Show summary Hide summary
Wisconsin’s 41-13 defeat at the hands of Notre Dame offered an early snapshot of where the Badgers stand as they prepare for a pivotal 2026 season. Despite the lopsided score, a handful of players emerged with momentum — while others and the coaching staff left questions that will need answers fast.
Stock Up
Malachi Coleman
Against the Fighting Irish, Coleman provided the clearest signal that he could be a go-to weapon in a crowded receiver room. He finished with four catches for 76 yards and a 28-yard touchdown in the second quarter — his most productive game in college, after limited snaps at Nebraska and Minnesota.
NCAA files suit contesting Ohio governor’s order on fifth-year eligibility
Wisconsin’s homecoming matchup with Michigan State: three predictions
Analytics backed up the eye test: Coleman posted a 75.4 PFF grade, the highest among Wisconsin offensive players that night. At 6-foot-5 and 205 pounds, he has the size to create matchup problems, but it was his downfield route running at Lambeau that drew the most attention. With easier opponents on the immediate schedule, he has an opportunity to build on this performance and carry momentum into conference play.
Sebastian Cheeks
Wisconsin’s edge rush received an early boost from Cheeks, who stripped Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr on the opening drive. His stat line — two tackles (both solo), a sack, a tackle for loss, a forced fumble and a pass breakup — only tells part of the story.
Cheeks earned a team-high 85.5 PFF grade, including an 89.3 pass-rush mark, and generated three pressures in 43 snaps. A fifth-year senior, he played a larger role in 2025 (25 tackles, three sacks, 5.5 tackles for loss), and with departures on the edge, Cheeks looks positioned to be a primary pass-rushing threat for this defense.
Sean West
The special-teams unit found a highlight in West’s game: a booming 70-yard punt that rolled down to the one-yard line and sent the Lambeau crowd buzzing. He totaled five punts for 225 yards (a 45.0-yard average), with two pinned inside the 20 — a third could have been had the return gunner corralled another attempt instead of allowing a touchback.
West’s strong start is notable after a rough finish to 2025; the junior averaged just 29.3 yards on four punts in the season-ending loss at Minnesota. While every long punt won’t be a repeat, a consistently effective punter would be a clear asset for Wisconsin’s field-position battle this season.
Stock Down
PJ Wilkins
The left tackle experiment did not go smoothly. Wilkins, an Ole Miss transfer, struggled in both pass protection and the run game against a stout Notre Dame front, receiving a 49.3 PFF grade — the second-lowest on offense.
He played the bulk of the snaps (53), though Florida State transfer Lucas Simmons-Johansson did see eight snaps after competing for the spot this offseason. Wilkins is a fourth-year player with the build (6-foot-6, 335 pounds) to play on the edge, but he has limited experience as a full-time starter; he logged just two starts and 186 snaps last season, mostly at guard. Whether he is the long-term answer at left tackle remains unclear.
Jon Jon Kamara
The promising physical profile didn’t translate into production for Kamara in Week 1. The Kansas transfer played 18 snaps without recording a statistic and appeared out of position on Nolan James Jr.’s fourth-quarter touchdown. He finished with a 53.7 PFF grade.
Kamara is a 6-foot-4, 243-pound junior with glimpses of playmaking ability — he totaled 13 tackles (five solo), 0.5 sack and 1.5 tackles for loss in 2025 — but he has yet to establish himself as a consistent contributor. He entered the season as a complementary piece behind Mason Posa and Cooper Catalano; if he doesn’t show more soon, teammates such as Thomas Heiberger could move ahead of him on the depth chart.
Coaching Staff
This season is being viewed as a key test for head coach Luke Fickell and his staff, and Sunday’s performance highlighted both tactical and situational concerns. One sequence that raised eyebrows: Fickell burned a timeout on a second-quarter fourth-and-10 only to have the team punt from the Notre Dame 36-yard line.
There were moments that felt familiar to recent Wisconsin teams — a lack of urgency to close the first half and an apparent reluctance to shift gears after falling behind 27-10 in the third quarter. Offensively, coordinator Jeff Grimes showed some effective quick concepts early, but the play-calling did not become more aggressive as the deficit grew. Defensively, Mike Tressel’s unit did a strong job limiting the run in the opening half, yet an apparent reliance on soft zone coverages allowed CJ Carr to settle into a rhythm after halftime.
Coaching choices did not alone determine a 41-13 result, but the sideline’s approach compounded issues that the players could not overcome. Those same decisions could prove far more consequential in tighter Big Ten contests if they are not addressed.
