Luke Fickell addresses where his job security stands amid Wisconsin's struggles

Luke Fickell has to address job security questions at this point. The Wisconsin head coach is 15-17 in three-plus years and 2-4 this year.

Fickell was asked how he would go about addressing the fanbase, especially in terms of convincing everyone he is still the right guy for the job. It was an interesting answer from the Badgers’ head coach.

“I don’t know that that’s my position, right,” Fickell said. “I mean, first and foremost, I got to make sure that the locker room is the most important thing, right? I’m not going to change people’s minds outside of the results obviously change people’s minds. So to go out there and start some campaign of some sorts like, the truth the matter is, you know, we got to go game by game. We got to get the guys inside this locker room.

“That’s what I asked about, right? I mean, like they could be mad at me. They can be down on me. That’s, that’s perfectly fine, but don’t be down on those guys in that locker room, those guys that wear the ‘W,’ the guys that go out there, you know, they can scream and holler if they don’t make a play that they want to make, but they got to be able to support them.” 

Fickell showed some noticeable improvement in 2023, going 7-6 after Wisconsin came off a down year. However, the Badgers went 5-7 last year and a bowl game might not happen again this year.

“And I think that’s the most important thing, is recognizing what are you really supporting, and what do you really love,” Fickell said. “And you know, for me to sit here and worry about all those other things, there’s not enough time in the day, there’s not enough energy in the day. So the focus for me and for our staff is on the guys inside that locker room and doing everything we can to make sure that we keep that thing rolling. 

“They’ve got the right mindset. They understand what we got to do. We got to do it together, and we got to put our best product out there on Saturday.”

Wisconsin and Fickell had a massive challenge coming to Madison this weekend. No. 1 Ohio State makes the trip and the Badgers have to travel to Oregon next week. Safe to say, the upcoming stretch of games could make or break Fickell’s tenure.