After a 5-7 season in which the Wisconsin Badgers missed a bowl game for the first time in more than 20 years, head coach Luke Fickell was under fire from supporters. So far, he is 0-6 versus top-25 ranked teams and has yet to show significant progress with the program. His two years in Madison haven’t gone as planned, but it appears like Fickell is poised to make some significant adjustments.
He’s even willing to turn to the Badgers’ great years under coach Barry Alvarez for inspiration.
“It’s that idea of let’s just humble ourselves and go and work our way back and figure out how coach Alvarez and them took this place to become the best in the (Big Ten) West,” Fickell told the Athletic. “It’s not the best 11, it’s the 11 best that do s— together that give us a chance, the same way they built it here over the last 25 years.”
When Fickell was brought over from Cincinnati, where he had great success, he brought some new ideas, most notably an Air Raid offence. After two seasons of lacklustre offence, Fickell hired Jeff Grimes as the new offensive coordinator, promising to offer Badger supporters an offence they could rally around.
The new Badger offence will most likely not look exactly like the old one, which isn’t necessarily a negative thing, but it will be more known to Wisconsin fans. For the past two decades, Camp Randall has boasted a rugged, powerful offensive and defensive line, but the 2024 squad was practically unrecognisable.
“If there’s anything that they’ve done here that’s given them a chance to be as good as they have been over the last 25 years, it sure as hell is going to continue to be at the line of scrimmage,” Fickell said. “To be quite honest, as we went the other direction those last five weeks, it became more evident on the defensive line than it did anything else.”
No one expects Fickell to be coach Alvarez or coach Paul Chryst, but demonstrating a desire to embrace parts of what has made Wisconsin so successful over the last 25 years is certainly pleasant news for most Badger fans. Fickell will need a great season in 2025 to silence the critics, but returning to his Badger roots has the potential to persuade many doubters before they even take the pitch.