Is Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell on the hot seat entering 2025?

Luke Fickell’s first two seasons as Wisconsin’s head coach have not gone as planned. The team is 12-13 overall, anchored by a 5-7 2024 campaign that saw the program miss a bowl game for the first time since 2001.

That performance falls far below the expectation set by both Fickell and athletic director Chris McIntosh in November of 2022. Both used the word ‘championships’ throughout Fickell’s introductory press conference, setting the bar at competing for both the Big Ten and the College Football Playoff.

This year’s losses to rivals Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota by a combined margin of 110-42 paint an accurate picture of where things currently stand. For the first time ever, the Badgers failed to retain any of the three rivalry trophies.

The team will now look different entering 2025. Fickell fired offensive coordinator Phil Longo after the Badgers’ narrow Week 12 loss to Oregon. He has since hired Kansas’ Jeff Grimes, a veteran coordinator who is set to return the program to its pro-style roots. That substantial change is somewhat of an admission that the hire of Longo and departure from Wisconsin’s classic identity was a mistake. It also creates a clean slate entering 2025, which will likely be Fickell’s one do-over at the position. It’s rare that coaches get to hire several new coordinators without their own jobs coming into question.

With all of that in mind, ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg released his annual ‘college football coaching hot seat tiers‘ earlier this week. He listed Fickell in a tier titled ‘We want this to work,’ implying that he has extra breathing room given both the school and Mcintosh’s investment in his tenure.

Here is what Rittenberg wrote about the Badgers’ head coach:

When Wisconsin picked Fickell over Jim Leonhard, the hire represented a departure from the Barry…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/wisconsin-head-coach-luke-fickell-133958292.html

Author : Badgers Wire

Publish date : 2025-01-08 13:39:00

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