GT: Bucky at Bama - 9/13/25 - 11:00 - ABC

[TroyD92]

It's not really me saying this team can never be competitive, but the ceiling is pretty clear and the floor year to year is a lot lower.

[MickeyDavis]

T.E.A.M.

[MVP2110]

Fwiw Illinois lost 38-9 to Oregon last year, and by 2 TDs to Penn St. The only ranked teams they played. Indiana lost by 23 to Ohio St & 10 by Notre Dame. They got easy schedules last year and took advantage of it

[PintSizedBox10]

Can they forfeit for the sake of player health

[Kerb Hohl]

Oh for ****’s sale I don’t want to hear we don’t have NIL money and we’re in Wisconsin and all that garbage. UCLA looks like garbage in Southern California. A recruiting hot bed with endorsement possibilities galore. Texas Texh, Iowa State, Illinois, Indiana and Utah are ranked off the top of my head. Those are far less desirable locations than Madison without huge NIL budgets and histories far worse than Wisconsin.

Tuscaloosa sucks as a city but is close to a bunch of NFL talent.

It’s not a knock on the state of Wisconsin’s livability. It’s the fact that Georgia, Ohio, Florida, etc have literally thousands more college football players than the state of Wisconsin’s HS programs and it’s not like Minnesota or Iowa or most of Illinois has much else if we poach from there.

Indiana, Illinois, etc in your list would get their dicks kicked in by most of the juggernauts on our schedule. The key is trying to avoid facing such teams. Illinois is our hope for the next decade. Get a favorable schedule randomly, be an OK team, win some close games, have 9 wins, pretend you’re actually kinda good.

[TroyD92]

Oh for ****’s sale I don’t want to hear we don’t have NIL money and we’re in Wisconsin and all that garbage. UCLA looks like garbage in Southern California. A recruiting hot bed with endorsement possibilities galore. Texas Texh, Iowa State, Illinois, Indiana and Utah are ranked off the top of my head. Those are far less desirable locations than Madison without huge NIL budgets and histories far worse than Wisconsin.

Tuscaloosa sucks as a city but is close to a bunch of NFL talent.

It’s not a knock on the state of Wisconsin’s livability. It’s the fact that Georgia, Ohio, Florida, etc have literally thousands more college football players than the state of Wisconsin’s HS programs and it’s not like Minnesota or Iowa or most of Illinois has much else if we poach from there.

I was going to bring up Notre Dame or Ohio State as counter examples, but Ohio produces an insane amount of football players and Notre Dame has built inroads at basically every Catholic private school in the country.

[Ryan5UW]

T.E.A.M.

I have an irrational amount of hate for that **** vest

[humanrefutation]

Too many missteps at key junctions got us to this point.

Chryst collapsing our recruiting division.
Fickell picking Longo as OC.
Fickell/Longo collapsing our previous recruiting networks to chase talent we didn't have in Wisconsin to play a system that ultimately didn't work.

While we also had bad luck with our transfer QB injuries, we were unable to develop an effective QB program here because we relied on transfer QBs and had to pivot to three different offensive systems in four years.

Of course, the cardinal sin may be hiring Fickell. He had an excellent reputation coming here, and it was a widely celebrated hire. But while you can pin many of the offensive struggles on Longo failing, I'm not sure we can say that Fickell/Tressell has developed a brilliant defense, either. And that's their alleged forte.

To be fair, I'm not sure Leonhard or Rhule would've been the right guy, either.

[Kerb Hohl]

I was one of the people with the lowest excitement about the Fickell hire when it happened but still was good with it. About the only blame there is imo is that maybe hiring a cheaper coach might’ve left more booster money for the roster.

Otherwise, I’m a broken record - nobody is winning these games with our talent available.

Iowa was Wisconsin Lite and kept legendary Kirk Ferentz on staff. When they face OSU and the like these days, they also look like they shouldn’t be on the same field. I think Fickell could get them to Iowa/Illinois/Minnesota territory where an easy schedule and some luck may get them 8 wins…I don’t think anybody is going to care.

The QB/OT injury luck and schedule have made things look even worse.

[tski1972]

Fickell can take McIntosh with him. Both stink.

[MikeIsGood]

T.E.A.M.

I have an irrational amount of hate for that **** vest

It's so **** corny. It would be corny 13-0 or 0-13. Row the boat bull.

[MickeyDavis]

Read on Twitter

[Iheartfootball]

Read on Twitter

Inspiring/green

[MickeyDavis]

Read on Twitter

[Kerb Hohl]

I don’t think he’s done a masterful job with the roster or anything but it really sucks we can’t even tell because the guy never gets his QB, this year the OT.

[midranger]

I’ve come to the realization that the program was in shambles when he took over. So I’m willing to give some time. I like a lot of the guys he’s recruited out of HS, but they’re still just RS or true freshmen (or JR in the case of Alliegro)

I don’t think he’s done a great job or anything, but you can only fix so much each year.

We had no scholarship QB (literally zero) left and the guys he brought in to start have gotten hurt early now 3 years in a row.

Zero impact DL. Zero depth behind a couple JAGs.

LB were a couple UDFA ILB, zero edge talent. No depth.

Secondary was weak at CB, but S was set.

OL had a 7th round OT, a couple JAGs, and zero depth.

RB was Brae (very good, usually hurt), Mellusi (okay, always hurt) and zero depth.

WR was actually a solid room. They chased all those guys off and spent significant resources on some JAGs. Huge mistake in year 1.

Not a single good TE on the roster. Certainly no depth.

It was a **** show. The schedule stiffening up doesn’t help. I don’t think many coaches were coming in and having us compete with elite programs in true road games in year 3. If we’re getting completely thrashed by Maryland, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Washington, and Minnesota in the coming weeks, that’s a huge problem. Heck, I’d even like to see us keep it close vs Michigan. But this bama road loss doesn’t change my perspective too much. Nor will the ensuing OSU and Oregon beat downs. They have almost always been at a different level than us.

[Kerb Hohl]

I’ve come to the realization that the program was in shambles when he took over. So I’m willing to give some time. I like a lot of the guys he’s recruited out of HS, but they’re still just RS or true freshmen (or JR in the case of Alliegro)

I don’t think he’s done a great job or anything, but you can only fix so much each year.

We had no scholarship QB (literally zero) left and the guys he brought in to start have gotten hurt early now 3 years in a row.

Zero impact DL. Zero depth behind a couple JAGs.

LB were a couple UDFA ILB, zero edge talent. No depth.

Secondary was weak at CB, but S was set.

OL had a 7th round OT, a couple JAGs, and zero depth.

RB was Brae (very good, usually hurt), Mellusi (okay, always hurt) and zero depth.

WR was actually a solid room. They chased all those guys off and spent significant resources on some JAGs. Huge mistake in year 1.

Not a single good TE on the roster. Certainly no depth.

It was a **** show. The schedule stiffening up doesn’t help. I don’t think many coaches were coming in and having us compete with elite programs in true road games in year 3. If we’re getting completely thrashed by Maryland, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Washington, and Minnesota in the coming weeks, that’s a huge problem. Heck, I’d even like to see us keep it close vs Michigan. But this bama road loss doesn’t change my perspective too much. Nor will the ensuing OSU and Oregon beat downs. They have almost always been at a different level than us.

I don't really have much connection to Fickell. I didn't have as high of expectations as many, but I've become the defender of him because I think think people didn't realize the impossibility of consistent success in the new era.

That said, one of the things you mention - There are probably a lot of other coaches that could do fine given a chance, but I don't want him fired because I don't want another empty cupboard when maybe we have a chance with a manageable schedule. Hopefully we can take some continuity into a year where we don't get 5+ juggernauts on the schedule vs. starting over. I know Indiana hit the ground running, but it's possible we can't.

By the way, how much would it cost to buy out of the Lambeau Notre Dame game? Asking for a friend.

[midranger]

I don’t give 2 **** about Fick personally. He could be any nameless, faceless coach who had success at a prior stop. Doesn’t matter to me at all. I don’t want him fired because then you start the death spiral of multiple coaches into 12 years of terrible play like Nebraska or Michigan or Minnesota or whatever. Let him take the lumps, let his guys become upperclassmen and see where the program is then. If it still sucks, certainly cut bait. But giving him three years to resurrect a sinking ship against our toughest schedules ever? Just short sighted and harmful long term. Next year is probably his make or break year, tbh. The following season (2027) has playoff potential if the guys who look good now as RS and True Freshman are still around and develop well.

I think a lot of people hate Fick because he’s not Jim Leonhard. However, I also think the program was a complete disaster by the end of the Chryst/Leonhard run. Jimmy took over DC of a team that had won 10+ games the three years prior to his arrival. Immediately won 13 with the prior guy’s insane talent. 4 years later, we went 7-6 having played only 1 ranked team that beat us 52-21 and left no defensive talent behind.

He co-piloted us into the mountain with Chryst.

[MVP2110]

I don’t give 2 **** about Fick personally. He could be any nameless, faceless coach who had success at a prior stop. Doesn’t matter to me at all. I don’t want him fired because then you start the death spiral of multiple coaches into 12 years of terrible play like Nebraska or Michigan or Minnesota or whatever. Let him take the lumps, let his guys become upperclassmen and see where the program is then. If it still sucks, certainly cut bait. But giving him three years to resurrect a sinking ship against our toughest schedules ever? Just short sighted and harmful long term. Next year is probably his make or break year, tbh.

I think a lot of people hate Fick because he’s not Jim Leonhard. However, I also think the program was a complete disaster by the end of the Chryst/Leonhard run. Jimmy took over DC of a team that had won 10+ games the three years prior to his arrival. Immediately won 13 with the prior guy’s insane talent. 4 years later, we went 7-6 having played only 1 ranked team that beat us 52-21 and left no defensive talent behind.

He co-piloted us into the mountain with Chryst.

I think this is pretty spot on. It's fair to say the first few years of the Fickell era have been underwhelming. But I think College Football more than most sports requires patience. I'm willing to give Fickell through next season and if we haven't shown real progress by that point then we can move on, but moving on now means another 3-4 years of rebuilding from the ground floor

[Kerb Hohl]

I don’t give 2 **** about Fick personally. He could be any nameless, faceless coach who had success at a prior stop. Doesn’t matter to me at all. I don’t want him fired because then you start the death spiral of multiple coaches into 12 years of terrible play like Nebraska or Michigan or Minnesota or whatever. Let him take the lumps, let his guys become upperclassmen and see where the program is then. If it still sucks, certainly cut bait. But giving him three years to resurrect a sinking ship against our toughest schedules ever? Just short sighted and harmful long term. Next year is probably his make or break year, tbh.

I think a lot of people hate Fick because he’s not Jim Leonhard. However, I also think the program was a complete disaster by the end of the Chryst/Leonhard run. Jimmy took over DC of a team that had won 10+ games the three years prior to his arrival. Immediately won 13 with the prior guy’s insane talent. 4 years later, we went 7-6 having played only 1 ranked team that beat us 52-21 and left no defensive talent behind.

He co-piloted us into the mountain with Chryst.

I was the defender of basically every previous coach in the context of how Wisconsin will win - so I will say they all were good coaches and I don't want to do the, "they got lucky" sort of thing.

But that run of TJ Watt, Cichy, Beigel, Schobert, Edwards, Orr, Baun, Herbig, Chenal, etc. etc. etc. involved some luck...we had a great system of recruit a big volume of developmental players and develop 'em up...but getting several early draft picks on every defense to create havoc on a defense that can beat the crap out of Illinois and Purdue 9 times/year was a bit lucky...there are only so many times you can find a walk-on out of a Milwaukee suburb that turns into a 2nd round NFL pick. As far as I can tell, none of those guys slipped away and are dominating elsewhere, other than McDonald who we recruited other guys in front of and he did well at ISU, now in the NFL.

Once that pipeline dried up, the portal started kicking in, and a few years later, NIL...that was all she wrote. Running the hubris "Wisconsin way" 2019-2022ish, "we'll make our own superstars and depth" definitely drove us toward the mountain, as you say.