Fans question coach Luke Fickell and a free falling Wisconsin football program
The Badgers looked flat as they lost to Minnesota and ended a season on a five-game losing streak after starting 5-2. It's a state of sadness for Wisconsin fans.
Millions of reasons it may not happen
Thus ends an incredibly disappointing season that broke the bowl streak and consecutive winning seasons streak. Empty trophy case. Every goal missed. Sadness abounds.
— Chris Davis (@cdavis20000) November 29, 2024
All I want for Christmas is a new head coach, a new head coach, a new head coach…
Great analysis
If not for a silly buyout, McIntosh would have a hard time justifying Fickell continuing. After 2 years, we see a consistently unprepared team, 5 straight losses, an empty stadium, bowl ineligiblity....
— Daniel Konar (@daniel_konar) November 29, 2024
The program is in freefall.
Promising magic recruits doesn't fix that.
Gotta go backwards to go forward?
Thank god this season is over. Ton of reflection needs to be done from the top down on where we go from here. Much farther away then we were 2 yrs ago
— Sconnie1 (@LanceHudgens) November 29, 2024
Pretty good comparison
I'm old enough to remember Bucky only getting blown out by good teams.
— Brian S (@BrianSm71994635) November 29, 2024
Luke Fickell at WI vibing a lot like Rich Rodriguez at MI right now
He makes the big bucks to turn things around
Why is Luke still employed?
— Chris Phineas (@ChrisPhineas) November 29, 2024
The T.E.A.M. acronym is cute if the team wins
Fitting for Fickell to end the bowl streak after two embarrassing seasons as the leader of this program. His complete inability to coach up and motivate his team is alarming and he has bottomed out this program
— Andrew Zimdars (@andrew_zimdars) November 29, 2024
Ha, OK, I hadn't seen this one yet
— Brett Schaal (@StillVertical84) November 29, 2024
I'm sorry for your loss
The only silver lining is that my late Father was not around to see the sorry state of this program under Coach TEAM.
— Steve Schuster (@SteveSc84123682) November 29, 2024
It is Black Friday, after all
You warned us 22 months ago to not get ahead of our skis (my paraphrase).
— Fred Melius MD (@fmelius) November 29, 2024
Time to shop for talent. Entire D but esp LB and D line. And O line, QB and hungry receivers. And FG specialist.
Put that beer money to good use.
The opposite of the Dillon Panthers
This team plays with no heart.
— chris hopp (@Hopptimus_Prime) November 29, 2024
Kickoff was like the 8 a.m. class we all hated
Careful what you wish for
— Connor (@drake_sucks) November 29, 2024
Forget competing for championships. Miss having a team that looked like they got out of bed for rivalry games
An appropriate feeling
— Wes Hodkiewicz (@WesHod) November 29, 2024
Ugly indeed
Ugly ending to an ugly year. The whole thing needs to be looked at from coaching to talent.
— Mark (@DUD6887) November 29, 2024
Feels that way
Program is in free fall
— Abe Bresn (@AbeBresn) November 29, 2024
Makes one wonder where Mabrey Mettauer is at if he can't get in
Not moving on from Locke in the 2nd half has me questioning fickell’s coaching decisions.
— Ernie Nichalson (@BigErn2323) November 29, 2024
One more year! One more year! There's a lot to turn around, though
Absolutely pathetic. Thank god it’s the end of the season. No identity, no discipline, and no heart from this team. Will give Fickell one more year, but next year has to provide some actual results and not just against bottom of the barrel teams.
— Chris Drez (@ChrisDrez) November 29, 2024
Humiliating is a good worn since it's hard to take pride in anything this team produced
I’ve been through Coattails, Morton, latter games of Chryst, this is the worst. It’s humiliating. Locke’s throws! Is he blind? Too short? Play calling? He hasn’t improved one iota since game 1. Defenses become great because they know what’s coming
— Mary Korn Erickson (@sixtiesfan) November 29, 2024
Yeahhh
Sad
— Matthew Martz (@martzm002) November 29, 2024
Suboptimal start
Fickell was supposed to be a home run hire. Even Alvarez called him that. In two short (but long) seasons, he's set the program back 30+ years. Outside of a few recruiting victories, it's hard to find anything remotely positive.
— Bill Pfeiffer (@billt209) November 29, 2024
Did they team quit after loss to Oregon?
At no point did Wisconsin look interested in playing, let alone winning, that football game.
— Zach Lowe (@zlowe) November 29, 2024
Don't know that firing the AD changes anything if Fickell stays
Fire McIntosh, let Fickell replace his coordinators, let’s see what happens next year.
— Mr. Cold Mizer (@awk7091) November 29, 2024
Hard to forget how good Wisconsin was
Chris McIntosh must meet with the press soon to address the hire he wrongly made. This is not what Barry Alvarez envisioned ever happening to the program he built at a university that produced so many quality NFL players throughout his tenure and beyond.
— Jeff Ostach☮️ (@jeff_ostach) November 29, 2024
At least those classes will be stronger?
All the “experts” will point out Fickell’s recruiting class rankings, but when the product on the field is this bad and kids change teams like socks, who cares? Next year’s schedule is even more brutal, with no indication they’ll be remotely competitive.
— Russ Evansen (@waunaruss) November 29, 2024
Definitely seem weaker than most teams
2 years in and it’s going the wrong direction. No identity, no toughness, no conditioning. MAC level defensive scheme & S&C doesn’t work in the B1G. Fickell always says the team needs leadership, how long before he shows some?
— MountainBadger (@mtnbdgr) November 29, 2024
The biggest "what if" of the season is how much better he makes the team
If Tyler Van Dyke doesn’t get hurt, we were bowl eligible weeks ago.
— Badger Steve 🧀🍺🦌 (@UW_Steve) November 29, 2024
Seemingly everyone thought it was a home run
I was one of the idiots that thought hiring Fickle was a great move. He fooled us all. If his teams played any flatter, they would be underneath the field.
— Dr. Gobbly Gook (@hurtzfeelings) November 29, 2024
Ha
Can we drop the football team and bring back baseball?
— Dakota Clouse (@DC16_clouse) November 29, 2024
Out of answers and defeated
Probably haven’t seen a team that looked like they cared less in the last 30 years, and that starts and ends with leadership/coaching. Fickell looks like he doesn’t want to be here anymore.
— Pete (@Htown_999) November 29, 2024
Disrespectful to D II teams
We were out played in all aspects. We looked like a DII team. We just keep falling further behind.
— Mark Corey (@MCorey1) November 29, 2024
It appears so many others were with you
I loved the hire. I was wrong.
— Adam (@asb613) November 29, 2024
Think you're hitting on something about easy targets
Can’t think of one aspect of this team that that improved during the season. QB+OC are easy targets, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. We are at a dangerous cross roads. We are one or two poor off-season decisions away from returning to the Don Morton era.
— Tom Duket (@TomDuket) November 29, 2024
Development is key, especially when things go south
Going to be an interesting off-season. How many of the current underclassmen are going to leave because they never were allowed to see the field because they consistently trotted out guys that consistently failed.
— Johnabeck69 (@johnabeck69) November 29, 2024
Hence calls for free fall
There doesn’t appear to be any light at the end of the tunnel. Their best units graduate most of their players and the portal hasn’t exactly been a glimmer of hope.
— Team Slinky (@Buckmaster_FP) November 29, 2024
Sure performed that way
A team worthy of breaking the bowl streak! They really earned it.
— WISkeylover54 (@WISkeylover54) November 29, 2024
It's hard to see a light at the end of the tunnel
Luke Fickell has erased 30 years of sustained success in two short seasons! There is no recovery in site with the current state of college athletics. In another two years, the seats will be empty at the Camp. Good thing we put in a heated field💰💰💰.
— Brian Wallace (@brianwallace44) November 29, 2024
The Badgers will be forced to look at an empty trophy case after they lost their three rivalry games this season.
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