Badgers Football - 2025 Season - Fickell Back in 2026

[Kerb Hohl]

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

That is what is maddening about the general fanbase is that there's no slack given for having to play with one arm tied behind our backs for 2+ seasons.

I get it. They've sucked. But if Edwards was healthy, we may have 6 wins against this ridiculous schedule and wouldn't have had an absurd scoreless streak. Trech would have put up a nice season and it wouldn't be such a stretch to recruit WRs as it seems to be right now.

[trwi7]

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.

Diego Pavia is miles better than Mordecai, Van Dyke and Edwards. Nobody is arguing that we wouldn't be a lot better with Pavia. What I'm arguing is none of the three starting QBs we had the past few years are very good. Edwards didn't look good against Miami Ohio. What games are we winning this year that we didn't if he's our QB? Maybe Minnesota? What games are we winning last year with Van Dyke that we lost? Probably Oregon. Maybe make a case for Minnesota and Penn State but those ended up being 2 touchdown or more losses. We probably beat Indiana and Iowa the year before with Mordecai. So we gain like 5 wins over 3 years with our starting QBs That takes us from a 4 win team to a 5 win team this year, a 5 win team to a 7 win team last year and a 7 win team to a 9 win team.

It's not like we're going from no bowl to in the conversation for the Outback Bowl or some decent bowl game here. We're going from 4 wins to maybe we can sneak into a bowl game.

[midranger]

This year I think we beat Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, and push Indiana to the wire with a healthy Edwards. Hard to say with Iowa, but if Simmons doesn’t throw 3 completely terrible first quarter INTs, maybe that’s a different game. The reason he looked like crap against Miami of Ohio is because he played like 11 total snaps in a new system and his LT had literally the worst game of any OL I’ve ever seen.

[midranger]

Also, I’m hoping UW Admin actually does “get it” this year and we’re not signing the Mordecai,Van Dyke, and Edwards level guys. We need to pony up for a real, good QB, preferably with 2-3 years of eligibility left

[Kerb Hohl]

It's not like we're going from no bowl to in the conversation for the Outback Bowl or some decent bowl game here. We're going from 4 wins to maybe we can sneak into a bowl game.

With this schedule, I agree with your bottom quote.

Here's the secret: Almost nobody was going to do **** with this schedule. Transport the 2017 12-0 regular season team into this year and they win...7 games?

Making a bowl game in a season where you face @Alabama, Ohio State, @Michigan, Oregon, @Indiana and then oh by the way, you are facing 3 other fringe top 20 teams is roughly as impressive as a Chryst team winning 10 games and had to navigate going TO Iowa City as the toughest game on the schedule while beefing up on 2010s Illinois plus Rutgers and Purdue.

If we were coming off of 6 wins with Billy Edwards, we'd have proof of concept that we can have solid teams and good enough to sneak into the playoffs when the schedule gods are nicer to us or we hit the lottery by accidentally renting an excellent QB. That's about as good as Wisconsin football can be these days unless you know any billionaires that want to contribute.

[Kerb Hohl]

Also, I’m hoping UW Admin actually does “get it” this year and we’re not signing the Mordecai,Van Dyke, and Edwards level guys. We need to pony up for a real, good QB, preferably with 2-3 years of eligibility left

I have feeling it's gonna be a one year guy again. I guess if the guy is willing to go to the highest bidder again, great. But I'm not sure a big $ QB with 2-3 years of eligibility left is going to want to hitch his wagon to Fickell, who will be gone 6 games into the season if he himself struggles.

[midranger]

Colton Joseph would be a good fit in this offense and was a sophomore last year. Drew Mestemaker another option.

[MVP2110]

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.

Diego Pavia is miles better than Mordecai, Van Dyke and Edwards. Nobody is arguing that we wouldn't be a lot better with Pavia. What I'm arguing is none of the three starting QBs we had the past few years are very good. Edwards didn't look good against Miami Ohio. What games are we winning this year that we didn't if he's our QB? Maybe Minnesota? What games are we winning last year with Van Dyke that we lost? Probably Oregon. Maybe make a case for Minnesota and Penn State but those ended up being 2 touchdown or more losses. We probably beat Indiana and Iowa the year before with Mordecai. So we gain like 5 wins over 3 years with our starting QBs That takes us from a 4 win team to a 5 win team this year, a 5 win team to a 7 win team last year and a 7 win team to a 9 win team.

It's not like we're going from no bowl to in the conversation for the Outback Bowl or some decent bowl game here. We're going from 4 wins to maybe we can sneak into a bowl game.

He played 2 series in 1 game, there is no way we can judge a full season based of 2 series. The team wasn't good this year but if we have a fully healthy BEJ instead of the DON/Simmons/Smith disaster we probably are much more optimistic about this team given their schedule

[coolhandluke121]

A better QB doesn't necessarily play better every game. There would be a handful of games where Edwards, Mordecai, or Van Dyke might have played worse than the backup, possibly even turning a win into a loss. I agree that the record would be a little better, but I think Fickell is actually lucky that his QBs have gotten hurt because it's a ready-made excuse for a team that has been a mess in almost all areas, not just at QB.

What position group has shown any signs of improvement under Fickell? The front 7 got better this year, but the secondary has gotten much worse in his time here, cancelling that out. The OL still sucks, Anthony remains the only WR whose name I will even remember 5 years from now, the RBs are trash by any Big Ten standards, let alone Wisconsin standards, and special teams is all over the place.

For years, the team has had trouble even making defensive substitutions without getting penalized for having too many men on the field. What does that have to do with the QB? UW is often one of the least-disciplined teams in the conference lately, after decades of us being able to take it granted that UW would punch above their weight by minimizing turnovers, penalties, and other undisciplined errors. There's also no vision or chemistry between the head coach and the offensive coordinators, resulting in absolutely diabolical schemes that make no sense for anyone, regardless of how many QBs are hurt.

[MVP2110]

A better QB doesn't necessarily play better every game. There would be a handful of games where Edwards, Mordecai, or Van Dyke might have played worse than the backup, possibly even turning a win into a loss. I agree that the record would be a little better, but I think Fickell is actually lucky that his QBs have gotten hurt because it's a ready-made excuse for a team that has been a mess in almost all areas, not just at QB.

What position group has shown any signs of improvement under Fickell? The front 7 got better this year, but the secondary has gotten much worse in his time here, cancelling that out. The OL still sucks, Anthony remains the only WR whose name I will even remember 5 years from now, the RBs are trash by any Big Ten standards, let alone Wisconsin standards, and special teams is all over the place.

For years, the team has had trouble even making defensive substitutions without getting penalized for having too many men on the field. What does that have to do with the QB? UW is often one of the least-disciplined teams in the conference lately, after decades of us being able to take it granted that UW would punch above their weight by minimizing turnovers, penalties, and other undisciplined errors. There's also no vision or chemistry between the head coach and the offensive coordinators, resulting in absolutely diabolical schemes that make no sense for anyone, regardless of how many QBs are hurt.

I think it's fair to say Fickell has been bad and he's been put into a bad situation. I do wish he got one year with a fully healthy starting QB so we could compare. But even if trwi's win guesses were correct(9, 7, 5 instead of 7,5,4) I dont think Fickell would be near the hot seat yet. 9 wins might have won the west in its final year, 7 would have been dissapointing but kept the bowl streak alive, and this year had a gauntlet of a schedule that I think he would have been mostly given a pass for. People would be dissapointed but I think large part of the fan base would be fine with him still

[Kerb Hohl]

I feel like we're at the same point as Gard after his first few seasons when he had a really unlucky year when half of his team went down and they were rebuilding anyways (2017-2018) and then again when he was without a very important player in Potter for half of the season in 2019-2020, they also sucked, with all of the Kobe King stuff going on...but then a really good player was eligible and suddenly the good coach had a good team for the back half of that season.

"Look at all of those losses." *Waves hands* "Nobody is improving." People like to narrative-fit to match the frustrating results.

The difference is that I can't go to bat as much for Fickell because I haven't gotten to see some actual success, but I'd say there may be a good group of RBs, LBs, and some promising linemen but it's hard to judge anybody on offense because it's such a trainwreck without any semblance of a Power 4 QB and having to play a playoff team every other week of the season. I think the RBs may be pretty good next year. The defense is good, though they need to replace a bunch in the portal.

[MVP2110]

Pittsburgh replaced on next years schedule with Eastern Michigan

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[Kerb Hohl]

Hell yes - finally a smart decision.

[MVP2110]

Fwiw sounds like this was because of the ACC moving to 9 games, this came from Pittsburgh's side, not from Wisconsin

[MickeyDavis]

The days of good non conference games is coming to an end for everyone.

[MVP2110]

The days of good non conference games is coming to an end for everyone.

Fwiw, Wisconsin still has some decent non conference games on their schedule for awhile

2026- Notre Dame @ Lambeau
2027- Pittsburgh in Dublin
2028- vs Utah
2029- @ Cal
2030- vs Cal
2031- Virginia Tech in Charlotte
2032- vs Virginia Tech
2033- @ Utah

[MickeyDavis]

Yeah games are scheduled pretty far out. Alabama booted their game with UCF for next year several years down the road. Not that UCF is a power but they've been pretty good. Bama replaced them with Chattanooga. With conference schedules expanding teams don't want to risk non conference losses.

[trwi7]

Iowa State and Kansas State turned down bowls so they will take a couple 5-7 teams based on APR and Wisconsin is ranked higher in APR than the three teams that are being considered so the Minnesota loss cost us a bowl game.