Preview: Wisconsin at No. 6 Oregon

Looking to snap a five-game losing streak, Wisconsin (2-5, 0-4) hits the road for a showdown at No. 6 Oregon (6-1, 3-1) on Saturday. While the Badgers go into arguably their biggest challenge of the season, facing the Ducks at Autzen Stadium at night, one thing they won’t have to worry about for the next month is the future of their head coach. Last week, athletic director Chris McIntosh informed the team that Luke Fickell will at least finish out the season at UW.

“That fired us up,” senior center Jake Renfro said. “We were all hooting and hollaring. It felt really good to hear that message from him.”

Wisconsin Game Info

Time: 6 p.m. CT

Where: Autzen Stadium (Eugene, Ore.)

TV: FS1

Live Stream: Fox Sports Go

TV Crew: Tim Brando, Devin Gardner, Josh Sims

Series History: Oregon leads 4-3

Last Meeting: Oregon won 16-13 in 2024

Line: Oregon – 31.5

Wisconsin Numbers to Know

3: Wisconsin will be making its third trip to Eugene. The Badgers are 0-2 in road contests at Oregon.

4: The Ducks have won four consecutive games in this series.

6: The last six games between Oregon and Wisconsin have been decided by one score.

9: Fickell is 0-9 against Associated Press Top 25 squads.

10: UW has lost 10 straight games against power-four opponents.

22: Oregon is 22-2 at home under head coach Dan Lanning.

What to Watch

Can Wisconsin Score?

Yup. That’s where we are now. Not, ‘Can Wisconsin win or keep it close?’ Can the Badgers score a single point on Saturday? UW ranks No. 133 nationally in scoring offense (13.3 ppg) and No. 131 in total offense (271.3 ypg). In Big Ten Conference play, the Badgers are averaging 5.0 ppg and have been shut out in their last two contests at home.

“It’s tough to see success when you can’t put up any points,” said Renfro.

Will Alliegro Play?

If Wisconsin has any shot of slowing down this Oregon offense, they’ll need junior linebacker Christian Alliegro. In last Saturday’s 34-0 loss to Ohio State, Alliegro broke his arm in the first quarter. Alliegro put a cast on the injured arm and finished the game, playing a whopping 62 snaps. Alliegro leads the team with 47.0 tackles, 6.0 for loss, and 2.0 sacks.

Can the Wisconsin Secondary Hold Up?

Wisconsin faces another top-tier quarterback in Oregon’s Dante Moore. The Badgers were torched a week ago by Ohio State’s Julian Sayin and in September by Alabama’s Ty Simpson. Both signal callers threw for nearly 400 yards and took their foot off the gas pedal in the fourth quarter. Moore enters Saturday completing 72 percent of his passes for 1,686 yards and 19 touchdowns to four interceptions.

Prediction

Not going to strain too many brain cells on this one.

Lanning is 30-0 against unranked opponents as Oregon’s head coach. As a program, the Ducks haven’t lost to an unranked opponent since 2021. To make matters worse for Wisconsin, they now get an Oregon team that suffered a home loss two weeks ago and will now take it out on the rest of their schedule. That started with a 56-10 road win at Rutgers last Saturday.

The Badgers have been outscored 71-0 in their last two games, both at home. They’ve shown little to no fight, and it’s tough to get them up when their offense can’t sustain a drive, let alone score points. UW enters Saturday as one of the worst offenses in all of college football. They’re putting up 5.0 ppg in Big Ten play. The Ducks have a top-10 defense.

As I said earlier this week, it’s never as bad as we think it’s going to be or what the previous contest told us about Wisconsin. I’ll keep it near the Vegas line, but I don’t see one area where the Badgers have any sort of advantage in this game.

Oregon 45 Wisconsin 3