'This has to be our year': Defensive lineman Curt Neal on Wisconsin's goals for 2024

MADISON – As he prepares for his fourth season at Wisconsin, safety Hunter Wohler isn’t afraid to reflect on how the program has fallen short of so many goals.

Zero Big Ten titles.

Zero seasons of at least 10 victories.

Zero playoff berths.

Last season was particularly troubling as a team picked to win the Big Ten West Division needed victories over Nebraska and Minnesota, both sub-.500 teams, to finish 5-4 in the league. A galling loss to LSU in the ReliaQuest Bowl left UW at 7-6 overall for the second consecutive season.

“We’d get to points in games last year and were down a score or two,” Wohler said, “and you could see it on some guys’ faces that we’re not going to win this game. We don’t have a shot.

“That is a big spot where we need to grow, just not wavering. Staying steady. And being able to fight from start to finish.

"We talked about it last year – finishing games. We talked about it all offseason and then we come into the season and we don’t it. So that is another big emphasis this year.”

The players’ collective mental toughness and level of execution will have to be superior in 2024 because the schedule features home games against Alabama, Penn State and Oregon and road games against USC, Iowa and Nebraska.

Coaches players talk about the reasons behind a disappointing record last season

For many reasons UW didn’t fare well against a lesser schedule in Fickell’s first season in Madison.

Fickell and defensive coordinator Mike Tressel discussed some of the reasons during spring ball.

Wary about injuries, the staff elected not to engage in much live hitting during spring ball in 2023 and again in preseason camp last summer.

Fickell noted that led to players struggling to tackle early in the season and too many fumbles. UW finished with 12 lost fumbles last season, tied for No. 120 nationally.

“We probably didn’t figure out athleticism in space during spring practice as much as we would have liked to,” Tressel said of the staff’s first spring. “And you want to find out, when it really gets tough and it’s really crunch time, who has that extra to pull out?”

Tressel also noted it took longer than expected for the staff to identify the team’s pillars.

“I wish we could have identified out strengths faster," he said. “I do think we adapted as the year went on, which happens in Year 1. I wish it would have happened faster. That is what I look at. Identifying and playing to strengths is something we take pride in.

“And hopefully we can start with that right off the bat and any adaptations happen sooner.”

The result: Several losses to teams UW could have beaten.

Wide receiver Bryson Green rattled off some of the losses last season.

“Iowa,” he said. “Northwestern. We had Ohio State on the ropes in the third quarter. Could have pulled that off…Indiana…

“Pretty much all the games we lost last year we had a good chance of winning.”

UW fell to Iowa, 15-6 , in large part because Phil Longo’s offense couldn’t find the end zone with either Tanner Mordecai or Braedyn Locke at quarterback.

Locke drove the Badgers 75 yards for a touchdown to forge a 10-10 tie early in the third quarter against No. 3 Ohio State, but UW’s defense immediately surrendered a 75-yard touchdown drive and the offense was held to a combined 97 yards on 31 plays over its final five series.

The result: A 24-10 loss to the Buckeyes .

UW’s defense was awful early in losses to Indiana (20-14) and Northwestern (24-10) and the offense wasn’t good enough to compensate.

“Did we lose focus after a tough loss like that?” right tackle Riley Mahlman said of the loss to Ohio State. “We’ve just got to clean games like those up.

“Obviously, we want to see ourselves at the top of the Big Ten. Last year was 7-6. It wasn’t a great year.”

More: 3 areas to watch as Wisconsin Badgers football vies for a better performance in 2024

Both players and coaches are optimistic that UW will be a better team in 2024

The vibe coming from the UW coaches and players during spring ball was that all three units – offense, defense and special teams – will be improved because of the familiarity with the schemes.

“Coaches are coaching,” Longo said. “Middle of spring ball last year (2023), we were still trying to figure out where the restroom is.”

The staff also allowed more tackling this past spring and plans to do the same in camp, which is set to open Tuesday, July 30 at UW-Platteville.

“We’ve got to push these guys to find out who the competitive leaders are on this team,” Fickell said. “I didn’t just say leaders. I didn’t just say the competitors. But the competitive leaders. When your best players are your most competitive leaders, you got a chance. You’ve got a hell of a lot better chance to finish (games).

“We know there’s going to be a bunch of dog fights. This is a really, really good league and it’s only getting better.”

Another factor that is critical but can be difficult to measure: Chemistry.

Wohler was among a handful of players last season who questioned whether everyone on the team had embraced the new staff and the subsequent changes.

“I think one of the biggest issues we had last year was that a lot of people weren’t bought in,” defensive end James Thompson Jr. said. “A lot of guys willing to check out. If they felt they weren’t going to play, then why should they care? You can’t have that in the locker room.

“This year everybody knows our mission, our ambitions.”

In short, to at least compete for the first Big Ten title without divisions since the 2010 season.

“This has to be the year,” redshirt sophomore defensive lineman Curt Neal said. “We need guys to step up. As a team, we need to be closeknit, together.

“We busted our ass in the offseason. This has to be the year. This is our year.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 'This has to be our year': Defensive lineman Curt Neal on Wisconsin's goals for 2024