Wisconsin Football 2025

[owbc]

On 10/21/2025 at 12:03 PM, tmwiese55 said:

My group has been trying to not be negative and that logistically it make sense to try and give one more year. Get to an easier schedule and see if a step in the right direction can be made next year. Constant firings and all that can lead to spiral quickly, and then add in the money needed.   

But its gotten so bad and the team is so bad that I just don't think there's any other choice at this point.  It just seems complete lost cause or lost locker room level of ineptitude where you just don't have a choice.  I think I've posted a time or two on here in the last year that the people I know around the program have been saying its absolutely brutal behind the scenes, which is showing on the field now and it sounds like things are even worse.  It just seems like they don't have a choice but to fire at this point.  And with the money that will cost I don't see the next coach being a proven expensive guy and the NIL pot won't be too full since so much has to go to buyout and interest is low, lots of dark years ahead.  That said, it wouldn't surprise me if they negotiate that 28 mil number down with him. He seems to have given up (in spite of still wearing the stupid vest) and probably prefers to just be gone.

I guess lesson learned to the people that spent the good years of the programs calling for axing Gard/Chryst etc or for the people who pushed a guy like Franklin out of PSU. Careful what you wish for, its nearly impossible to turn yourself into OSU/Bama or Duke/Kentucky, but it is very easy to turn yourself into Northwestern/Kansas at football or say Nebraska/Oregon st at basketball

Hopefully the lesson has been learned twice now that outsider "rising star" type football coaches are not going to succeed at Wisconsin. 

I feel for the next guy. He's likely going to be a Brady Hoke type, getting underpaid for an impossible job that will satisfy nobody. 

[homer]

32 minutes ago, owbc said:

Hopefully the lesson has been learned twice now that outsider "rising star" type football coaches are not going to succeed at Wisconsin. 

I feel for the next guy. He's likely going to be a Brady Hoke type, getting underpaid for an impossible job that will satisfy nobody. 

Jason Eck makes a ton of sense. But a lot of people won't find him a very sexy hire.

[Samurai Bucky]

A must "listen to".  Kyle, Brust, and Nortman...

Highlights:

• No heart
• Players show no fight
• Fickell does not show up at events (sounds similar to Chryst)
• Has zero relationship with Wisconsin high school coaches.
• No fundraising at all.

They both need to be gone, now... or, at least, Fickell.

[Jim French Stepstool]

2 hours ago, Samurai Bucky said:

A must "listen to".  Kyle, Brust, and Nortman...

Highlights:

• No heart
• Players show no fight
• Fickell does not show up at events (sounds similar to Chryst)
• Has zero relationship with Wisconsin high school coaches.
• No fundraising at all.

They both need to be gone, now... or, at least, Fickell.

Having events cancelled due to him not showing up is........bad.

I also think we have two people that need to be replaced. Unfortunately, what I see in the immediate future is one contract being eaten max, and in that case it would have to be Fickell. That means Mac would be making another football hire. Ugh.

Fantasizing here, but if you WERE replacing the AD IMO Mike Finley would be a terrific hire. People bring up Troy Vincent but I think his NFL gig is much too good for him to consider making a move.

Not much administrative experience outside of running his foundation but JJ Watt would be incredible as a fundraiser.

[yourout]

2 hours ago, Samurai Bucky said:

A must "listen to".  Kyle, Brust, and Nortman...

Highlights:

• No heart
• Players show no fight
• Fickell does not show up at events (sounds similar to Chryst)
• Has zero relationship with Wisconsin high school coaches.
• No fundraising at all.

They both need to be gone, now... or, at least, Fickell.

If he truly isn't showing up at things that he should be at and Mac knows it then Mac needs to get the boot with him or before him.

[yourout]

26 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Having events cancelled due to him not showing up is........bad.

I also think we have two people that need to be replaced. Unfortunately, what I see in the immediate future is one contract being eaten max, and in that case it would have to be Fickell. That means Mac would be making another football hire. Ugh.

Fantasizing here, but if you WERE replacing the AD IMO Mike Finley would be a terrific hire. People bring up Troy Vincent but I think his NFL gig is much too good for him to consider making a move.

Not much administrative experience outside of running his foundation but JJ Watt would be incredible as a fundraiser.

Talk about a chicken and egg problem. 

They obviously both need to go but how the hell do you do it.

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, yourout said:

Talk about a chicken and egg problem. 

They obviously both need to go but how the hell do you do it.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. It wouldn't be nearly as big a deal if this was going on at Oregon, as I suspect Phil Knight or whoever controls the checkbook in that family these days would just write out a check. Or some SEC school where the alums/fans just can't stomach incompetence on FB Saturdays & would open up their wallets.

Getting one or both implicated in a gambling operation would be an easy way out; that seems to be the popular thing. But I have a difficult time picturing either of these two consorting with Frankie the Hammer or Jimmy the Snake. They just ain't the type.

[Underachiever]

11 hours ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Getting one or both implicated in a gambling operation would be an easy way out; that seems to be the popular thing. But I have a difficult time picturing either of these two consorting with Frankie the Hammer or Jimmy the Snake. They just ain't the type.

Fickell called me last Saturday morning and told me to put everything on Ohio State to cover. I said, "Luke, I'm way ahead of you, brother."

Some things don't need to be said.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

On 10/22/2025 at 4:03 PM, owbc said:

Hopefully the lesson has been learned twice now that outsider "rising star" type football coaches are not going to succeed at Wisconsin. 

I feel for the next guy. He's likely going to be a Brady Hoke type, getting underpaid for an impossible job that will satisfy nobody. 

There are worse straws to draw in life than experimental D1 football coach making 7 figures for a couple years.

[LouisEly]

14 hours ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

That means Mac would be making another football hire. Ugh.

You know that at the time Fickell was the hottest candidate out there.  Everybody wanted him.  He turned down a lot of opportunities because he didn't think that they were the right situation for his family.  That UW got him at the time was considered a major coup by everyone nationally.

Now, there's plenty of other things to criticize Mac about.  But Mac is far from the first AD at a major school who made a football hire that didn't work out, and if UW didn't give him that contract there were plenty of other schools who would have.

[tmwiese55]

Could probably argue firing Mac first (considering he's been very bad at other aspects of job too) could be the move since he's cheaper. Bring in someone from a power team that knows how the new world is working and have him come in and assess for a year.  See how we're doing things differently than your teams that are having success. Make the changes you can right away, see how next year goes with Fickell and decide if he can do it.

But like I mentioned before, it really does seem to far gone at this point

[owbc]

I don't know enough about what Mac is doing behind the scenes right now to judge whether he should be fired or not. I only assume that the Fickell succession plan is already well underway. If it isn't, then he should be gone ASAP. 

[Jim French Stepstool]

6 hours ago, tmwiese55 said:

Could probably argue firing Mac first could be the move since he's cheaper. Bring in someone from a power team that knows how the new world is working and have him come in and assess for a year.  See how we're doing things differently than your teams that are having success. Make the changes you can right away, see how next year goes with Fickell and decide if he can do it.

But like I mentioned before, it really does seem to far gone at this point

For sure, firing Mac would be much cheaper. The issue would be hiring an AD that's A) a good hire and B) willing to keep Fickell around, if that's some sort of a condition of taking the job. That would be a tricky combination. 

[yourout]

9 hours ago, LouisEly said:

You know that at the time Fickell was the hottest candidate out there.  Everybody wanted him.  He turned down a lot of opportunities because he didn't think that they were the right situation for his family.  That UW got him at the time was considered a major coup by everyone nationally.

Now, there's plenty of other things to criticize Mac about.  But Mac is far from the first AD at a major school who made a football hire that didn't work out, and if UW didn't give him that contract there were plenty of other schools who would have.

I don't blame Mac for trying Fickell but that extension he gave him last year is all on him.

[Jimbo]

One thing not discussed here yet is the expose' the Wisconsin State Journal did last month on the athletic department.  Now it's facing a big lawsuit from former athletes.  This could be the thing that does Mac in.

 

[LouisEly]

11 hours ago, yourout said:

I don't blame Mac for trying Fickell but that extension he gave him last year is all on him.

The extension is standard operating procedure for all head coaches in all sports. 

And it did not affect his buyout in any way.  None of it is guaranteed.  I've seen the contract language and the buyout is based entirely on the original contract that Fickell signed.

[Jim French Stepstool]

14 hours ago, yourout said:

I don't blame Mac for trying Fickell but that extension he gave him last year is all on him.

It WAS only one year added. But it came after a 12-13 start to his tenure, with the 2nd year being worse than the 1st. And from the change in philosophy on both sides of the ball (with obviously questionable results), to the merry-go-round with assistants IMO not slapping on the extension would've been justified. Traditionally an extension can help recruiting. But that's minimized in todays' era when large chunks of everyones' roster lines up on the gym floor every off-season to get picked up by a new team. I didn't like the extension.

 

[Jim French Stepstool]

4 hours ago, Jimbo said:

One thing not discussed here yet is the expose' the Wisconsin State Journal did last month on the athletic department.  Now it's facing a big lawsuit from former athletes.  This could be the thing that does Mac in.

 

I don't really follow the womens' BB program so I haven't followed the story closely. But I know Mac has taken heat from some for a 'back burner' approach to the student-athletes' concerns.

Depending on what happens, it could certainly be a factor re Mac. I know it's certainly not easy to paint it as a big nothingburger after your coach resigns.

[JosephC]

Purdue leading Rutgers by 17-7 about 5 minutes into the third quarter.  As a Badger fan, might as well just pay attention to the race to the bottom.  Either Purdue or Rutgers will eliminate themselves as a winless Big 10 team today.

[yourout]

Does it sound like Bostad would ever have any head coaching ambitions?

[nate82]

9 minutes ago, yourout said:

Does it sound like Bostad would ever have any head coaching ambitions?

Offensive Line coaches don't tend to make great head coaches.  You usually end up with someone like Matt Patricia.  On the rare occasion you will get a Bill Cowher or Mike Tomlin.  

I don't see anything that would make Bostad a good head coach.  He looks to be more of a teacher than a leader.  

[yourout]

9 minutes ago, nate82 said:

Offensive Line coaches don't tend to make great head coaches.  You usually end up with someone like Matt Patricia.  On the rare occasion you will get a Bill Cowher or Mike Tomlin.  

I don't see anything that would make Bostad a good head coach.  He looks to be more of a teacher than a leader.  

I was thinking along those lines as well. Watching Indiana's offensive line work brought back some good memories unlike what we currently have which is very likely the worst offensive line in the Big ten.

[nate82]

If I were to replace Fickell today I would prefer Buster Faulkner, Ben Arbuckle or maybe see if Kliff Kingsbury would want to return to college football.  

4 minutes ago, yourout said:

Watching Indiana's offensive line work brought back some good memories unlike what we currently have which is very likely the worst offensive line in the Big ten.

The line would be better if Kevin Haywood was out there though not by much.  The left side of the line at least would look better.  Renfro being injured for the majority of the year is also a huge setback as he was the only senior offensive lineman.  All of the younger guys are struggling and I am not sure Bostad would be able to fix that.  He is not a miracle worker.  

Bostad had a hard time turning that 2022 offensive line around and that line was just as bad as this one.  I think he saw the writing on the wall and left because that 2023 offensive line was also really bad and just as bad as this offensive line.  

The offensive line has been going down hill for a while now and this is not something new.  You can probably trace it back to after 2019.  The 2019 line was the last offensive line that was actually good.  In 2020 you had a good pass blocking line but trying to run the ball the line fell behind expectations.  Then in 2021 the wheels completely fell off with both the run and pass protection breaking down.  Then in 2022 the trend continued under Bostad.  Again Bostad is not a miracle worker and can only do so much.  Poor recruiting is to blame here which is not a surprise considering the HC at the time for these years.  I think Bostad was ready to leave after the 2022 season regardless of who was going to be the HC and I don't blame him.  He wasn't really given much to work with talent wise.  The well was completely dry like a hot August day in Phoenix Arizona in terms of talent at the OL.  

I know I have been bringing this up over and over again but PC's poor recruiting from 2019-2022 is to blame for this.  It is the root cause here and is the main reason the Badgers are where they are right now.  Regardless of the HC who would have been hired.  

[JosephC]

Iowa putting an absolute beatdown on Minnesota.  Almost giving me hope that the Badgers might actually have a chance against the Goofers.

[yourout]

Just now, JosephC said:

Iowa putting an absolute beatdown on Minnesota.  Almost giving me hope that the Badgers might actually have a chance against the Goofers.

It's the only realistic chance for victory left on the schedule