Wisconsin Football 2025

[JosephC]

Deion Sanders is maybe the best teacher in the history of football.  He taught an entire generation, and perhaps every future generation, that tackling for cornerbacks is a completely optional activity.

[Underachiever]

On 10/8/2025 at 10:34 AM, nate82 said:

 Why does UW have to stick with the boring safe HC's it is like the program gets stuck in we can only do it one way and that is it.  UW is stuck in the Bears thinking of we had Payton and the '85 defense that is the only way we can win mentality.  Stuck in a bygone era of football doomed to be a failure until those people are removed.  

How does the Fickell hire fit with this line of thought? It was anything but that.

[JosephC]

As I type this, Iowa is a 3 1/2 point favorite and the over/under is 37.

Iowa's defensive front four appears to be their strength.  That group is considered to be much better than the average Iowa front four, and Iowa has a pretty good history of having quality defensive linemen.  The offensive line returns three starters, the first-time starters playing LT and RG.  The new RG, Kade Pieper, has reportedly been playing very well.  This looks like a game where Wisconsin could be dominated in the trenches.

Iowa's offensive skill positions are generally a weak point, and this year is no different.  Starting QB Mark Gronowski is battling injury, and will be a game-time decision.  They've had injuries at the running back position, causing them to start 4 different running backs in their 5 games.  The top receiver in terms of yards has totaled 10 catches and 179 yards in 5 games.  Tight end is historically a very strong position for Iowa.  Through 5 games, the top two tight ends on the roster have combined for 8 catches and 67 yards.

If Iowa had any offensive firepower at all, they would be an easy pick to win the game.

Wisconsin is at home, and just maybe can eek out a very low scoring game.

Still have to think Iowa will win though, with what appears to be a significant advantage in the trenches. 

[Jim French Stepstool]

On 10/9/2025 at 7:14 AM, CheezWizHed said:

Rod Carew, Paul Molitor... many examples of great players that struggled to teach the things they did well as players. 

 I remember once reading about Yogi Berra talking to a young player about hitting. He started talking about his hands & his feet & this and that, and the kid got more & more confused. Finally Berra just walked into the cage & said "Ahh, just watch me do it".

Carew is a great example. OTOH, while his philosophy would make todays' players cringe Charlie Lau was a very successful hitting coach with KC in the 70s after a thoroughly average career.

[Jim French Stepstool]

16 hours ago, Underachiever said:

How does the Fickell hire fit with this line of thought? It was anything but that.

As was Longo as an OC.

[Jim French Stepstool]

4 hours ago, JosephC said:

As I type this, Iowa is a 3 1/2 point favorite and the over/under is 37.

Iowa's defensive front four appears to be their strength.  That group is considered to be much better than the average Iowa front four, and Iowa has a pretty good history of having quality defensive linemen.  The offensive line returns three starters, the first-time starters playing LT and RG.  The new RG, Kade Pieper, has reportedly been playing very well.  This looks like a game where Wisconsin could be dominated in the trenches.

Iowa's offensive skill positions are generally a weak point, and this year is no different.  Starting QB Mark Gronowski is battling injury, and will be a game-time decision.  They've had injuries at the running back position, causing them to start 4 different running backs in their 5 games.  The top receiver in terms of yards has totaled 10 catches and 179 yards in 5 games.  Tight end is historically a very strong position for Iowa.  Through 5 games, the top two tight ends on the roster have combined for 8 catches and 67 yards.

If Iowa had any offensive firepower at all, they would be an easy pick to win the game.

Wisconsin is at home, and just maybe can eek out a very low scoring game.

Still have to think Iowa will win though, with what appears to be a significant advantage in the trenches. 

Good rundown. After competing pretty well from a physical standpoint last week until wearing down a bit, I think this is a good followup game. The biggest challenge remains trying to run the ball at least well enough to make Iowa honor it; otherwise they'll be relegated to bad down-and-distance & most likely won't have time to allow the longer patterns to develop.

Maybe the most impressive thing they did last week was limit mistakes. That will have to continue in what I agree should be a low-scoring game. Maybe a sense of urgency too, in what the coaches would never admit publicly but what might be their best chance to win a game for awhile.

[yourout]

Indiana is what Wisconsin used to be.

[LouisEly]

When a player comes off the field with an obvious concussion after a hit, how is there not some sort of targeting?  It clearly looked like the Iowa defender gave him a forearm to the head.

[JosephC]

Considering how bad a matchup Wisconsin's offense seemed to be against Iowa's defense, I figured the max number of points we'd see today would top out at 17.  This game might already be over.

[JosephC]

1 hour ago, yourout said:

Indiana is what Wisconsin used to be.

Indiana's athletic department better find a way to come up with 10 million per year to keep Cignetti, because it's only a matter of time until one of those big SEC powerhouses come calling.  

[yourout]

11 minutes ago, JosephC said:

Considering how bad a matchup Wisconsin's offense seemed to be against Iowa's defense, I figured the max number of points we'd see today would top out at 17.  This game might already be over.

Might?

[yourout]

The helmets that look like they came from the Morton era seem appropriate

[owbc]

13 minutes ago, JosephC said:

Indiana's athletic department better find a way to come up with 10 million per year to keep Cignetti, because it's only a matter of time until one of those big SEC powerhouses come calling.  

There’s more money in the Big Ten than the SEC now. 

[JosephC]

What an embarrassment.  Any positive they gained from last week is down the toilet.  

[yourout]

3 minutes ago, JosephC said:

What an embarrassment.  Any positive they gained from last week is down the toilet.  

Hey. Outside of being short on talent and poorly coached this team is close to turning it around.

[HarryDoyle]

Fickell has brought the program back to the Don Morton era LOL.

[yourout]

Someone should remind Ferentz if they keep scoring we might go get a real coach. 

They certainly want Fickell around as long as possible.

[Sixtolezcano]

11 hours ago, JosephC said:

As I type this, Iowa is a 3 1/2 point favorite and the over/under is 37.

Iowa's defensive front four appears to be their strength.  That group is considered to be much better than the average Iowa front four, and Iowa has a pretty good history of having quality defensive linemen.  The offensive line returns three starters, the first-time starters playing LT and RG.  The new RG, Kade Pieper, has reportedly been playing very well.  This looks like a game where Wisconsin could be dominated in the trenches.

Iowa's offensive skill positions are generally a weak point, and this year is no different.  Starting QB Mark Gronowski is battling injury, and will be a game-time decision.  They've had injuries at the running back position, causing them to start 4 different running backs in their 5 games.  The top receiver in terms of yards has totaled 10 catches and 179 yards in 5 games.  Tight end is historically a very strong position for Iowa.  Through 5 games, the top two tight ends on the roster have combined for 8 catches and 67 yards.

If Iowa had any offensive firepower at all, they would be an easy pick to win the game.

Wisconsin is at home, and just maybe can eek out a very low scoring game.

Still have to think Iowa will win though, with what appears to be a significant advantage in the trenches. 

They got the O/U correct, however they never thought that Iowa would score all 37 points. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Fickell gets canned this week.

[HarryDoyle]

 

[yourout]

40 minutes ago, Sixtolezcano said:

They got the O/U correct, however they never thought that Iowa would score all 37 points. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Fickell gets canned this week.

I get why Mac did it but it's painfully obvious it's not going to work and the longer you wait the worse it's going to get.

[nate82]

1 hour ago, yourout said:

I get why Mac did it but it's painfully obvious it's not going to work and the longer you wait the worse it's going to get.

They won't get rid of him as the buyout is too much.  I think he gets all of next season and possibly the first half of the next season also.  

[Jim French Stepstool]

After Michigan, I thought we might.......not match the physicality of Iowa, but be a little more pugnacious at home w/the Saturday night homecoming crowd. But it was a total mismatch up front. The challenge for opponents going forward might be to figure out how FEW they have to put in the box & still not have to worry about a running game.

Not that it makes a difference in the outcomes, but they really seem to miss Zachman on the back end, too.

The late-80s unis were painfully appropriate. I half expected Sean Wilson to come in off the bench to take a few snaps, roll out & gain a half yard.

[BrewerFan]

On 10/7/2025 at 10:58 PM, nate82 said:

The only HC I would want to change from Fickell would be Lane Kiffin but I am not sure he will leave Ole Miss.  Everyone else who has been mentioned just don't do it for me.  They are all blah bland coaches who don't really do anything to make the program better.  Kiffin would be that guy who would continue with the recruiting that has been set up so far.  I don't really care about recruiting players in WI I just want the best players coming to Wisconsin.  Creating a wall inside WI for recruiting is just something that is dumb to me and is unnecessary.  If that is the next HC's focus then I know it will be a failure.  

He's definitely not leaving Ole' Miss for Wisconsin. He's talked extensively about how coaching at Ole Miss he's been able to spend more time with his family and... how it's been good for him. 

And why would he want to come to a program that is now in need of a COMPLETE rebuild. From the bottom up. Not just the roster, but you've lost so much ground in your own home state, you've lost ground in Minnesota where you used to go in and steal some talent, Illinois, you have no Jersey Pipeline. 

 

You need someone who knows the state and I don't care if they're boring. The Badgers hung their hat on being "boring" for the entire resurgence when they were routinely winning 9+ games over an almost 30 year period. 

Leonhard or Leipold. You'd have to go back, hat in hand to the prior... and you'd need to fill out the staff with a really good recruiting coordinator, but at LEAST you could start to get back to at least getting Wisconsin kids(remember when that was "the problem," our 10-3 teams were largely Wisconsin OL/DL/LB without enough skill position to QUITE get over the hump when you were 6 points away from playing in the CFB Playoffs and going 14-0 in the regular season under Chryst). 

 

Or Leipold. I remember hearing a few guys on his staff back at WW and a couple kids who played for him and they all loved him. His coaches knew he'd end up as a big time D1 coach and he got the most out of the playoffs. 

Maybe he's the guy to try and scratch back some of the ground we lost. 

 

 

I'm not blaming anyone for the Fickell hire. Hindsight is 20/20 and I thought it was a great signing. I REALLY did think he was going to stick with the main identify of the team offensively and just ADD to that, thinking again, similar to when Chryst was the OC... and I thought he may be able to pluck a few elite recruits her or there and find a Lamar, Sauce type talent now and again. 

Instead, it's been an unmitigated disaster and waiting longer is going to cost the program more in the long run. 

[BrewerFan]

5 hours ago, nate82 said:

They won't get rid of him as the buyout is too much.  I think he gets all of next season and possibly the first half of the next season also.  

It'll cost more to keep him. 

The Athletic Department is going to bring in ~200M this year. 

The longer you wait, the bigger the hole you dig. 

The money has to be paid either way and another year and then part of a year after isn't going to do anything but push us further down, burn a couple more classes and... you're paying him the same. 

The revenue our AD department generates is among the top 20 in the Country. 

 

After you figure out your HC, pony up and bring in Bostad back. If there was ONE time when things started to wobble at UW from the perennial top 25 program and just showing cracks, it's when you brought him back and had him coaching somewhere OTHER than the OL. 

 

I do suspect they'll sit still and... that's fine, I'll have more Saturday's without having to schedule it around the Badgers. 

[JosephC]

I still don't think McIntosh will fire Fickell.  But now a 2-10 finish is looking more and more likely, and the pressure that McIntosh will be under will be pretty immense if that happens.

I think it's much more likely that McIntosh forces Fickell to scapegoat Grimes and Tressel, and the Badgers end up with a severe lack of talent plus a patched together coaching staff that will all be trying to get on the same page.  In other words, McIntosh will somehow make a bigger mess of the big mess he's already made.

Yes, the athletic department makes big money.  But they operate just like a government bureaucracy, every penny is spent as soon as it comes in the door.  Any projected increase in revenue is immediately appropriated and spent.  A 25 million buyout is still a really significant amount of money for the athletic department, even if it is spread out over a number of years.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2025/04/16/univ-of-wisconsin-expecting-significant-expenses-increase-ahead-of-revenue-sharing/