Luke Fickell enters pivotal Year 4 with ‘no escape plan’ at Wisconsin
Luke Fickell knows Wisconsin football hasn’t met expectations. With Shawn Eichorst now watching, he wants his new boss to know there’s no escape plan.
There are plenty of reasons to believe the Wisconsin football program could look considerably different in 2026.
The schedule is more manageable. The roster appears deeper, particularly on offense. Colton Joseph gives the Badgers a dynamic skill set at quarterback they haven’t consistently had during Luke Fickell’s tenure, and a defense that showed meaningful progress late last season returns promising building blocks in Mason Posa and Cooper Catalano.
From the outside looking in, the pieces are there for Wisconsin to take a step forward. Of course, anyone who has followed the first three years of the Fickell era can be forgiven for wanting to see it before believing it.
Wisconsin is 17-21 under Fickell, has posted consecutive losing seasons and missed a bowl game in back-to-back years after a 22-year postseason streak. Last season’s offense was the lowest-scoring Big Ten unit this century, averaging just 12.8 points per game.
So yes, there’s optimism again. There’s also considerably less patience.
Perhaps the most interesting difference entering Year 4 is that Fickell now answers to someone who wasn’t responsible for bringing him to Madison.
Shawn Eichorst replaced Chris McIntosh as Wisconsin’s athletic director this offseason, giving Fickell a new boss at arguably the most consequential point of his tenure. Their relationship is still developing, and Fickell said the initial conversations intentionally haven’t centered around explaining away what happened during the previous three seasons.
“He [Eichorst] kind of sat down and said, ‘Well, is there anything that you want to tell me?’ And I’m like, ‘No, I don’t want to dwell upon the past,” Fickell said during an interview with NBC Sports. “I want you to take a good look at who we are and what we’re about. It’s not hard to figure out where we’ve been.
“But I want you to understand that we’re all in this. The guys and coaches in this program understand it hasn’t been up to the standards of what we expect, what anybody expects. But there is no idea of there being another route. There is no escape plan. As I’ve said before, this is burn the boats. Everybody that’s a part of this, from me and my family to every coach and player, understands where we are and what we’ve got to do.”
