Wisconsin Football 2025

[yourout]

13 hours ago, JosephC said:

Chryst derangement syndrome is back.

Bostad was the inside linebacker coach for 5 years, 2017-2021.  In those 5 years, the Badgers were 44-17 (.721), 30-12 in the Big 10 (.714) and 4-1 in bowl games (.800).

Hope you enjoy this 2-10 season.

While I somewhat agree with you. He was also a very good linebacker coach but our offensive line decline started at the end of that window. And it's been a downhill slide ever since. 

Even when they brought him back over to the O-Line things head deteriorated to the point even he couldn't fix it

[LouisEly]

The more I think about it, the more that Penn State OC Andy Kotelnicki makes the most sense if/assuming they are going to make a change:

• Wisconsin ties (UW-River Falls alumn)
• Knows the Big Ten
• Can bring a boatload of talented players/recruits with him (I assume a lot of players aren't happy about canning Franklin and will be looking to leave, and also assuming that NIL won't be an issue for bringing in transferring players)

It's going to likely take a long time and a lot of money to get back to a winning program, the possible exception being if a HC can bring a lot of talent with him right away.  That's the advantage that Kotelnicki has over other candidates - relationships with Penn State players/recruits.

[Samurai Bucky]

11 minutes ago, LouisEly said:

The more I think about it, the more that Penn State OC Andy Kotelnicki makes the most sense if/assuming they are going to make a change:

• Wisconsin ties (UW-River Falls alumn)
• Knows the Big Ten
• Can bring a boatload of talented players/recruits with him (I assume a lot of players aren't happy about canning Franklin and will be looking to leave, and also assuming that NIL won't be an issue for bringing in transferring players)

It's going to likely take a long time and a lot of money to get back to a winning program, the possible exception being if a HC can bring a lot of talent with him right away.  That's the advantage that Kotelnicki has over other candidates - relationships with Penn State players/recruits.

Hmmm... I like that idea too.  However, I would like to see Kotelnicki be able to bring in some top-quality coaches who can take the players to the next level.

Would Dave Aranda consider coming back, or would that be a lateral move?  He has had a roller coaster road at Baylor.

[JosephC]

14 minutes ago, yourout said:

While I somewhat agree with you. He was also a very good linebacker coach but our offensive line decline started at the end of that window. And it's been a downhill slide ever since. 

Even when they brought him back over to the O-Line things head deteriorated to the point even he couldn't fix it

Two NFL starters on that line in Joe Tippmann and Tanor Bortolini.  Jack Nelson is a backup on a NFL 53 man roster.  Other guys in that group included Riley Mahlman and Joe Brunner was coming in as a recruit.  Tyler Beach was a pretty decent player when healthy, but unfortunately he seemed to be hobbled a lot.  Trey Widig and Dylan Barrett went on to start at other then-Power Five programs (Indiana and Iowa State).  That's not even mentioning Nolan Rucci, who turned out to be a bust.    There was still plenty in the cupboard.

 

[owbc]

To me the Franklin firing raises the question of whether we think Wisconsin as a program should have similar standards to Penn State or lower standards. 

If the answer is similar standards, then what are we waiting for? 

[LouisEly]

10 minutes ago, owbc said:

To me the Franklin firing raises the question of whether we think Wisconsin as a program should have similar standards to Penn State or lower standards. 

If the answer is similar standards, then what are we waiting for? 

1) No, they don't

B) It's also about whether they have similar financial resources to have similar standards.  No, they don't there either..  Penn State draws roughly 25K-30K more fans per game.  Ballparking at $100/fan/game, that's $2.5M - $3M more revenue per game, or about $17.5M - $21M more revenue per year.  That's why they can fire him so easily.

[CheezWizHed]

14 hours ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

I think at this point in time, colleges are a bit gun shy about flat out calling someone a GM, maybe because of the suggestion of professionalism (even though the professional aspect of it is now obvious). 

The UW basketball program also has someone performing GM duties.

But is it someone that does scouting/recruiting? Or just someone that manages the business side (i.e. NIL $$) as a glorified accountant?  I'm thinking they need someone else focused on recruiting. 

  

1 hour ago, Samurai Bucky said:

Hmmm... I like that idea too.  However, I would like to see Kotelnicki be able to bring in some top-quality coaches who can take the players to the next level.

Would Dave Aranda consider coming back, or would that be a lateral move?  He has had a roller coaster road at Baylor.

Well "roller coaster" implies that there are some "Ups", so that wouldn't be a lateral move for our present "merry-go-round" where we just spin in circles.

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 hour ago, CheezWizHed said:

But is it someone that does scouting/recruiting? Or just someone that manages the business side (i.e. NIL $$) as a glorified accountant?  I'm thinking they need someone else focused on recruiting. 

  

 

 

Speaking primarily of the BB GM (Marc VandeWettering), It's closer to the latter, but much more involved. His description is to 'collaborate' w/Greg Gard on things such as roster management & recruiting, which suggests to me that he focuses on the year-to-year turnover, tries to manage who may or may not appear to be a long-term commitment & how that effects roster structure going forward, and is also the point man regarding revenue allocated to BB (Can we afford this transfer? If we pay A, B, & C "X" number of dollars, how much do we have left for D & E, and will that be enough?) He also is in charge of non-conference scheduling.

I doubt that his recruiting involvement goes any further than input as to how a prospective recruit might effect the current/future rosters, and how much can be comfortably allocated to a particular kid. Nothing regarding scouting or actually hitting the recruiting trail.

I'm guessing the FB GM has similar duties. But one never knows what Fickell might have written into his deal AFA additional control. I suspect it's a collaborative thing as well, as unlike the NBA or NFL the AD is the 'boss', not the GM.

[igor67]

So I read a bit about the Penn State firing and I think what it really shows is just how fast this whole pay everyone thing collapsed into a complete pile of garbage. Traditional powers are having serious trouble in this environment, so at the moment I'm not sure if any coach is going to be successful.

[JosephC]

It was a fun day at work today.  I work with several season ticket holders who were fully expecting that, when they got up on Sunday, the word would have already leaked out that Fickell was fired.  When that didn't happen, they thought for sure an official announcement would have been made this morning.  People just don't understand politics and the way the world works.  McIntosh thinks firing Fickell makes McIntosh look bad, because that makes him the dope that hired a complete flop.  So he will do everything to avoid that and only pull the trigger when he feels he absolutely has to (in other words, when it gets so bad that it's his AD job on the line).

Just three weeks ago I would have still put the odds at 90+% that Fickell would be back in 2026.  But that Iowa loss now has me thinking 2-10, and under those circumstances I just don't think McIntosh can keep him.

2024 = Purdue = 1-11 (Ryan Walters fired at end of season)

2022 = Northwestern = 1-11 (Pat Fitzgerald fired at end of season)

2021 = Indiana = 2-10 (Tom Allen survived, fired after the 2023 season)

2019 = Rutgers = 2-10 (Chris Ash fired 4 games into season)

2018 = Rutgers = 1-11 (Chris Ash survived)

2017 = Illinois = 2-10 (Lovie Smith survived, fired during 2020 season)

2016 = Rutgers = 2-10 (Chris Ash survived)

2015 = Purdue = 2-10 (Darrell Hazell survived, fired 6 games into the 2016 season)

This year isn't completed yet, and then throw out the COVID year when full schedules weren't played, and the last 10 full seasons take us back to 2014.  2014 and 2023 aren't listed because all Big 10 teams won at least 3 games in those seasons.  But in the last 10 full seasons, only 8 teams couldn't win at least 3 games.  I was going to stop the research there, but wondered how many of those coaches survived.  I was pretty surprised to see that 5 out of the 8 actually made it to the next season.  Not good news for those who are desperate to get Fickell out of Madison.

[JosephC]

10 hours ago, Samurai Bucky said:

Would Dave Aranda consider coming back, or would that be a lateral move?  He has had a roller coaster road at Baylor.

Very unlikely, unless he gets fired by Baylor and is looking for work.  The rumor-mill (take it for what it is worth) was that he told McIntosh that he was unlikely to leave Baylor but was willing to listen because he did want to see the what would be offered (pay, improvements to facilities/Camp Randall, structure of the athletic department, etc), and at the end of the process he wasn't all that interested in the Wisconsin job.

Things change, if Fickell gets fired and Aranda applies again, then he should get full consideration.  I just get the impression that he has been real comfortable at Baylor and they are sitting there with a 4-2 record so far this year.  I just don't think the odds of him coming back to Madison are very good.

[JosephC]

10 hours ago, LouisEly said:

The more I think about it, the more that Penn State OC Andy Kotelnicki makes the most sense if/assuming they are going to make a change:

• Wisconsin ties (UW-River Falls alumn)
• Knows the Big Ten
• Can bring a boatload of talented players/recruits with him (I assume a lot of players aren't happy about canning Franklin and will be looking to leave, and also assuming that NIL won't be an issue for bringing in transferring players)

It's going to likely take a long time and a lot of money to get back to a winning program, the possible exception being if a HC can bring a lot of talent with him right away.  That's the advantage that Kotelnicki has over other candidates - relationships with Penn State players/recruits.

I don't have an opinion on Kotelnicki one way or the other.  I hope that Franklin's firing does not significantly diminish Kotelnicki's stock as a head coaching candidate.

I remember a good bit of outrage when Ted Thompson hired Mike McCarthy, because the previous year McCarthy was San Francisco's offensive coordinator and that offense stunk (stunk as in 30th in points, 32nd in yardage).  Then to top it off, there was the idea that the 49ers drafted Alex Smith and McCarthy would be stuck with Aaron Rodgers who wasn't the guy he wanted.  When all was said and done, McCarthy wins a Super Bowl in Green Bay.  And looking at the all time regular season games above .500 list, McCarthy sits tied for 15th at +62.  He is tied with Vince Lombardi and Bud Grant.  That's not too shabby.  Good hire by Ted Thompson.

As I had posted a couple pages back, among the grads/donors I talk to, Kotelnicki and Leipold seemed to by far the two favorites.  So it will be interesting to see if Kotelnicki will have lost some of his luster now that his boss got shown the door.

[Recovering Chicagoan]

It seems the majority of Wisconsin fans thought the Fickell hiring was a good move. I guess I did, too. I'm sure this has been discussed on this board, but what are the main reasons it failed? 

[homer]

8 hours ago, Recovering Chicagoan said:

It seems the majority of Wisconsin fans thought the Fickell hiring was a good move. I guess I did, too. I'm sure this has been discussed on this board, but what are the main reasons it failed? 

Part of the issue, in my opinion, is he made a mistake hiring Longo as OC. I was intrigued by the hire at first but you need a really good QB to make it work and the O LIne play is presumably much different than what they were used to. It was a very tough transition. Now you're on year 1 of a new guy at OC while you've recruited to the old guy's style of play for three years. 

As for the defense....Tressel is maybe just kind of a meh coordinator. 

Lastly, Fickell just seems like a boring, risk-averse in-game coach.

[CheezWizHed]

I've not been able to watch many of the WI FB games the last couple of years (perhaps a blessing in disguise?), so that this with a grain of salt.  Clearly recruiting has been a problem since NIL and I don't see Fickell as better or worse than PC was. 

However, I don't see any real development of the players from year over year.  Just seems like the player that shows up on day 1 is the same seasons later.  

When WI FB was successful, they were taking 3 and 4 star players and making them fairly high NFL draft picks.  Walk-ons becoming late NFL draft picks. Now it just seems pretty stagnant. 

[LouisEly]

1 hour ago, CheezWizHed said:

When WI FB was successful, they were taking 3 and 4 star players and making them fairly high NFL draft picks.  Walk-ons becoming late NFL draft picks. Now it just seems pretty stagnant. 

The problem is that it takes at least three years to do that.  Fickell is on year three, and his recruiting classes (which have been very good) are true freshmen and redshirt freshmen/true sophomores.  

Very few players are left from 3-4 years ago.  Chryst's last two recruiting classes were a half-hearted effort at best.  He only brought in 6 OL total in his last three classes, only 3 DL, and the QBs in his last three classes  (Cole Lacrue, Myles Burkett, Deacon Hill, and nobody in 2020) aren't on any P-4 teams if not even FBS.  The transfers brought in were mostly seniors and gone after a year or two.

[JosephC]

On 10/13/2025 at 11:54 PM, Recovering Chicagoan said:

It seems the majority of Wisconsin fans thought the Fickell hiring was a good move. I guess I did, too. I'm sure this has been discussed on this board, but what are the main reasons it failed? 

When you are looking at 2-10 as a real possibility, then almost everything is a failure.

Go to the 10 minute mark.  If what is said is true, the culture of the program is pretty much ruined.  This "corporate" approach may work in a football factory like Georgia or Alabama, but it will never work at schools like Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois or Minnesota.

 

It's also time for Wisconsin fans and the podcasters to stop crying about NIL money.

https://247sports.com/longformarticle/college-footballs-top-50-programs-ranked-by-nil-efforts-235181311/#2472519

If that is anywhere near accurate, it shouldn't be a problem.  Occasionally Wisconsin would pull in a top 20 recruiting class, but more often than not, they would sit in the 26-35 range and were still very successful with those types of classes.  If they are top 30 in NIL resources, there is no way they should get completely bullied off the field by Iowa.

So I had looked at all the incoming transfers from this last off-season.  To me the results seem pretty lacking.  I'd argue that the only "difference-maker" in the group is Mason Reiger, and it's not like he's pushing for first or second team all-Big 10 honors.  They picked up many DLmen, a starting CB, David Heinzen who crapped out at LT and is now in the interior.  Billy Edwards has a very small sample size so far, but when he's been on the field he hasn't even been able to complete 50% of his passes (not to mention, his transfer has many people in Madison running to grab the nearest barf bag).

So generally the first season of high school recruiting is lost, considering that, Fickell has had two recruiting classes so far.  With as terrible as this team is, one would figure that a bunch of those redshirt freshmen and true freshmen would be pushing for playing time.  And who has been the best player out of those two classes so far, Dilin Jones?  Jones hasn't looked like anything really special.

As far as the coaching staff, Tressel's 2-4-5/3-3-5/4-2-5 seems like it was built for Conference USA/MAC football.  It sure didn't seem to work when they got to play big-boy Iowa.  I know I'll get ripped for saying this, but I've heard enough criticism about Grimes gimmicky play-calling to think that he is a downgrade from Longo.  I was super high on Blazek, but the results there have been terrible.  You go through the list of position coaches, and most of them seem pretty young and inexperienced, and the guys who have been around for a long time have most of their experience coaching at Grand Valley State.  Paul Haynes is one of the few guys that has a real solid resume coaching at the higher levels.  I'm not saying you need a staff filled with old guys, but Wisconsin definitely seems to have a lack of higher-level coaching experience on their staff.

So pick one main reason?  Fickell has turned this program into a complete mess.  If what Collin Wilder said in the above video is true, they have definite culture issues.  Add in the fact that the coaching staff doesn't seem to be all that great and they clearly are not getting in good enough players, it's no surprise that 2-10 is a real possibility.

[LouisEly]

43 minutes ago, JosephC said:

With as terrible as this team is, one would figure that a bunch of those redshirt freshmen and true freshmen would be pushing for playing time.  And who has been the best player out of those two classes so far, Dilin Jones?

Kevin Heywood was supposed to be the starting LT but is out for the season.
Emerson Mandell is starting at RT.
Tucker Ashcraft is the starting TE but has been injured.
Trech Kekahuna is a starting WR.
Eugene Hilton is #5 in WR snaps.  
Mason Posa has become the #3 ILB and Cooper Catalano has become the #4 ILB.
Omillo Agard started at CB last week.
Grant Stec has been their #3 TE, Dillan Johnson is  in the rotation at DT.
 

[JosephC]

18 minutes ago, LouisEly said:

Kevin Heywood was supposed to be the starting LT but is out for the season.
Emerson Mandell is starting at RT.
Tucker Ashcraft is the starting TE but has been injured.
Trech Kekahuna is a starting WR.
Eugene Hilton is #5 in WR snaps.  
Mason Posa has become the #3 ILB and Cooper Catalano has become the #4 ILB.
Omillo Agard started at CB last week.
Grant Stec has been their #3 TE, Dillan Johnson is  in the rotation at DT.
 

I couldn't have explained 2-4 (on the way to 3-9 or 2-10) any better than what you just did...unless someone wants to make the argument that a healthy Kevin Heywood and Tucker Ashcraft would turn this into a 6-7 team.

[LouisEly]

On 10/13/2025 at 10:54 PM, Recovering Chicagoan said:

It seems the majority of Wisconsin fans thought the Fickell hiring was a good move. I guess I did, too. I'm sure this has been discussed on this board, but what are the main reasons it failed? 

Basically, almost everything internally and externally has gone wrong.

1) Fickell had good assistants at Cincinnati, but they were too good - they were offered by ND to be their head coach and he brought Cincinnati's OC to be their OC (and ND undoubtedly pays their coordinators more than UW does).  So, unlike some head coaching hires he wasn't able to bring his coordinators with him.

2) Fickell didn't hire good coordinators in Longo and Tressel.  They brought in some position coaches that were bad hires (Bicknell), and some hires were too good (safety coach got poached by Miami, DL coach got poached by Michigan in lateral moves).

3) Chryst's last two recruiting classes were a half-hearted effort at best.  He only brought in 6 OL total in his last three classes, only 3 DL, and the QBs in his last three classes  (Cole Lacrue, Myles Burkett, Deacon Hill, and nobody in 2020) aren't on any P-4 teams if not even FBS.  The talent cupboard was bare - not much was left to develop.  They were already headed to this level before Fickell took over.

4) The starting QBs they brought in all three years have been injured.  Most schools, if forced to play their backup QB, will struggle on offense.

5) We don't know how much they have in NIL - anything public is pure conjecture - but we do know that QBs are expensive, and because they've had to bring in QBs every year we don't know how much they have left after paying the QBs.  We also know that they lost their star young CB Xavier Lucas to higher NIL at Miami.

(On that note, someone at Indiana ponied up $1.6M for Mendoza, the #4 ranked QB in the portal.  Larry Ellison's sugar baby convinced him to pony up $10M for Underwood, the #1 QB recruit.  Someone at UCLA ponied up $1.2M for Iamaleava, the #1 ranked QB in the portal.  The Varsity Collective was only willing/able to pony up $750K for Edwards.)

5b) We also know that the Chancellor required the athletic department to "play by the book" with regards to NIL.  Kids were required to be on campus before a dollar of NIL was paid..  Other schools were giving kids checks up front when they committed.

[homer]

Cignetti turned around Indiana (INDIANA) over the football equivalent of a long weekend. I'm not saying UW has to be a top 5 team. Just be a competitive team. 

[CheezWizHed]

2 hours ago, LouisEly said:

The problem is that it takes at least three years to do that.  Fickell is on year three, and his recruiting classes (which have been very good) are true freshmen and redshirt freshmen/true sophomores.  

Very few players are left from 3-4 years ago.  Chryst's last two recruiting classes were a half-hearted effort at best.  He only brought in 6 OL total in his last three classes, only 3 DL, and the QBs in his last three classes  (Cole Lacrue, Myles Burkett, Deacon Hill, and nobody in 2020) aren't on any P-4 teams if not even FBS.  The transfers brought in were mostly seniors and gone after a year or two.

It takes 3 years for a freshman to become an NFL level player, but each year there should be players ending the season better than they started. How many can you name that did that one under Fickell? 

Perhaps lacking the right OC,DC, and position coaches are majorly to blame there, but I just don't see players maturing.  They make the same mistakes or have the same deficiencies that they had the previous season. 

[JosephC]

7 minutes ago, homer said:

Cignetti turned around Indiana (INDIANA) over the football equivalent of a long weekend. I'm not saying UW has to be a top 5 team. Just be a competitive team. 

I won't deny that Cignetti is likely a superior coach, but to turn it around as fast as he did also required a little luck.

Generally the way this works is that a new coach comes in, and year one is lost because you have new systems with players who don't necessarily fit that new system.  The recruiting class almost always turns into a mess because you get a whole bunch of decommits and are left picking through the leftovers and the vast majority of the good/ideal recruits have committed elsewhere.

But year #2 is normally a great recruiting year, because generally the team isn't great and the coach can sell playing time because he's now recruiting guys to fill spots on a bad/mediocre team, and recruiting guys that will specifically fit the schemes.  On-the-field results are generally much the same.

Year #3 is where one would expect to see an rise in the performance level.  And if not, those true freshmen and redshirt freshman that have flashed start getting significant playing time, and at least give the fans hope for the following year.

Year #4 isn't where you necessarily expect to hit the front of that plateau, but the on-field results definitely need to be better.  6-7 is no longer good enough.

Fickell was 7-6 in his first season at Wisconsin.

Fickell was 5-7 in his second season at Wisconsin.

Fickell is 2-4 currently and likely projects to either 2 or 3 wins for the season.

This year, even if you are not good, there should be some of Fickell's recruits and/or transfers that give one hope for the future.  But frankly, based on everything I've read, there just isn't those guys on this team.  If Mason Reiger and Dilin Jones are the future studs on the program, then Wisconsin is in big trouble.  And that's not a knock on those guys.  Solid players have real value, but you would hope to have a couple of guys who look like difference-maker/splash type players, and I'm not seeing any of those.

Not to mention that from year 1 to year 3 there should be some improvement.  It's a real possibility they could back up from a 7 win team to a 2 win team from years 1 to 3.

I'm not seeing anything that should/would/could save Fickell outside of buyout money and McIntosh's ego.  The performance by him and the rest of the coaching staff has been terrible.

[homer]

Yeah Cignetti is probably an outlier. 

 

I want to give Fickell the benefit of the doubt and blame it on Longo. It has to be hard to reset everything when you switch coordinators especially one with a system like Longo's. But Fickell hired Longo. And that still doesn't excuse the defense which has been mediocre to bad.

I would be interested to know if there has been a program that got progressively worse the first three years of a coach's tenure and then became really good in year 4, 5, 6. Maybe that would offer me some hope.

[LouisEly]

6 minutes ago, homer said:

I would be interested to know if there has been a program that got progressively worse the first three years of a coach's tenure and then became really good in year 4, 5, 6. Maybe that would offer me some hope.

Butch Davis at Miami.