Another tidbit I heard that possibly moved Mac away from Leonhard was that Leonhard felt the team didn't need to make a drastic change with respect to NIL, and where the team was headed, and Mac disagreed. There were some rumblings that Leonhard was seen a bit as another Chryst with respect to energizes boosters (Chryst hated the schmoozing part of college football, where Bielema was quite good at it). The Gridiron Club being an example. I don't know if Chryst lost the lockerroom but there was some fear the lockerroom wasn't entirely behind Leonhard, either. I think it was just a weird year in general.
Fickell was more willing to look at the program and where it was with NIL and the college landscape and that also led Mac to go away from Leonhard.
I hated the move at the time because I figured Leonhard would build a great staff and keep the continuity with a good defense but when thinking objectively, I figured Fickell would be the slam dunk hire as it was described at the time.
Hindsight is 20/20. Leonhard isn't going to be back with UW in any capacity until Mac is gone.