionally visits Nashville, which gives us plenty to catch up on.
Those diners, shops and people are what I think about when I think about Wisconsin. That’s why Saturday’s Badgers win at Penn State hit me differently.
Wisconsin trailed No. 13 Penn State by 17 points on the road. Then the Badgers scored twice in the final 3:31 and won 24–20. For Luke Fickell, I think it was the biggest win of the season so far, and maybe the biggest for any coach in college football throughout the nation this season.
Wisconsin has been trying to figure out how to be Wisconsin in a sport that changed the rules on it.
Years ago, we had Barry Alvarez on Full Ride while he was athletic director and Paul Chryst was coaching. The Badgers were winning double-digit games, going to Rose Bowls and making the whole thing look repeatable. Bret Bielema’s teams went to three straight Rose Bowls. I asked Alvarez how they kept doing it.
His answer was walk-ons.
He told me they would identify kids good enough to start in the MAC, kids with real offers, and invite them to walk on at Wisconsin instead. That was a serious pitch because Wisconsin had proof it could turn that chance into something bigger.
Jim Leonhard arrived as a walk-on and became a three-time All-American. J.J. Watt walked on after leaving Central Michigan. Joe Schobert, Alex Erickson and Joel Stave all came through that program. Those weren’t cute stories Wisconsin told after the fact. They were evidence that the system worked. It was a real draw for a borderline talent who had dreams of making it at the highest level of the college game. It worked for years!
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That old Wisconsin pitch is harder to make today. If a player can take a scholarship and a chance to play somewhere else, asking him to pay his way for the possibility of developing into a Badgers star is a much tougher sell. Add NIL money, the portal and roster limits, and you can’t build the same stockpile of overlooked players the same way.
Fickell walked into that change in real time.
Remember how hot a coaching name he was when he left Cincinnati in 2022? Hotter than Texas chili, as Rick Neuheisel likes to say. There was a time when plenty of people thought Notre Dame should have hired him after Brian Kelly left for LSU. Jack Swarbrick hired Marcus Freeman instead.
Here’s the twist I keep thinking about: Kelly left Notre Dame believing LSU offered a better path to winning at the highest level. Since then, college football’s money and player movement have changed dramatically. Freeman is coaching Notre Dame in a different era from much of Kelly’s tenure. Notre Dame still has standards for admitting transfers, but the job itself has changed.
Fickell, meanwhile, took the Wisconsin job just as the Badgers’ old advantage was becoming harder to sustain. I’m sure he would have loved to inherit Barry’s Wisconsin: find the overlooked kid, develop him for years, put him on the field and watch him become a star. He has had to build something new while people understandably keep asking why it doesn’t look like the Wisconsin they remember.
And if you’re watching football tonight, bring AR’s Hot Honey to the table. Put it on chicken, pizza or whatever you’ve got cooking, and use code SHOWPONY15 when you order. Beer, cheese, brats and a little hot honey? I think Wisconsin could work with that.
One comeback doesn’t settle every question about Fickell. It doesn’t bring the old walk-on model back. But going into Penn State, falling behind by 17 and finding a way to win? That looked like a team with some fight in it.
I want Wisconsin to work because I know what that program means to the people around it. Saturday felt like a reminder that even if the Badgers have to find a new way to do business, they can still find a way to be tough.
We’ll talk about it tonight on Show Pony Live at 2:30 Central / 3:30 Eastern. Don’t miss it.
My daughter came very close to attending WI Madison instead of NC State. Gotta say when she settled on NCSU, I was a tiny bit disappointed I didn’t get to go to a Badgers game and do the Jump Around! Maybe I’ll get there one day. Good to see things changing for them. Really looking forward to seeing them play UCLA- I think it’s 10/17 but I’ll be rooting for the Bruins!
Nice article Pony - hit a spot in my heart. I am a PennSt alum, moved to Chicago after graduation in 1981. Back then PSU was an eastern independent - and Chicago was BigTen country. Only Big Ten games shown on ABC. I had to chose a BigTen team to root for and I picked Wisky. Barry Alvarez had brought excitement back to the school. Even as Penn State joined the BIG - I still root for Wisky a bit. I was sick to my stomach that Fickel was on the hot seat. I want him to succeed.......so even though I am true to my school - I couldn't help but have HUGE smile on my face and in my heart that Luke got the "get back" win he desperately needed. thanks for writing about it!