Wisconsin’s Luke Fickell Seems Aware the Clock Is Ticking

Will pressure make diamonds for the coach in his fourth full season?

Luke Fickell is a shaky 17-21 in four years with Wisconsin. | Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

During a chaotic offseason, Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell has lost his athletic director to the Big Ten office and his chancellor to Columbia.

However, he does not seem to have lost sight of how important 2026 will be both to him and to the Badgers.

"We know that our backs are against the wall, that's the thing that doesn't change," Fickell told ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg in a piece published Thursday.

That is just the latest in a long stream of comments this offseason that suggest, in the aggregate, that Fickell had better generate some results this year. With no spring game on the docket for Wisconsin, here’s a brief look at the state of play in the Badger State.

In Chris McIntosh, Fickell lost an important champion

It was McIntosh—an All-American offensive tackle for Wisconsin in 1999 that worked his way up the Badgers’ athletic department for more than a decade—who snapped up Fickell from Cincinnati ahead of the 2023 season, and his loss was felt deeply.

"It's not easy to lose a friend. We've all been through it in the past and that's the difficult thing," Fickell said on April 14 after news of McIntosh’s departure to become the BIg Ten’s deputy commissioner of strategy became official. “It's always a little difficult, disappointing, whatever you want to say, but you know, so is life. You gotta be able to move and continue to go on.”

His replacement in the interim is Marcus Sedberry, who backed Fickell publicly Thursday.

“I don't think it changes one bit,” Sedberry said via John Steppe of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel of Fickell’s job security. “Luke is really clear on what he wants to and needs to do. I don't think me in this role, or anyone in this role, changes that.”

Fickell thrived at Cincinnati—but Wisconsin has proven a challenge

The Bearcats hired Fickell as their coach before the 2017 season to replace Tommy Tuberville, gambling that he’d been dealt a bad hand during his slog of a stint as probation-riddled Ohio State’s interim coach in 2011.

They were correct. After a 4-8 introduction in 2017, Fickell won 11 games three times in the next four seasons (and went 9-1 in the pandemic-abbreviated season he didn’t). Cincinnati, which had finished in the Top 25 four times ever, finished in the Top 25 in all four of those years. In 2021, it became the first Group of 5 program to reach the CFP. The Bearcats, joining a long line of programs to thrive off Ohioan players overlooked by the Buckeyes, watched the NFL draft more than a dozen of their players under Fickell.

His success justified the seven-year contract the Badgers gave him upon his 2022 hiring—at the time. Since then, he has 7-6, 5-7 and 4-8, bringing Wisconsin’s 22-year bowl streak to an unceremonious end.

A lot will be on the line for Luke Fickell and Wisconsin in 2026. | Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

Why Wisconsin brought Fickell back

“Money” is a reductive answer, but here’s the cold financial reality: if the Badgers canned Fickell in 2025, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported in November, they would’ve owed him $25 million. The sensible accounting move was to increase investment in the football program and hope for the best.

"If Wisconsin is going to be as competitive as we expect, the support has to be as competitive," McIntosh said then via Thamel. "There's no getting around it. Our people, our fans are passionate about Wisconsin football. I'd have it no other way. A successful football program is important to university, the state and our lettermen."

That, however, will do little to quiet Fickell’s detractors. Remember that the Badgers went 67-26 under their old boss, Paul Chryst—winning the Cotton and Orange Bowls and nearly making the CFP in 2017. For around three decades, Wisconsin has been the Big Ten’s most consistently successful program west of the Indiana/Michigan divide. This recent run of middling football has been an unwelcome interruption for the denizens of Dane County.

Can Wisconsin rebound in 2026?

The Badgers lured dual-threat Old Dominion quarterback Colton Joseph via the transfer portal on Jan. 4, and Fickell has raved about him this offseason. Years of subpar quarterback play have hampered Wisconsin, and if Joseph performs remotely close to his `25 Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Year numbers, improvement will follow.

Critically, the Badgers avoid Indiana, Michigan, Ohio State and Oregon on the schedule this year. Potential land mines include Notre Dame in the opener, Penn State on Sept. 26, and Iowa on Oct. 31 (each of the last two on the road). If—huge if—Wisconsin beats the teams on its level and steals a game or two from those above it, we could be looking at a ranked team deep in this bellwether season.

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