Luke Fickell's Wisconsin Badgers record a shocking mirror to end of Paul Chryst era

Paul Chryst was fired after a disastrous Wisconsin Badgers' loss, but one stat from Chryst's last games in Madison puts a revealing mirror to head coach Luke Fickell's tenure

Sep 20, 2025; Madison, Wisconsin, USA; Wisconsin Badgers head coach Luke Fickell looks on during warmups prior to the game against the Maryland Terrapins at Camp Randall Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images | Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

With two-thirds of the 2025 college football season still to play, pressure is mounting on Wisconsin Badgers head coach Luke Fickell. With UW's most recent loss, a 27-10 defeat at home to the Maryland Terrapins, the Badgers fell to 2-2 on the season and 15-15 since Fickell's arrival in Madison.

Despite arriving on campus boasting, through Director of Athletics Chris McIntosh, a desire to "compete for championships," Wisconsin football appears to be trending in the opposite direction. In 2024, the Badgers suffered their first losing season in 23 years. Now, Wisconsin faces the grim reality that it will likely be an underdog in all eight games remaining on its schedule.

When McIntosh fired Fickell's predecessor, Paul Chryst, the Badgers had just fallen below .500 on the season. A 34-10 home loss to the Illinois Fighting Illini, led by former Badgers head coach Bret Bielema, gave Wisconsin a 0-2 start in conference play. It was the first time in over 30 years, since Barry Alvarez's first two seasons in Madison, that UW had back-to-back seasons with 0-2 starts in the Big Ten.

That rocky start to the 2022 season ended Chryst's tenure, despite leading the Badgers to eight regular-season wins the year prior.

Luke Fickell-Paul Chryst records mirrored in their last 14 games with Wisconsin Badgers

Paul Chryst was fired despite WINNING nine of his final 14 regular-season games.

Luke Fickell has LOST nine of the last 14 regular-season games with the #Badgers.

— Kedrick Stumbris (@KedrickStumbris) September 25, 2025

Wisconsin's 2021 season, capped with a victory in the Las Vegas Bowl over the Arizona State Sun Devils led by eventual Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels, was salvaged after a 1-3 start.

A season-opening loss to the Penn State Nittany Lions, a neutral-site loss to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish led by former Wisconsin starting quarterback Jack Coan, and another home conference loss to the Michigan Wolverines, all top-20 teams, gave Wisconsin its worst start since 1990. Afterwards, however, the Badgers won seven straight games before losing to the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the regular season finale.

That streak gave Chryst a respectable record in his final stretch of games at the helm in Madison. Despite just a 2-3 record to start 2022, the Badgers had won nine of their previous 14 regular-season games when McIntosh decided it was time for a change.

Under Fickell, Wisconsin has lost nine of its last 14 matchups – a parallel that sticks out like a sore thumb next to the end of the Chryst era. If you include that 2021 Las Vegas Bowl win, Wisconsin won 10 of its last 14 before the regime change.

The Badgers are winless in their past six games against Big Ten foes. With UW's next home conference game scheduled for October 11th, it is already guaranteed that the Camp Randall faithful will go more than a full calendar year since seeing the Badgers defeat a Big Ten rival in Madison. Wisconsin's last home win in conference play came on October 4, 2024, when the Badgers blew out the Purdue Boilermakers 52-6 on a sunny Saturday.

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