Luke Fickell addresses whether he will consider midseason staff changes

Following the 2024 season, Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell made significant changes to his coaching staff hoping to produce better results. So far they have not materialized.

Wisconsin went 5-7 last season and has started this campaign off 2-4. Saturday was the most humiliating result yet, a 37-0 thumping at the hands of Iowa.

After the game, Luke Fickell was asked if he might make staff changes again. If anything, he seemed to regret the previous changes he had made.

“I mean everything’s being evaluated,” Fickell said. “I’ve got to look at myself before I can look at anybody else. So, no. It’s like the same thing in the locker room.”

After last season’s five-win campaign, Luke Fickell jettisoned offensive coordinator Phil Longo. Wisconsin’s offense ranked just 99th nationally, averaging 350.3 yards per game.

This year, under new offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes? The unit ranks 129th and is averaging 292.5 yards per game, nearly a 60 yards per game drop.

The scoring average is even worse, going from 22.6 points per game to 15.5 points per game. Nothing has worked.

“Hindsight, I don’t know that that was ever a great decision,” Fickell said. “It wasn’t for coaching, it was for some different reasons.”

Whatever the case, Luke Fickell’s tenure seems all but dead in the water. Sure, Wisconsin plays one of the toughest schedules in the country. But that isn’t changing — three of the next four opponents are ranked in the top 10 nationally.

“Where we are it’s not like we can start giving in on each other, and I think that’s the most important thing,” Fickell said. “We’ve got the right people meaning doing what we need to do, we’ve just got to do it a hell of a lot better.”

So Luke Fickell and company will soldier on, knowing there may not be a clean exit. It’s a tough position to be in.

“Like I said, there is no easy, quick fix,” Fickell said. “OK, all the sudden we switch somebody up or do something different and it’s going to make a complete and total difference. No, this is something that has to be done very consistently and with a hell of a lot of people as opposed to just one, one person.”