Saturday’s 27-10 loss to the Maryland Terrapins was an absolute low point in the Luke Fickell era for the Wisconsin Badgers, as they fell completely flat in a must-win game.
Wisconsin, coming in as near double-digit favorites, needed to make a statement in the Big Ten opener, as they were already behind the 8-ball in their goal to make a bowl game. Instead, they lost a game that their program has regularly won over the years.
That raised questions about the future of the program and head coach Luke
Fickell, as fans began to chant ‘Fire Fickell’ during the game, with boos coming loud throughout the game.
That leads us to the question: is Fickell the guy to right the ship at Wisconsin? Or has that ship sailed after a disappointing two plus years at the helm?
“Well, I mean, where else is there to go right now for us? Look, I can’t think about anything else other than 110, 112 guys that are in that locker room, a group of coaches,” Fickell said in response to why he’s the person to turn the program around.
“The leadership has to find a way to continue to push, to continue to show and be an example of what pound the rock looks like. And that’s what I am. And you know, it is what it is, right? It’s not easy. Everybody can have their own opinions of things, but the truth of the matter is, there’s no easy way out of this thing. There’s no magic, there’s no sprinkle some fairy dust. If we just make one little change here, we can find a way to get through this thing. This is going to be a battle, and it’s going to be a constant ability to pound the rock, continue to push forward and find the ones that are going to do it with you.”
For the Badgers to turn things around, there needs to be complete buy-in from the locker room. And it’s unclear whether the team really has that at the moment. Does Fickell feel like he’s lost the locker room?
“I don’t [feel like that’s the case],” Fickell said on Saturday. “I don’t over sell, I really don’t. I think, in a short amount of time, I hope you guys have recognized like: that’s not me. And I do believe that the culture, the things those guys are, and what we are is what our strengths need to be. There’s a lack of identity right now, and trying to figure out what that is. And, there are some ups and downs that when things don’t go well that we’ve had a hard time getting ourselves out of the hole, and that’s just unfortunate to where we are right now.
“When you’ve got a group of leadership, it can be a good thing, but when you don’t have a leader or the leader, it can be a little bit more difficult. I know that’s what I am and I’m supposed to be, and I need to be, but from within, it makes it difficult.
“I’ll be honest, Billy has been that since he’s walking the door here, and he still continues to try to be that, but without him out there right now, it does leave a little bit of that void. But, there’s frustration in there. Don’t get me wrong, everybody hurts. Everybody wants [to win] and then there’s some emotional things that are happening, but I mean, that’s got to be the strength of who we are. I don’t overly worry about that. Keeping them and finding a way to create and generate more of an identity is, to me, the biggest thing right now.”
How the Badgers respond over the course of the season and how hard the team fights will determine whether Fickell has lost the locker room or not. But, things are looking bleak for a program that had so much hype when FIckell was initially hired in 2022.
