Athlon Sports assesses Luke Fickell's hot seat temperature entering 2025

When the Wisconsin Badgers first hired Luke Fickell, it was looked at as a home run move. Now, after two full seasons, there is growing impatience for Fickell to replicate what he did at Cincinnati and it appears his hot seat is starting to grow.

Ahead of the 2025 season, Athlon Sports broke down several coaches on the hot seat. That included Luke Fickell, who just missed out on a bowl game last season.

“After a 57-18 record and a trip to the College Football Playoff at Cincinnati, Fickell was a heralded hire in 2023,” Athlon wrote. “But two years later, Fickell is on the hot seat with a 12-13 record, and the program missed a bowl last season for the first time since ’01.”

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Luke Fickell was a longtime assistant at Ohio State, who spent one difficult season there as the interim head coach, bridging the gap between Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer. That led to him getting the Cincinnati job in 2017. There, he was tasked with a Group of Five rebuild. It was a situation he thrived in, winning 11 games in his second season there. He’d put together four straight top-25 finishes and made the four-team College Football Playoff in 2021.

At the time, Fickell was seen as the best available coach and Wisconsin landed him when they were looking to find a replacement for Paul Chryst. He came in right away to coach the 2022 bowl game before hitting the ground running for his first full season in 2023. At the time, he inherited a Wisconsin team that had both won a bowl game in every season since 2001 but had been trending in the wrong direction.

Of course, Luke Fickell wouldn’t be on the hot seat now if things had gone perfectly since then. The Badgers are just 13-13 under Fickell, including that 2022 bowl game. They’re also just 8-10 in Big Ten play. Last season, in particular, was thrown into chaos when starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke was sidelined with an injury that put the offense behind the eight-ball.

Now, the hope is that Wisconsin can take a step forward on offense. To do that, Luke Fickell is turning to Jeff Grimes as their new offensive coordinator. However, they’re going to need to find a new quarterback, with Tyler Van Dyke and his replacement, Braedyn Locke, both leaving the program. Without that, it’s going to be hard to become more consistent as a program.

Wisconsin opens its season on August 28th against Miami (Ohio). After that, Big Ten play opens up on September 20th against Maryland. However, their schedule is highlighted by a nonconference game against Alabama in Tuscaloosa and conference games against Michigan, Ohio State, and Oregon. So, it’s going to be a difficult schedule in 2025 for the Badgers.