Badgers Football - 2025 Season - Fickell Back in 2026

[MVP2110]

Fickell is a lifeless dud and his coordinators have been somewhere between replacement-level and trainwreck. Even if there is this supposed influx of cash it's not like they know what to do with it. Getting humiliated by Iowa and Maryland is an easy counterpoint to whatever rationalization you can come up with for keeping these losers.

Let's say they "improve" in 2026 and spend a fortune to win like 5 games. Well, now Fickell just bought his way into 2027. Hell, instead of firing Fickell, they should be giving him an extension.

There is no chance Fickell would stick around after 5 wins given the schedule and investment. I'm thinking at bare minimum he would need 8 wins and that might not even be enough

[MVP2110]

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[ReasonablySober]

Burner.

[ReasonablySober]

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Is this the new bat signal or something.

[ReasonablySober]

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[ReasonablySober]

Jeez I would hope the son of Chris McIntosh would choose Wisconsin.

[MVP2110]

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[MVP2110]

In the last few days Wisconsin has lost 2 OL commits

Maddox Cochrane & Ben Novak

[Kerb Hohl]

Sucks, but feels so insignificant.

Most wanted Fickell fired this year. Had that happened, that meant his HS recruiting literally did not matter for him. He would've been fired before the HS guys he actually recruited finished their 1st/2nd year. The next guy is probably going to be held to the same standard and would have to have success with all transfers/holdovers as well.

Most guys don't start until their 3rd/4th year nowadays. If you're going to have a long tenure, then HS recruiting eventually matters - but we're kind of on Fickell 2.0. He'll utilize the guys he has + hit the portal hard. If it's a good season, HS recruiting can be rebooted for the next class.

Obviously they'll still grab a handful of HS recruits from elsewhere at the last minute in the musical chairs game.

[DingleJerry]

Yea I don't even pay attention to HS recruiting anymore. One of Fickell's classes had something like 22 kids in and like 17 of them were gone within one year. Obviously I don't recall the numbers exactly but you get the point. First, its the nature of the business now. And second, I remembered it because when everyone was using the 'gotta get his recruiting classes 4-5 years' type talk it just didn't ring true to me due to this along with the overall the nature of the new world.

[Kerb Hohl]

HS recruiting matters for the helmet schools, coaches that make a quick pop like Cignetti if he is going to be a long-term IU guy, or just long-term mainstays like Ferentz.

The next Wisconsin hire if Fickell fails is going to be scrutinized by year 3, which will be entirely off of portal additions. Fickell barely recruited the class where everybody left, and the 2 he actually recruited are freshmen/RS frosh/sophomores right now. Most want him fired before those guys would make a dent.

If we want to care about HS recruiting, we'll have to live with bumps in the road (or complete railroading due to injury/schedule).

[Mags FTW]

Yeah, it is probably better to leave scholarships and NIL money open for portal guys. Allocating resources to poaching guys from mid-majors that have shown they can produce at the college level while being away from home is a safer investment than betting on a HS kid.

[MVP2110]

I just dont agree with that. The lack of good high school recruits at the end of the Chryst era and that weird 2023 class which was kinda half Chryst leftovers/half what Fickell could pull together at the end, is a big reason why the Badgers are lacking talent to consistently compete now. It's like a baseball teams farm system, sure you can go buy some free agents to fill holes but developing your own talent still matters and having a good foundation of high school recruits is a big part of team success. Over in basketball Gard has seemingly found a nice mix of High school recruiting & portal adds, but it's a balance

Talent can be found multiple ways and ignoring one of the main avenues of talent acquisition seems bad imo

[Kerb Hohl]

I just dont agree with that. The lack of good high school recruits at the end of the Chryst era and that weird 2023 class which was kinda half Chryst leftovers/half what Fickell could pull together at the end, is a big reason why the Badgers are lacking talent to consistently compete now. It's like a baseball teams farm system, sure you can go buy some free agents to fill holes but developing your own talent still matters and having a good foundation of high school recruits is a big part of team success. Over in basketball Gard has seemingly found a nice mix of High school recruiting & portal adds, but it's a balance

Talent can be found multiple ways and ignoring one of the main avenues of talent acquisition seems bad imo

I would not say ignore it as the coach.

I would say that if we're going to have the standard of punting coaches every 3 years, then yes, I would 100% ignore HS recruiting as a fan.

If Fickell sucks, the next guy is going to have to show something with transfers immediately or he'll be on the chopping block/negative recruiting cycle.

[ReasonablySober]

I just dont agree with that. The lack of good high school recruits at the end of the Chryst era and that weird 2023 class which was kinda half Chryst leftovers/half what Fickell could pull together at the end, is a big reason why the Badgers are lacking talent to consistently compete now. It's like a baseball teams farm system, sure you can go buy some free agents to fill holes but developing your own talent still matters and having a good foundation of high school recruits is a big part of team success. Over in basketball Gard has seemingly found a nice mix of High school recruiting & portal adds, but it's a balance

Talent can be found multiple ways and ignoring one of the main avenues of talent acquisition seems bad imo

It's like a baseball farm system but the players in Biloxi, Carolina, or Nashville can decide they would rather play in Durham or Peoria any time they like.

[Kerb Hohl]

I just dont agree with that. The lack of good high school recruits at the end of the Chryst era and that weird 2023 class which was kinda half Chryst leftovers/half what Fickell could pull together at the end, is a big reason why the Badgers are lacking talent to consistently compete now. It's like a baseball teams farm system, sure you can go buy some free agents to fill holes but developing your own talent still matters and having a good foundation of high school recruits is a big part of team success. Over in basketball Gard has seemingly found a nice mix of High school recruiting & portal adds, but it's a balance

Talent can be found multiple ways and ignoring one of the main avenues of talent acquisition seems bad imo

It's like a baseball farm system but the players in Biloxi, Carolina, or Nashville can decide they would rather play in Durham or Peoria any time they like.

I've always compared Wisconsin football/basketball success to how the Brewers have done things. They were always smart/nimble and did "more with less" in terms of being a developmental program and players they went after. They were mirror images a decade ago.

Here's been the timeline over the past 5 or so years:

• 2020-2022ish: Fully implemented your quoted system
• 2020-now: Incentivized the Pirates and Marlins to try harder by giving them a big windfall of TV money and legal outside funding sources

Here's been our specific problem comparison:

• 2024-2025: Took the Brewers out of the NL Central, put them in a division with the Yankees, Dodgers, Mets, Phillies (schedule)
• 2024-2025: Top 3 pitchers blew out their arms in April/May

Good luck!

[ReasonablySober]

Like we've been saying, in the end it comes down to money. Spend like the biggest of big time programs in a year where you can conceivably win and good things can happen.

[BUCKnation]

I've definitely shifted more to a wait and see them in the jersey before caring kind of approach when it comes to HS recruiting, but most of the positive aspects about this team are the young guys that Fickell brought in over the last couple of years.