Badgers Football - 2025 Season

[humanrefutation]

I still think that there's a chance they'll can Fickell. If they lose out - which seems likely at this point - I can't imagine they'll bring him back after a 2 win season. Even considering the cost.

[Kerb Hohl]

I generally have takes on the system as a whole, and I think I had this one out there a few years ago.

The number of coaching changes going forward is going to be hilarious. Already a huge number this offseason.

College football pre-NIL/portal, you probably had 20 teams truly trying in a given year. Now you've got 50. And they're all scheduled against each other a lot more. This is all fun for the average fan. But somebody has to lose these games. Other than Vandy or Indiana types that are rising, it's almost a guarantee your program will fall well below expectations in a 3-5 year patch. Be it a rough Penn State run, a schedule that is impossible for Florida, a Wisconsin death spiral.

I understand why UW fans are mad (duh) and they should be, but I don't know if anybody is ready for the fact that 95% of programs are going to fall below what they are used to for some stretch of time in this new system.

[MickeyDavis]

Expanding the playoffs to 12 teams has given fans of many teams some hope. And they see what a former dumpster program like Indiana has done and it gives them hope. And less patience. "If Indiana can do it why can't we?" College playoffs are more top heavy than the NFL but being top 12 and you have a shot at a title.

[Kerb Hohl]

Yeah, college football is fun as a general fan right now. There's randomness and parity at the top.

We used to have 5-10 superpowers and Wisconsin would just strategically play the part of the Brewers of, "we'll spend to that next tier and be smart about it for consistent success." There were a lot of major programs barely trying.

Now there are 40-50 teams that are trying to win to some degree. There's 10-20 at the top that will generally be the good ones, but unless something changes, I don't think we're in that 10-20 and even if we were, it wouldn't be an every season thing.

[Ryan5UW]

I don't know how legit this is or not, but if true... yikes!

Read on Twitter

[Kerb Hohl]

I don't know how legit this is or not, but if true... yikes!

Read on Twitter

I'm not sure how to feel about this now, because basically starting in Chryst's final 2 years, the 4-5 star guys have left for $ (probably). The in-state talent is absolute garbage outside of some of those guys.

Probably still needs to be the long-term strategy but I'm not sure there are many guys that didn't go to helmet schools that he's missed out on so far. Other than Roy at MN who supposedly moved to WI at the very end.

Would be good to have the alumni around and such, though.

[ReasonablySober]

Read on Twitter

Thought this was interesting from a national perspective. About 3:30 to 5:30, so not long. What McIntosh did by releasing that statement was shift the attention from Fickell to himself. Like the guys here said Wisconsin made the choice to make the great hire in Fickell, then not give him the resources to do the job. As one guy said, Fickell probably keeps his job; it's McIntosh who should be worried now.

[DingleJerry]

Spoiler:

Read on Twitter

Thought this was interesting from a national perspective. About 3:30 to 5:30, so not long. What McIntosh did by releasing that statement was shift the attention from Fickell to himself. Like the guys here said Wisconsin made the choice to make the great hire in Fickell, then not give him the resources to do the job. As one guy said, Fickell probably keeps his job; it's McIntosh who should be worried now.

That's fair. however, I'd add that part of the hire when they did it is they said they were doing all that back then. And now they're saying they're going to do it now. The talk was the Fickell hire was to change to the new world, he was the guy to handle it properly and could recruit for it and that they were gonna provide the resources to do it. As evidenced by his huge pay which was a massive increase from previous coaches. And now they say, we actually didn't do it then but we are going to do that now. So what's really true?

My best guess is they did do increases back then and were generally being honest. however, their assessment/plan was not enough and have since realized the increases they did were still not enough. Thus, the AD/Coach both failed at their jobs they are being paid millions to do. So now the plan is to trust them to get right this time, while spending/asking for even more money. But that also gets to the question of was that statement more or less PR BS or will there be any changes? I'd guess not much will really be changed and they're just trying to run the clock out on the buyout, get to easier schedule and just hope that he hasn't completely checked out or forgotten how to coach.

Regardless, even if those increases weren't enough to be legit good there is no reason the team is this embarrassingly bad. That comes down to actual football coaching/training/managing and that has been absolutely horrible to not just have basic competency on the field. Most non crazies are not delusional to think say PSU level the last 8ish years is realistic, we are just asking to not suck and be godawful

ETA: and if you remember some post of mine from a few weeks ago on the behind the scenes. The more I hear its only gotten worse. It really seems like a lost cause, lost locker room, and complete no confidence in the coach situation. Just no discipline or respect anywhere. As I think I said previously, I see the logic and how it really makes sense to try to give one more year. But it really does seem like sunk cost fallacy and this point where you have no choice

[midranger]

Our last 10 games vs P4 teams?

Record: 0-10
Cumulative Score: 314-102
Average margin of defeat: 21 points

[DingleJerry]

Our last 10 games vs P4 teams?

Record: 0-10
Cumulative Score: 314-102
Average margin of defeat: 21 points

I had a random wow the other day looking at standings and saw Points For = 20. In four games they've scored 20 pts. Next closest is Pur at 64. And NW at 72.

And side note, NW is 3-1 and 5-2 overall while WI people are saying its impossible for us to compete in the new world. Chances are that'll crash for them a bit by end of the year but the point is they have basic competency/mediocrity.

[BUCKnation]

Going back 3 years, who would’ve thought Fickell would be the one floundering while Gard is thriving

[MikeIsGood]

Our last 10 games vs P4 teams?

Record: 0-10
Cumulative Score: 314-102
Average margin of defeat: 21 points

I had a random wow the other day looking at standings and saw Points For = 20. In four games they've scored 20 pts. Next closest is Pur at 64. And NW at 72.

Dude

[ampd]

Going back 3 years, who would’ve thought Fickell would be the one floundering while Gard is thriving

The moment the words air raid were spoken, this was always going to be a disaster

[ReasonablySober]

Mandel:

Your column on Monday ends with saying that all Penn State, Florida and LSU’s ADs need to do is “win the hiring lottery.” Fair. With that being said, if I’m a Wisconsin/ Auburn AD, am I better off waiting one more year for a coaching change and having better “odds” in the hiring lottery next year when I’m not competing with all these elite programs? — Karl T.

If you’re Auburn, absolutely. Why go into a market where you’re, at best, the third-best job open in the SEC? And frankly not at any big advantage over Arkansas. I realize a lot of Tigers fans are done with Hugh Freeze, but surely they can admit he’s been extremely unlucky this season. Also, it’s the kind of place where Jordan-Hare will still be packed next season, whether or not Freeze finishes 7-5 or 5-7 this year.

Wisconsin feels different to me. Luke Fickell’s program has become an embarrassment. The Badgers are 2-6 and have scored one touchdown in the last three games. Unless they rise up and shock Indiana in a few weeks, I cannot fathom how you bring him back. If you do, there may be 40,000 empty seats at Camp Randall for next year’s opener.

Also, the one thing Wisconsin will have going for it, even in an overcrowded market, is its unique culture with an unflashy, blue-collar identity. You don’t need to hire a big name. They should have a wide pool of logical candidates — Lance Leipold, Chris Klieman, Jeff Monken, any number of Group of 5 or FCS coaches who like to run the damn ball — that other Power 4 schools might not even be interested in.

But Wisconsin may be one exception among schools that haven’t yet opened. Even if the rest of Oklahoma’s season goes south, this is not a great year to pull the plug on Brent Venables. You, too, Baylor, Michigan State, Maryland, and most of all, Kentucky. If you fire Mark Stoops, your most successful coach since Bear Bryant, to go and compete in a carousel with a dozen other P4 schools, you will be sentencing yourself to a curse of mediocrity that lasts even longer than Nebraska’s post-Frank Solich.

[Kerb Hohl]

I don't really care either way - I realize that even with all of the bad luck, obviously it goes beyond that with how they've looked under Fickell and they probably should fire him.

There are going to be 40k empty seats (per Mandel's story) no matter what. Lance Leipold and his uninspiring record at Kansas other than that one year isn't going to spur thousands of season ticket purchases. Beating a bunch of mediocre/bad teams is the lifeblood of this program. We [hopefully] have that on the schedule again next year. Even Fickell might be able to do it if he has money to retain some of the promising younger players.

[DingleJerry]

Pretty much every logic/logistical thing points to trying to give him one more year. Problem is they look so completely inept or incompetent out there that you might not have a choice. Losing this year was fine to me, but just look competent rather than embarrassing doing it. Perhaps last week was a sign that the team hasn't quit on the coaches. And in general that the coaches haven't checked out too. When I saw so many kids sitting out injured last week I thought it might be a sign that they've more or less quit, but then they played maybe their best game of the year.

Also, if I'm Auburn I'd hold tight for sure. Assuming they make a bowl and don't get just trounced in every game. They've been right there in every game and Auburn is in a tough spot right now. More or less, the same logic we're saying on UW applies there but they also look like a real team every week so give it another year. Which is what I'm trying to talk myself into for UW too

[Kerb Hohl]

I have just been yoyoing the whole time and I realize I'm on an island at this point. My issue is that while there has been a pretty obvious poor performance beyond the luck stuff, 2023 (cleaning up Chryst iffy roster left), 2024/2025 (impossible schedule) were never going to go all that well. Obviously, it would be more like 8-7-6 wins in order based on schedule. Then you throw in the QB injuries and I think even if Fickell was doing things at an average level we'd miss a bowl or two over his first 3 years.

My problem is that even if it's clear he's a lame duck/hard to recruit/hard to hire assistants and has shown crap performance in other areas, we're going to go through another 2 years of, "gotta clean up Fickell's mess" with limited resources because they have to buy out Fickell. This is precisely the time that if they had a modest amount of wins against the impossible schedule we'd maybe reap the rewards. Heywood/Mandell on the line, the 3 good/solid RBs, the good young LBs. These guys aren't necessarily sure-fire 1st round picks, but I guess this would've been the taking off point and I'd maybe rather see that vs. a new coach rebuilding for 2-3 years and ballin' on a budget.

Maybe the next guy can keep the promising players and knock it out of the park like Cignetti in the portal. I doubt it with the budgetary stuff.

[ReasonablySober]

There's really nothing going on in the Wisconsin program that couldn't be fixed by throwing money at it. Pay the coaches, pay the players, pay the recruiters. NIL ushered in a new era of NCAA sports. Want to win? Pay up. It's really that simple.

[Kerb Hohl]

There's really nothing going on in the Wisconsin program that couldn't be fixed by throwing money at it. Pay the coaches, pay the players, pay the recruiters. NIL ushered in a new era of NCAA sports. Want to win? Pay up. It's really that simple.

Yeah, I think I was the one that never really expected Wisconsin to be at the forefront in the beginning. We don't have oil tycoons that have an extra $20 million to drop on the roster.

We can all wish to hit the lottery and be the unlikely case of Indiana just like in the olden days maybe wishing to bend the rules more, but it never happens.

Either way, we're probably on the **** end of the NIL game right now and it could be better and we could find 8 wins against a manageable schedule as a start next season.

[MVP2110]

Sounds like Carter Smith might get some playing time on Saturday. So atleast something intriguing to watch