Luke Fickell considers whether Wisconsin program is worse than when he took over

Coming into his tenure, Wisconsin had routinely, in every season besides the shortened one, won eight-plus, if not double-digit, games over multiple coaches. Now, in three seasons in Madison, Luke Fickell has gotten worse each campaign, including this one so far at just 2-4.

Following the Badgers’ latest loss in a 37-0 shutout at home to Iowa on Saturday, Fickell answered a question of if their program is in a better place now than when he took it over in November of 2022. He answered with an obvious no, especially at this moment with Wisconsin already having the record that they do this fall.

“It’s, you know – better position? No,” Fickell said after a short pause to think. “I mean, right this second, we’re not feeling real good.”

Through two and a half seasons, Fickell is 15-17 (.469) overall at Wisconsin. 7-6 in year one and 5-7 in year two, though, has now turned in to 2-4 so far in year three, with it not expected to get much better considering how difficult the back half of their schedule is. The Badgers are then on a four-game losing streak, losing all four by double digits and an average margin of 23 points, against No. 19 Alabama, Maryland, No. 20 Michigan, and Iowa, with yesterday’s loss to the Hawkeyes being the worst of the season and worst for the program since 2014.

Fickell knew what he said next may have sounded like excuse-making. But, considering some of the injuries and issues they’ve dealt with to this point this season, he doesn’t even know where their team stands, as they make it hard to evaluate just how off they are from their school’s standard.

“I can dig deep into it. I could say that I think, you know, incrementally, we’ve gotten better talent in some ways. But, it’s tough to evaluate right now,” said Fickell. “I think, the deficiencies, the injuries? And, I’m not making excuses. But, where we are on the offensive line, and where we are at quarterback? It makes it really difficult to answer that question, I think, in the best way possible. But I do believe, as we started, you know, fall camp, I would tell you that we were in a better place, and I think, incrementally, we had gotten better in most positions. And I would also tell you that I think a lot of other people have gotten incrementally a hell of a lot better as well.”

“And so, what that has done is put us still in the position where, you know, no, we’re not better than most of the people, or maybe anybody right now, that we’re playing,” Fickell said.

It’s clear that this is not up meeting the expectations that they have inside Camp Randall. It’s now just a matter of whether or not that Fickell will get any more chances to fix it, whether during the rest of this season or if he were to get another one at Wisconsin.