Why one of Luke Fickell’s fellow Wisconsin coaches believes he is ‘misunderstood’
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MADISON — Wisconsin wrestling coach Chris Bono’s friendship and respect for UW football coach Luke Fickell, a former wrestler himself, is no secret.
“I love the man,” Bono said. “He’s misunderstood. He’s the best. He’s a family man. He’s a religious man. He likes to work out. He’s a wrestler at heart.”
So when Bono received a question at his weekly press conference Nov. 10 about his friend, the eighth-year wrestling coach gave an emphatic endorsement of the football coach who has fallen short of the program’s usual expectations in his third season in Madison.
“To see what he’s been going through and see him keep getting up every day and keep showing up is a testament to who he is,” Bono said. “And see his players believing in him — it’s a testament to what kind of coach he is and a leader.”
Asked specifically in the press conference about how Fickell is “misunderstood,” Bono says he reads “all the stuff you guys write.”
“He’s not going to be the one that says he’s doing things that people are saying he’s not,” Bono said. “My man’s here to win. My man’s recruiting. My man’s working hard. He’s doing everything possible. I’ll fight for him. I’ll stand up for him. And I’ll be behind him the whole way because I know how bad he wants to win, and I know how much he loves his kids and his athletes."
Fickell’s Badgers are 3-6 overall and 1-5 in Big Ten play. UW’s six-game losing streak included its first back-to-back shutout losses since 1977. The program is one loss away from ensuring back-to-back losing seasons for the first time since the early 1990s. Wisconsin football alumni have often expressed their frustration with the state of the program, and high school coaches have expressed mixed opinions of UW’s in-state recruiting.
Wisconsin’s 13-10 win over Washington — a team unranked in the US LBM Coaches Poll but ranked at the time in the Associated Press poll and College Football Playoff rankings — provided an oasis from the fan frustration of 2025 as the Camp Randall Stadium crowd rushed the field afterward.
“It doesn’t surprise me that those kids played that hard for him,” Bono said of the Nov. 8 game. “I’m with him a lot. I wish I had some eligibility because I’d go out there and I’d die for him.”
Fickell is well aware of the external expectations that are distant from what he has achieved in his third season at the helm in Madison — “everybody wants to win” — but he also “wouldn’t want it any other way.”
“If nobody was complaining or upset, then you probably would never have a good atmosphere inside that stadium, and you would never be able to sell it out,” Fickell said.
But the internal support — whether it be in Bono’s press conference or with athletic director Chris McIntosh and chancellor Jennifer Mnookin’s decision to retain him in 2026 — “go a long, long way in all that we’re doing,” Fickell said.
“I think more than anything, support is support,” Fickell said. “By nature, us wrestlers in some ways stick together, no matter what. But I think there’s a lot of support around here.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin wrestling's Chris Bono says Luke Fickell is 'misunderstood'
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