Wisconsin Badgers injuries don't excuse coaching missteps from Luke Fickell in bad 2025 season

The Wisconsin Badgers dealt with major injuries all season long that made life a lot more difficult for Luke Fickell and his coaching staff each week.

It's clear that they were a major factor in the team's 4-8 record this season, but they don't excuse or explain away everything that went wrong for the team this season.

At times, coaching decisions took a bad situation and made things worse.

Wisconsin had too much trouble properly identifying its own talent and giving opportunities to the players who proved to be their best options, regardless of injuries.

A lot of people have been asking about the Badgers swath of injuries this season

I thought Fickell gave a very telling answer to my question yesterday, stating “older guys will train differently” moving forward

This is clearly something he’s thought about quite a bit too pic.twitter.com/HGKaj32rL2
— Riley Jauch (@rileyjauch) November 18, 2025

It started right away in Week 1 against Miami (OH). Billy Edwards' injury proved to be destructive to the team's success, but the first game of the season also revealed significant miscalculations along the offensive line.

The Badgers spent all summer trying to find the starting lineup that would give them the best chance of being successful.

It took only one game to realize they failed to find that group.

Left tackle Davis Heinzen was benched. Right tackle Riley Mahlman flipped to the left side. Right guard Emerson Mandell kicked out to right tackle, and Colin Cubberly came off the bench to start at right guard.

Four players changed roles after one game. That was a coaching failure, separate from the injuries that would eventually hit the offensive line as well.

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A similar dynamic played out over a longer period of time at running back, where offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes was constantly tweaking the rotation before injuries ever set in.

Dilin Jones earned the Week 1 starting job above Darrion Dupree and Cade Yacamelli on the depth chart.

From week to week, Jones and Dupree saw their number of carries vary significantly, and the ground game didn't have much discernible rhythm as to when and why each player would be on the field.

Then injuries started piling up, and the Badgers were forced to turn to fourth-string RB Gideon Ituka, who looked like their most consistent running for the second half of the season until he got hurt.

Dupree finished the year strong with big performances against Illinois and Minnesota, raising more questions as to why he didn't get more opportunities earlier in the season when he was healthy.

And even at quarterback, where injuries were the most impactful, the healthy passers weren't being put in favorable positions.

Related: Wisconsin Badgers quarterbacks reached new levels of disappointment in rough 2025 season

It took until the second bye week for Fickell and his staff to redesign the offense that they built around Edwards and tailor it to their backup quarterbacks that didn't have the same skillset.

Grimes also decided to go to a two-quarterback rotation during a number of games late in the season, preventing either player from getting into a rhythm and making the offense more predictable for opposing defenses.

These coaching decisions compounded the challenges already created by injuries.

That's not to say that better choices by Fickell and his staff would have allowed them to overcome all of the injuries and difficult schedule they faced.

But they can't allow themselves to think injuries were the cause of all of their problems in 2025. The coaching staff has to be better themselves in 2026 if they want to keep their jobs another year.

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