Wisconsin's Luke Fickell walked into the interview room wearing the look of a head coach who finally rediscovered what it felt like to see his team win a football game.
And why not? Fickell's players came to Camp Randall Stadium on Saturday mired in a three-game losing streak.
Their last victory was Oct. 21 at Illinois. Their last home victory was Oct. 7 against Rutgers.
It's an understatement to say Fickell was proud of how his players overcame an early 14-point hole to record a 24-17 overtime victory over Nebraska, thanks in part to Braelon Allen's 3-yard touchdown run and Preston Zachman's fourth-down interception.
"To get a win tonight, I mean, it's deep," Fickell said. "It's deep. And I know that we did this for the seniors and that's the most important thing.
"But we did this for everybody in that locker room. Because we all needed it. And it's been ... whether it's been expectations, ups and downs, whether it's been injuries, it's been such a roller coaster of emotions for those guys in the locker room."
After suffering losses to Ohio State, Indiana and Northwestern, the Badgers (6-5, 4-4 Big Ten) needed four quarters and one overtime period to became bowl-eligible for the 22nd consecutive season.
"I don't want to downplay it," Fickell said of the bowl streak. "But it wasn't a focus of mine. It wasn't a focus. I didn't say one thing about it to the team."That's what we did tonight, played complementary football that gave us a chance to win."
UW got the ball first in the overtime, and quarterback Tanner Mordecai found wide receiver Vinny Anthony for 9 yards to the 14 on third and 8. Mordecai scrambled for 9 yards to the 5 three plays later to set up fourth and 1. Take away the two times Mordecai was sacked and the sixth-year senior rushed seven times for 60 yards.
After Mordecai's 9-yard scramble, Allen plowed for 2-yard gain to the 3. Allen got the ball on the next play and was hit at the line of scrimmage. But with his blockers surging forward, Allen was able to help push the pile into the end zone to help UW take a 24-17 lead.
"Honestly, the whole game … there wasn’t much there," said Allen, who scored on a 2-yard run in the third quarter. "I’m going to be real with you. I’m going to put my head down and try to get what I can.
"Same thing with the touchdown run. Just try to bury my head and hope the line pushes enough."
Nebraska's offense took the field but UW's defense barely bent.
Nebraska lost 1 yard on a first-down run; quarterback Chubba Purdy threw an incompletion on second and 11; and threw another incompletion on third down, after a false-start penalty put the Cornhuskers' in a third-and-16 hole. Purdy's final pass, on fourth and 16, was intercepted by safety Preston Zachman at the 9.
Game over. A losing streak over. A bowl streak extended by another year.
UW also defeated Nebraska (5-6, 3-5) for the 10th consecutive time. The Badgers are 11-1 against the Cornhuskers since they joined the Big Ten in 2011.
Although the Badgers became bowl-eligible, their slim division title hopes died early in the day.
Iowa (9-2, 6-2 Big Ten) clinched the West Division title and a berth in the league title game with a 15-13 victory over Illinois. Former UW reserve quarterback Deacon Hill completed 19 of 29 passes for 167 yards and a touchdown for the Hawkeyes.
"That led to points," said Goetz, who finished with three tackles. "So just to be able to play complementary football, where in weeks past we weren't able to, our offense felt the momentum of that stop.
"The crowd obviously did, too. For the offense to score off of that changed the momentum of the game."
That play clearly provided the spark UW’s offense needed.
Mordecai capped a 66-yard drive with a 26-yard touchdown pass to Jackson Acker to help cut the deficit to 14-7. The Badgers took advantage of a 19-yard punt on their next series by driving 35 yards before Nathanial Vakos hit a 35-yard field goal to cut Nebraska’s lead to 14-10 at halftime. UW entered the night having been outscored by a combined 72-23 in the first half of the previous five games.
So what did the Cornhuskers do? They drove 75 yards for a touchdown on their first possession and then drove 76 yards for a touchdown on their second possession for a 14-0 lead with six minutes left in the opening quarter.
"We did the exact opposite of what I said the No. 1 thing we had to do," Fickell said. "We had to come out (and) we had to start fast. I didn't mean we had to go up, 14-0. But I just said we had to make sure we were in a good place and do some good things in the first quarter. And we did the exact opposite."
To their credit, the Badgers used the fourth-down stop as a spark to pull within one score by halftime and then held a three-point lead for the last 1 ½ quarters until the Cornhuskers forced overtime with a 30-yard field goal with four seconds left in regulation.
"I don't want to say they amazed me," Fickells said. "But they showed me that there was something deeper down inside that we've seen at times, but not on a consistent basis.
After surrendering 151 yards and two scores on Nebraska's first two possessions, UW's defense held the Cornhuskers to 213 yards and a field goal on 51 plays.
Nevertheless, of the many items on Fickell’s off-season to-do list, one has to be finding a way for his team to play better early in games. After missing the second half of the loss to Ohio State, sitting out the loss to Indiana and carrying just three times in the loss to Northwestern, Allen wasn't sure how well he would be able to run on his injured left ankle.
He felt OK in warmups and carried 22 times for 62 yards in the victory.
"I told coach I was ready to go," Allen said. "We stuck with the same plan. Jackson was going to go in the game first and I was going to relieve him when needed. … I wasn’t worried about getting touches or anything. Just trying to play my best."
Allen's goal before the season was to play well in 2023 and then enter the 2024 NFL draft.
He was coy when asked if Saturday was his final home game at UW.
"Ah, I definitely didn’t approach it like that," he said. "But you never know. I’m not necessarily ready to voice that yet."
And if it was his final home game?
"If that’s it," he said, "I don’t think there is a better way to go out. An overtime win. A great team win. It’s all about sending out the seniors on the right note."
