Most notably, the win is Minnesota’s third over Wisconsin in the last four seasons. The Badgers’ dominance from 1995-2020 (23-3) now seems to be a thing of the past. Minnesota continues to consistently win under Fleck, while the Badgers are amid an identity crisis under coach Luke Fickell.
Friday’s result was not much of a surprise after recent trends, including Wisconsin’s four-game losing streak dating back to late October. It did, however, deliver a strong message about the current state of the rivalry, and therefore the state of two respective programs.
Fleck addressed what the win meant to his program when speaking with the media postgame. Here are his full comments, including on ending Wisconsin’s 22-year streak of winning seasons.
“Thanks for everybody for making the trip out here. Happy Thanksgiving to everybody that’s out there. This is one of the best days and the best weekends of the year. One, because it’s Thanksgiving. And we all have a lot to be thankful for and grateful for and we all do. No matter what your situation is, we always do and and you can find that. Then obviously, so much football. And now, we got the bus ride back in four hours with the Axe and we’ll really enjoy that.
I thought our players dominated the football game. I thought they did from start to finish. I think there’s four or five plays we’d want back where I think it could even be more lopsided. I thought we made a statement in the rivalry winning three out of four here at Camp Randall. I take a lot of pride in that. We were gonna have to play really good, we knew that, but I thought our guys swarmed to the football really well. On defense, we tackled really well. In a game where it’s zero degrees. Those those hits both ways are going to sting. We just wanted to be on the plus side of those stinging…I thought we did a great job of limiting them to explosive plays.
