GREEN BAY, Wis. - Luke Fickell desperately wants to close the distance between Wisconsin and the top-end teams of college football. He made that abundantly clear when he uttered the word "gap" in rapid succession during his season-opening press conference.

The large influx of offseason money and resources made available to his program showed the Badgers are serious about moving things in the right direction, and their level of play against a fourth-ranked Notre Dame team showed they have the skill set to get there.

The difference is the Irish can find the next gear, which Wisconsin experienced in painful fashion in Sunday's season opener.

UW went from the dominant to the dominated, as Notre Dame's 14 points in 86 third-quarter seconds were the catalyst in a 41-13 victory in front of 75,939 fans at Lambeau Field.

It’s the 12th straight defeat for Wisconsin (0-1) to a top-20 opponent and the eighth straight setback in a road/neutral game.

Here are my takeaways.

One of the big problems holding Wisconsin back in the Fickell era has been injuries to the starting quarterback and ineffective play from the reserves. The Badgers feel they found the right signal caller for their offense in former Old Dominion dual-threat quarterback Colton Joseph and featured him as such against the Irish.

Working primarily out of the shotgun, Joseph mixed high-percentage throws to the flat and on slants with designed runs up the middle and on the edges. His throws weren't perfect and occasionally dangerously off target, but the junior limited the mistakes that plagued his offense in three losses last season.

That changed on the first drive of the third quarter.

With pressure starting to seep through the middle, Joseph barely waited a second before firing a pass toward senior Chris Brooks. The problem was Brooks had yet to reach the top of his route and turn back to his quarterback before the ball was past him. The bigger issue was that cornerback DJ McKinney was watching all along, easily stepping into the passing lane for a 55-yard interception return.

The game was over from there, as UW's final three drives yielded only three points.

It was the second critical turnover of the game following sophomore Hunter Bortollini’s muffed kickoff return. Wisconsin's defense had just held Notre Dame to a field goal, only to give the ball immediately back after Bortollini whiffed on the fielding attempt, bounded off his chest, and into the arms of Kahuna Kia.

Replays showed Kia's may not have secured the fumble before touching the sideline, but the ACC crew upheld the fumble, and the Irish took a 10-3 lead three plays later.

UW rebounded from that mistake, tying the score in the second quarter on Joseph's 28-yard touchdown pass to Malachi Coleman, but the Badgers couldn't overcome Joseph's rushed throw to the hash marks.

Joseph will get better production when his offensive line gets healthy and develop a better connection with his receivers with more game reps, but interceptions have been a part of Joseph's game. He threw seven of his 10 interceptions last season in ODU's three losses, including three at Indiana.

A healthy donor base helped Wisconsin refill its coffers with 34 players during the transfer portal window, the third-most in the Big Ten and the most during the Fickell era. One look at the two-deep depth chart emphasizes the change.

Including Joseph, 10 of the Badgers' 22 listed offensive/defensive starters were transfers, and another 11 backups joined the program from other schools this past offseason. The key highlights were Joseph and tailback Abu Sama (Iowa State) to ignite an offense that was next-to-last a year ago in total yards, as well as power-four defensive backs in corners Javan Robinson (Arizona State) and Bryce West (Ohio State) and safety Marvin Burks Jr. (Missouri) to boost a secondary that allowed teams to complete 69.8 percent of its passes last season (135th out of 136 D-1 teams).

Sama struggled against Notre Dame's stout front (15 attempts for 49 yards), but Coleman looked solid. The former Minnesota senior had the game's only touchdown when his double move froze the Irish defender for a 28-yard touchdown. He executed the move throughout the night, which resulted in a team-best four catches for 76 yards.

UW's secondary looked good in spurts, especially with Robinson’s four solo tackles and a pass breakup and West’s consecutive pass breakups to stymie a drive. Wisconsin allowed more than a handful of open throws over the middle that resulted in chunk plays, but the Badgers held their own against a talented offense until the wheels came off in the fourth quarter.

Of all the power-conference talent brought in, however, Division-3 transfer Liam Danitz (Hope College) delivered the first blow when he partially blocked a punt on Notre Dame's first series, setting up a chip shot field goal for the game's first score.

UW has a short week to prepare for a FCS opponent that lost by 31 at home to a fellow FCS program followed by Eastern Michigan. The Badgers then begin Big Ten play with three consecutive games against programs with first-year head coaches (at Penn State, Michigan State, and at UCLA following a bye). That should be more than enough time for Sunday's issues to be ironed out and for Wisconsin to face its toughest home conference opponent with USC on Oct.24 with some confidence and, most likely, a 4-2 record.

Any record less than that, coupled with a poor performance against the Trojans and one the following week at Iowa - which has beaten UW 79-10 the last two meetings - will give new athletic director Shawn Eichorst some pondering whether or not Fickell is the right fit for his department.