Badgers Football - 2025 Season - Fickell Back in 2026

[MikeIsGood]

Recruiting sites are such a paradox now. They're surely busier than ever with the amount of news each player generates - like 3x more than before, if not more. But who wants to follow any of it closely? What's the point?

[Kerb Hohl]

Seems like there's a bidding war for Latimer, the last remaining guy not to sign. It's hard for me to care much at all about signing day anymore, especially one where Fickell has to go all-in.

[ReasonablySober]

They lost their top RB commit to West Virginia.

[midranger]

They lost their top RB commit to West Virginia.

Spend all that money in the QB pool

[MVP2110]

Just an embarrassing signing day for Wisconsin. Lost their top 2 commits in the last week, only one composite 4 star guy and the 77th ranked class by the composite score. If Fickell can't recruit, cant develop, and cant outscheme other coaches then wth are we doing here

[MikeIsGood]

The key piece of info I still want to know when factoring in his performance holistically is what our player budget is, and how that compares to other schools. Because this is what he was supposed to be good at, and we even saw him be good at is in prior years. We had a rough year, but recruiting doesn't ebb THAT hard. Something just doesn't add up and I wonder if the $$$ is even worse than we'd expect.

[Kerb Hohl]

Just an embarrassing signing day for Wisconsin. Lost their top 2 commits in the last week, only one composite 4 star guy and the 77th ranked class by the composite score. If Fickell can't recruit, cant develop, and cant outscheme other coaches then wth are we doing here

I mean I could’ve told you this would happen 2 months ago. A lame duck coach that has been beaten down with a bunch of **** luck for a bad record isn’t going to be able to recruit HS players.

None of this matters right now. It’s a win now game - the plan is to hit the portal and if lightning doesn’t strike a 4th time at QB, we’ll have a nice record and stability to sell the next wave of ‘croots. If he struggles again, then the next guy can bring his 50+ new players with him anyways.

[Kerb Hohl]

Seems as though Latimer wanted a lot $ and to get on the field early. I think the 3 RBs they have are kind of undervalued. They’re fine with whoever stays out of those guys. Go spend elsewhere.

[trwi7]

Can we stop acting like he's nailed it in the portal for QBs? Even if Mordecai, Van Dyke and Edwards stay healthy, they're still not very good QBs. Certainly not going to make a difference in the Big Ten.

[BUCKnation]

Very uninspiring class going into a make or break year

[DingleJerry]

This season will be made or broke by the transfer portal anyway.

If this guy supposedly got close to a million, so be it. Generally speaking unless you have FU money like OSU/Bama that is poor allocation of money. Especially In UWs situation that money will be better spent on OL in the portal. We've seen it for years in college and NFL that running backs are not the key or indispensable, OL is. The guys UW had at RB this year are perfectly good if they had a respectable Oline. Money would also be better spent assuring they don't leave. I remember seeing something right before the main starter got hurt how someone was doing a breakdown film study type assessment of him independently and that he was actually really good but the OL was trash. The guy was basically saying he would fly completely under the portal radar due to bad stats, but whoever got him would be getting a steal (this was at the time it was assumed Fickel was gone).

[midranger]

This season will be made or broke by the transfer portal anyway.

If this guy supposedly got close to a million, so be it. Generally speaking unless you have FU money like OSU/Bama that is poor allocation of money. Especially In UWs situation that money will be better spent on OL in the portal. We've seen it for years in college and NFL that running backs are not the key or indispensable, OL is. The guys UW had at RB this year are perfectly good if they had a respectable Oline. Money would also be better spent assuring they don't leave. I remember seeing something right before the main starter got hurt how someone was doing a breakdown film study type assessment of him independently and that he was actually really good but the OL was trash. The guy was basically saying he would fly completely under the portal radar due to bad stats, but whoever got him would be getting a steal (this was at the time it was assumed Fickel was gone).

This 100%.

Similar to NFL teams not wasting 1sts on anything but transformative RBs, allocating a million to a freshman RB who has no proven track record and may leave in a year anyway, seems stupid.

Spend big on the OL and QB who can open holes and challenge defenses in the pass game and even mediocre RBs will feast.

[Kerb Hohl]

Can we stop acting like he's nailed it in the portal for QBs? Even if Mordecai, Van Dyke and Edwards stay healthy, they're still not very good QBs. Certainly not going to make a difference in the Big Ten.

Those guys absolutely make a difference over Locke and especially O'Neil/Simmons/Smith. It goes from a competent team/offense to, "lol this guy is an idiot do they not know how to do offense?"

[Kerb Hohl]

Very uninspiring class going into a make or break year

Granted, there was Posa and Catalano, but freshmen generally won't matter in a make or break season.

[MVP2110]

Read on Twitter

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[BUCKnation]

Very uninspiring class going into a make or break year

Granted, there was Posa and Catalano, but freshmen generally won't matter in a make or break season.

Yeah, I think the portal will be the real determinator. Like you said before, hard to sell an incoming freshman when you're on the hottest of seats.

[Kerb Hohl]

A good comparison for how just having a healthy QB can flip everything - potentially finding a good QB can make it very good.

Clark Lea won 2, 5, 2 games in his first 3 seasons with uninspiring HS recruiting classes. His QBs were of the Braedyn Locke variety.

Then he got Diego Pavia. His HS recruiting classes still weren't that good, but they won 7 games against a SEC gauntlet and 10 this year. Their recruiting class which was #79 in 2025 is now #31 in 2026 because the #1 HS QB wants to play for the coach, who is also getting interest from big-time programs.

Just get a healthy QB and some solid portal pickups in the trenches. It can change quickly.

[MickeyDavis]

A good comparison for how just having a healthy QB can flip everything - potentially finding a good QB can make it very good.

Clark Lea won 2, 5, 2 games in his first 3 seasons with uninspiring HS recruiting classes. His QBs were of the Braedyn Locke variety.

Then he got Diego Pavia. His HS recruiting classes still weren't that good, but they won 7 games against a SEC gauntlet and 10 this year. Their recruiting class which was #79 in 2025 is now #31 in 2026 because the #1 HS QB wants to play for the coach, who is also getting interest from big-time programs.

Just get a healthy QB and some solid portal pickups in the trenches. It can change quickly.

Combined with having Ohio State, Indiana, Oregon, Michigan, Illinois and Washington off the schedule.

[midranger]

I don’t necessarily want moderately successful P4 retreads like Edwards or Van Dyke, but let’s not pretend that moderately successful QBs aren’t wayyyyy better than Locke, O’Neil, Simmons, or Smith. We NEED to pay top dollar for a true difference maker at QB and then keep him healthy.

That’s so much more important than any incoming freshman or high school recruiting class

[midranger]

Honestly, I’m completely unbothered by the low ranked class. I like all the players they did get. Very few true freshmen contribute and half won’t be here next year anyway.