Dan 'Big Cat' Katz shreds the current state of Wisconsin football: 'The culture is broken'

A noted Wisconsin alumnus and Badgers football fan, Dan Katz of Barstool Sports is upset with where the program currently stands. There’s a number of fans who are of the same thinking as Wisconsin as things continue to go south in the third season under coach Luke Fickell.

The Badgers (2-6, 0-5 Big Ten) are in the midst of a six-game losing streak and would need to win out the rest of the regular season just to make a bowl game. If that doesn’t happen, which is looking extremely likely at this point, it would be the second straight year Wisconsin missed a bowl game. The Badgers had previously made a bowl for 22 straight seasons from 2002 to 2023, which was Fickell’s inaugural season.

Appearing on Andy and Ari On3, Katz, who is more well-known by his nickname “Big Cat,” didn’t hold back in stating what he believes is wrong at Wisconsin. He called out athletic director Chris McIntosh and others for being unwilling to adapt to NIL early on while also abandoning the identity that made Wisconsin so successful the previous two decades.

“The culture is broken, and that’s where Chris McIntosh thinks that they can slap a Band-Aid on it,” he said. “…You’ve heard former players say the culture is broken. The one thing you would always say going into the season is, ‘Wisconsin has big guys from Wisconsin to play O-line and they’ve got some awesome running back from South Florida or New Jersey.’ Right? That was it every single year. Everything else would figure itself out. …They’re losing the big guys in Wisconsin to Minnesota and Illinois. Some of these recruiting battles are just, it’s broken.

“It’s going to take time to rebuild this and it’s not gonna be Luke Fickell and Chris McIntosh. I’m pretty convinced of it. So going another year down this road, delaying it for another year and going another year down into the bottom of the Big Ten, it’s just insane. Again, it goes back to the chancellor doesn’t care. I don’t think they fully grasp how behind they are right now in the new college football landscape. Every second they keep their head in the sand, they’re gonna be even further and further behind.”

It wasn’t long ago that Wisconsin was a perennial contender in the Big Ten, even winning three straight Big Ten Championships from 2010-12. The Badgers competed for a conference title as recently as 2019 but have been an afterthought of late.

At this point, it’s clear the fans are beginning to lose faith in Fickel and the current staff in place, Katz included. We’ll see whether Wisconsin makes a change at the end of this year or possibly even sooner with only four games remaining in the regular season.