With Chris McIntosh Gone, Luke Fickell Knows: 'You Gotta Win'

With the man who hired him, and then publicly supported him following his abysmal performance, out of town, Wisconsin football head coach Luke Fickell is officially on his own.

Wisconsin's athletic director Chris McIntosh took a job with the Big Ten Conference, a newly created role in which he'll help "lead overall strategy development," according to a release.

With Fickell's top supporter no longer in town, the pressure on the coach to turn the Badgers' football program around is even more immense than it already was. Following spring practice number eight, Fickell was predictably asked extensively about the shakeup at the top of the athletic department.

“It’s not easy to lose a friend. We’ve all been through it. That’s the difficult thing. A guy that you can visit with, sit down with," he told reporters Tuesday.

Fickell said that McIntosh informed him of his impending move last week, prior to it being officially announced on Sunday evening.

Wisconsin head football coach Luke Fickell, left, is shown with former athletic director Chris McIntosh. | Mark Hoffman / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK

“The biggest thing for us right now is obviously Marcus Sedberry and what he has to do in his role," Fickell said, referencing his football general manager and current interim athletic director. "Other than that, selfishly speaking, I think it’s a decent time for us. We’re locked in, through all the portal recruiting stuff for this season."

It's not surprising that Fickell speaks so highly of McIntosh. Obviously, he's the man that made the decision to bring Fickell in after he fired Paul Chryst hardly a year into his tenure. Fickell is the first and only coach to take a Group of Six team to the College Football Playoff, and McIntosh has big things ahead in a leadership role with the Big Ten. Still, the two men's Wisconsin legacies are tied tightly together.

McIntosh also issued multiple public statements of support for his hand-picked head coach during the absolute disaster of the 2025 season. Fickell acknowledged he appreciated that, but also lamented the fact that it was necessary in the first place.

“I don’t ever want somebody to have to fight my battles," he said after the Badgers' win over Washington.

Fickell Knows What He Has To Do

McIntosh's departure affects all 23 varsity sports programs at Wisconsin. But it's no secret that all eyes are on football, the primary revenue driver for any major athletic department.

The Badgers' recent stretch of poor play on the gridiron has raised all kinds of bigger-picture questions about the football program: is Wisconsin's NIL good enough? Is it getting enough help from state lawmakers? Are the alumni relations falling apart?

Still, Fickell knows the solution is really quite simple:

“The easiest thing for us to understand is, you gotta win," he said.

And he's right. There's no better way to silence the doubters, no better way to pump cash into the program, no better way to make Badger fans forget that they were chanting "Fire Fickell" relentlessly last fall.

Fickell knows he's on his own with McIntosh gone. And he knows there's only one way to get back in the good graces of Badger fans.

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