Wisconsin Coach Luke Fickell: another hot seat opponent
NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...
For some publications, it doesn’t get much hotter than at Wisconsin
November 7, Camp-Randall Stadium, Madison, WI. Rutgers visiting the Badgers.
Who will be coaching the home team?
Greg previewed that home team the other day.
According to ESPN, Luke Fickell occupies one of the hottest coaching seats in all of football.
The Badgers open with Notre Dame at Lambeau Field. Regardless of anything else, that is pretty cool. Will it be enough for Wisconsin to beat a possible top-5 ranked Irish squad? Will it be the start of a spiral for the beleaguered Fickell?
After the Irish, Wisconsin hosts Western Illinois and Eastern Michigan, two “breathers”. Before traveling to State College. But, in truth, the Badgers’ schedule is not horrific, and in all likelihood – from my perspective – Fickell will be facing Rutgers in that early November match up.
With the exception of two years as the defensive line coach at Akron, all of Fickell’s experience is with Ohio State. Including as a player. Okay, one year with the Saints doesn’t really count. Come on, until Wisconsin, he barely left the state of Ohio!
Fickell is only 52, and has been at Wisconsin for three full seasons. The hot seat label comes from his 17-21 record in Madison; he’s only had one winning season with the Badgers. Before the Badgers took him in, Fickell was the highly successful coach at Cincinnati, where he was 57-18, putting the Bearcats in five bowl games, outright winning the American Athletic Conference three times. To me, a pretty worthy candidate to hire. And a victim of his own success.
That success now seems to be his Achilles Heel. A factoid I did not know is that Fickell was the head coach at Ohio State in 2011; he was going to be the interim while Jim Tressel served his five-game NCAA suspension for recruiting violations. But, Tressel resigned and Fickell coached the Buckeyes to a 6-6 record, ultimately leading to Urban Meyer’s hiring. Fickell stayed on the staff, being a part of the national championship in 2014; another gold star on the resume. And that took him to Cincinnati in 2017, which led to six different coach of the year awards in 2021 to go with his three AAC Coach of the Year Awards and his AFCA Assistant Coach of the Year Award from 2010.
Man, did he ever look good on paper! And, in truth, on the sideline. Why wouldn’t Wisconsin take him? But the success at Cincinnati has not translated to the same at Wisconsin. His four years there have been very disappointing. He has been hammered for a lack of connection (video) with alumni and high school coaches. Although he did get somesupport from former head coach and AD Barry Alvarez, as fans were chanting Fire Fickell early last season.
Fickell wants to stay at Wisconsin. In the midst of last year’s downward spiral, his AD actually gave him a choice of whether he wanted to stay. After thinking on it over night, he told his boss, “There’s nothing I would rather do than pull ourselves out of where we are.”
Rutgers is 0-6 vs Wisconsin all time, with all games played as members of the Big Ten. The last contest was in 2024 when the Badgers won, 42-7, and giving Fickell a 2-0 record against Rutgers/Schiano. Is Fickell coaching for his job? Did he plateau at Cincinnati? Will he be on the Camp-Randall sideline on November 7?
We’ll see on November 7.
More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos