What is Luke Fickell most excited for about Year 4 at Wisconsin?

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It’s safe to say the Wisconsin Badgers haven’t had the best three years to start the Luke Fickell era. The Badgers have gone 17-21, including 10-17 in the Big Ten. They saw a 22-year bowl streak snapped. And the program had its worst year they had since 1990.

But the outlook is trending up for the Badgers ahead of the 2026 season, as they got a bump in resources to use in the transfer portal, which resulted in a transfer class that had 33 additions. That, paired with an easier schedule on paper, has the Badgers primed for a big bounce-back season this year, as Fickell looks to right the ship after signing a seven-year contract back in 2022.

It’s certainly a crucial year for the Badgers head coach, who has much to prove, perhaps more than any coach in the country. So, what is he most looking forward to in 2026?

“There’s a lot of things that we haven’t done,” Fickell said with a smile as he kicked off spring ball less than two weeks ago. “And I kind of said to the guys the other day, walked into the locker room, and there’s a lot of construction going on here. And I saw the locker room is basically gutted, you know, and our guys are in the south end zone in the visiting locker room.

“And it kind of, to me, was like, okay, regardless of what’s happened the last 3 years, it’s kind of like, ‘hey, we got to start anew.’ And I’m not saying you want to do that every single year. There’s still things that you build upon, but it’s like, hey, okay, no matter what has happened in the past, like this is a new opportunity for this group of guys. We learned a lot from where we’ve been. But we also learned a lot of the gaps we got to be able to close. And so to me, I’m most excited about, hey, can we bring this thing together? We’ve got, I think, some core crux nucleus of leadership that has seen some of the struggles that we’ve had. And I think it’s going to make us who we are.”

Last year was a taxing year for both Fickell and the Badgers team. That was especially seen during the team’s brutal six-week loss in the middle of the season, but we saw the team turn the page late in the year with ranked wins over the Washington Huskies and the Illinois Fighting Illini.

Now, let’s see if they can build off that with their buzzing offseason to get Wisconsin back on track in 2026.

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