Luke Fickell, Wisconsin 'got to show progress' in 2026, CBS analyst says

CHICAGO – Rick Neuheisel’s first game as a college football head coach was in a familiar setting.

Neuheisel was born in Madison in 1961, and his Colorado Buffaloes opened the 1995 season against Wisconsin at Camp Randall Stadium.

So broadcasters Brent Musburger and Dick Vermeil saw the sights with Neuheisel’s parents, and they went past what was once called Madison General Hospital.

“My mom said, ‘Well, that’s where Ricky was born,’” Neuheisel said. “And my dad pointed over to this Cadillac and said, ‘And that’s where he was conceived.’”

All jokes aside, the Madison native now has a different vantage point on Wisconsin football as one of CBS Sports’ college football studio analysts. Neuheisel sees the Badgers at an inflection point in Luke Fickell’s fourth season as head coach.

“To me, Luke is sitting there going, ‘We’ve got to find a way,’” Neuheisel said. “And it’s a manageable schedule. But we’ve got to find a way to win confidence back by getting ourselves to postseason. So it seems to me it’s against the clock.”

“But at the end of the day, no one seems to care,” Neuheisel said. “It’s about ‘what have you done for me.’ And even though Luke’s résumé speaks for itself, you got to find a way to win. … They got to show progress this year.”

The good news for Wisconsin? Neuheisel – a former UCLA quarterback before coaching at Colorado, Washington and UCLA – has been impressed with Wisconsin quarterback Colton Joseph, who transferred from Old Dominion.

Joseph’s running ability, Neuheisel said, “lends itself to exactly what Luke and Jeff Grimes want to do offensively.”

“I think his legs will be the most important piece to the Wisconsin offense this year,” Neuheisel said. “Because if his legs can churn out yards, whether they’re scripted or unscripted, it will help immeasurably force defenses into a box, which will make a passing game that much easier.”

For as much hope as Joseph can give, though, Fickell still faces a challenging reality after going 10-17 in Big Ten games in his first three seasons. (Fickell is not shying away from the realization that he’s on the “hot seat” in 2026.)

Neuheisel’s perspective from the outside looking in is that Fickell and ex-Wisconsin athletic director Chris McIntosh apparently thought they “had to change the paradigm of Wisconsin football even though it had been hugely successful.”

“We can’t just win the West and call it a good year,” Neuheisel said. “We’re going to have to catch up with everybody.”

Wisconsin’s Air Raid offense in 2023 and 2024 was one of the most glaring issues in the first two seasons of the Fickell era. UW ultimately parted with offensive coordinator Phil Longo in 2024.

“They didn’t have the personnel for it,” Neuheisel said. “The wide receiver position – I remember vividly watching a game against Northwestern. No one was getting open. … That experiment failed.”

Wisconsin’s injury misfortune – with Billy Edwards Jr. in 2025, Tyler Van Dyke in 2024 and Tanner Mordecai in 2023 – also has been a factor. Neuheisel is familiar with that as a coach who “couldn’t keep a quarterback healthy” at UCLA.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Luke Fickell, Wisconsin 'got to show progress' in 2026, CBS analyst says