Column: Wisconsin football is at a crossroads, and Luke Fickell knows it
Wisconsin has struggled under Luke Fickell, but there are a few signs that suggest there’s still a path forward for the Badgers football program. Whether or not they take it is another question.
Expectations for Wisconsin football aren’t what they used to be. I think a lot of fans feel that way, myself included. It’s been easy to lean negative, especially coming off the kind of season we all just watched. And trust me, I get it. But as frustrating as the past two seasons have been under Luke Fickell, now isn’t the time to make brash decisions and blow it all up.
That doesn’t mean you have to sugarcoat things or blindly defend what very clearly hasn’t worked. It just means if you’re going to zoom out and take a more measured view of this, there are reasons, however faint, for a slightly more optimistic lens entering the 2025 college football season.
Before we get too deep into where things stand right now, it’s worth rewinding the tape for a second to remember why this hire made so much sense in the first place and why the fanbase is so frustrated.
If someone showed you Fickell’s résumé—no name, just the credentials, and you said Wisconsin could land that head coach when the job opened up, it would’ve looked like a 100th-percentile outcome. Most reasonable fans would’ve signed on the dotted line without a second thought.
We’re talking about a guy who took Cincinnati, a Group of Five program, and turned it into a legitimate contender. Fickell went 57-18 over six seasons there. He won multiple conference titles. He beat Notre Dame in South Bend. He led the Bearcats to a New Year’s Six bowl. And in 2021, he did what no other Group of Five coaches had ever done: cracked the College Football Playoff. Undefeated regular season, 13-0, before falling to Nick Saban and Alabama in the semifinals. That’s history-book stuff from Fickell.
Oh, and that wasn’t viewed as some flash-in-the-pan season, either.
Fickell was named AAC Coach of the Year three times. He swept up National Coach of the Year honors in 2021. He built a brand, developed pros, and recruited his tail off—without the luxury of a Big Ten budget or blue-blood logo. Then there’s the Ohio State background. He played there in the '90s. Coached there for more than a decade. Cut his teeth in a championship environment, learned under some of the best, and helped build one of the most consistent machines in college football. That carries some weight.
So yeah, when that guy became available? It made perfect sense why Chris McIntosh went all in on that pedigree. Most Power 5 athletic departments would’ve.
"This is a destination job at a program that I have admired from afar for years," Fickell said in a press release. "I am in total alignment with Chris McIntosh's vision for this program. There is a tremendous foundation here that I can't wait to build upon. This world-class university, athletic department and passionately loyal fan base all have a strong commitment to success, and I can't wait to be a part of it."
Guilty as charged: I bought into the idea that Fickell could elevate the Wisconsin football program's expectations overnight, but with the benefit of hindsight, that wasn’t fair. Truth is, it was foolish. You can’t expect everything to click out of the gate, even with the right guy in charge.
I understand the frustration with coach Fickell. A lot of it’s valid. I’ve been plenty critical, too. Truthfully, trying to pass any of these growing pains with Fickell off as part of Wisconsin's plan just doesn’t hold water. But if you’re going to invest in a head coach to the tune of seven years and $54.6 million, you’ve got to give him the runway to fix what he breaks.
Especially when more than 80% of that deal is guaranteed if you were to fire Fickell without cause. You don’t throw around seven-year contracts with that type of guaranteed money attached to them unless you’re serious about the coach. That’s not just a hire — that’s a commitment. And if it all goes sideways, there’s a steep price tag for being wrong.
According to USA Today's college football coaching salary database, Fickell’s buyout as of December 1, 2024, sits at a whopping $40,186,667. And if you go off the 80% owed structure outlined in his original deal with the Badgers, that number would still be around $31.6 million in 2025.
No one’s sugarcoating it. Fickell’s first two years in Madison have been wildly mediocre. Wisconsin ended the 2024 season with an empty trophy case, getting outscored 110-42 in rivalry games alone. The Badgers stumbled to a 5-7 finish last fall, dropping their final five games of the season en route to snapping the program’s 22-year bowl streak. Fickell is now 12-13 overall and 8-10 in Big Ten play through two seasons, and he’s still searching for his first win over a top 25 opponent.
The book on Fickell isn’t written yet. But right now, it’s a tough read.