What anonymous Big Ten coaches are saying about Wisconsin football entering 2025
What Big Ten coaches are anonymously saying about Wisconsin football heading into the 2025 season—and why they pretty much hit the nail on the head.
You don’t get a lot of truth-telling in college football—not from coaches, anyway. There’s not much to gain by going on the record and handing out bulletin board material for opponents. But trust me, they’ve all got opinions. So, when they do speak candidly—even anonymously—it's worth paying close attention.
And in the annual Athlon Sports’ 2025 College Football Preview, that’s exactly what fans got: a behind-the-curtain look at how Big Ten coaches view each other heading into next season.
The comments about Luke Fickell and the Wisconsin football program? Blunt, pointed—and honestly, hard to argue with.
“Nothing about the offense made sense here," said one Big Ten coach, speaking anonymously to Athlon Sports. "Longo moving on benefits everyone involved, and if they bounce back and become more of a modern version of that classic Wisconsin power run offense, you’ll wonder why they ever made the move in the first place.”
That line hits the nail on the head.
Because if you’ve been following this program for the last two years, you know exactly what that coach is getting at. The shift to the Air Raid wasn’t just ill-fitting—it was identity-erasing. And for a place like Wisconsin, that’s a cardinal sin. There’s a reason it looked like a square peg in a round hole: it was. Something had to change, and Phil Longo was fired.
And the numbers back it up. In 2024, Wisconsin’s offense never found anything to hang its hat on. No identity. No rhythm. No pulse. The Badgers finished 106th in EPA per play, 104th in EPA per dropback, 100th in EPA per rush, and averaged just 22.6 points per game—good for 109th nationally. That’s well below standard.
Enter Jeff Grimes.
His hire by Fickell signals a clear desire to restore the identity that helped the Wisconsin Badgers consistently punch above its weight for the better part of three decades. Grimes loves to play physical, run the ball downhill, take timely shots over the top, and utilize pre-snap motion—a style that fits the personnel better and gives the team a philosophy it can lean into and also recruit to.
The hope is that, with a more defined direction, Wisconsin can finally take a step forward after back-to-back seasons that rank among the program’s worst in recent memory—not just in terms of offensive production but in overall clarity. Something that shows you what they’re building toward for the future.
“Grimes is a great hire, and they flipped the entire offense except for the backs," offered one coach. "They need to go back to Wisconsin football this year, and they’ve got a young backfield that can do it.”
That’s the belief. That’s the bet. That’s the hope—that 2025 becomes the reboot Wisconsin desperately needs before things go completely off the rails. Ground-and-pound with a little more tempo. Toughness, heavy personnel usage, and vertical shots when opportunity knocks.
Now, let’s zoom out.
FanDuel has set the Badgers’ win total at 5.5. That’s not some Vegas sleight-of-hand. That’s just the market telling you what this team hasn’t been able to do under Fickell: beat good teams. Establish a clear identity. Finish when it matters.
And if you’re looking for proof, start here—Wisconsin was outscored 72-15 in the fourth quarter of its seven losses last season. And if 2025 is going to be different, that’s the narrative they’ve got to rewrite. Because at some point, you have to ask: Can Fickell win a big game? Can he be a difference-maker on the sideline like he was hired to be? Because in this version of the Big Ten, being a good program builder isn’t enough. You need to dictate games, not just manage them.
“Fickell is the guy,” said another Big Ten coach anonymously to Athlon Sports, “but the offensive issues have overshadowed the overall plan so much that it’s easy to see why some folks might lose faith. I think they just overreached on trying to modernize the program schematically.”
It’s hard to argue.
Through his first two seasons as head coach, the best wins of the Fickell era have come against Rutgers and Minnesota. And look, reclaiming Paul Bunyan’s Axe is always going to mean something in Madison—but if that’s your signature moment so far, then yeah, there’s clearly work to do. Quite a bit, actually.
And it’s not like there’s a soft landing ahead. This isn’t the Big Ten West anymore. This league has turned into a full-on monster, with USC, Oregon, Washington, and UCLA now officially in the mix. The days of layups on the schedule are behind us—especially with the way NIL and the transfer portal are trending. Teams don’t stay down long anymore. Not the ones with deep pockets and highly motivated donors.
And if the House settlement gets finalized, opening the door for schools to pay players directly? The stakes only get higher. Payrolls will be unrecognizable.
Because now? Wisconsin enters 2025 staring down a schedule with no margin for error. It’s a gauntlet. The Badgers are set to face Michigan, Oregon, and Ohio State—plus a nonconference road trip to Alabama that feels more like a survival test than a measuring stick. Even games like Indiana and Illinois, which might’ve been considered manageable in past years, come with real landmine potential.
This is the climb Fickell’s talking about when he references mountains—and it’s as steep as it’s ever been.
From inside the building, they know exactly what they’re up against.
"From within the building, it's all about this mountain to climb. We didn't accept every [potential] transfer guy that we had a chance to get," Fickell explained. "Every transfer that was possibly coming in here, the first thing we did was set the schedule down in front of him to say, "Look, just want to make sure you understand what this mountain looks like." So, not only emphasizing what this thing will look like but understanding that the humble and hungry mindset and attitude has got to be that you're willing to do what we need to do because it's not going to be easy.
"We know that there's going to be some peaks and valleys in this climb, but I think it's got to start from within. I don't talk about the schedule a lot, but we just talk about it being a mountain to climb."
That’s not coachspeak. That’s realism. And if they’re going to scale it, it’ll require better quarterback play, a revamped offensive identity, and real growth from a defensive front seven that simply wasn’t physical enough in 2024.
Another Big Ten coach kept it simple:
“They’re talented in some spots, but they’re still very young.”
And that’s the rub. Wisconsin’s ceiling might be higher in 2025 than it was a year ago—but the floor? Still just as low if the young core doesn’t come along fast enough. They brought in a ton of new faces and are installing a brand-new offensive system, and they’ll need a couple of relative unknowns to step up and produce early. It’s a lot to ask, and there’s not much time to figure it out. But there is reason for cautious optimism.
So, what does success actually look like?
To me, five wins is the basement. Anything less, and you’re staring at a failed season, plain and simple. Six? That’s a solid step. Seven or more? That’s proof of concept. That would tell us something clicked.
Because this season isn’t just about numbers. It’s about whether Wisconsin plays with purpose, finishes, has a real blueprint for success on both sides of the ball, and stops leaving wins on the table.
Until then? What these Big Ten coaches said anonymously isn’t shade—it’s a reflection. And Wisconsin’s about to find out what’s staring back at them.
Fickell enters Year 3 at Wisconsin with a 12–13 record and an 8–10 mark in Big Ten play. That’s not a hot seat stat line—but it’s not exactly inspiring, either.
The questions haven’t gone anywhere. Is Billy Edwards Jr. the answer at quarterback? Can Mike Tressel actually build a defense capable of dictating how a game is going to be played instead of reacting? Will this staff’s portal additions mesh in time to matter? Can a young roster find its footing before the meat of the schedule hits? Plenty of questions.
We’ve seen glimpses of what this coaching staff is trying to build. We’ve seen strong recruiting. But good classes don’t mean much if the players don’t develop—or stick around long enough to see it through. And they definitely don’t buy you time when the scoreboard keeps coming up short.
At some point, the product has to validate the plan. The fanbase needs hope.
Because this league isn’t getting easier. The schedule’s unforgiving. And patience, fair or not, isn’t a luxury most fanbases hand out when things feel like they’re sliding. It’s on Fickell and his staff to give Wisconsin fans something real to believe in—something to point to and say, “There it is. That’s progress.” And the best way to do that? Start to win meaningful games.
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Excellent analysis and recognition of reality. We forgot three decades of achievement and paid the price for it. McIntosh says that the program is improved; obviously that is not the case on the field. This set of coaches can recruit, but they have yet to show they can coach and develop recruits. Five is the floor; seven is the ceiling.