Flood: Was Saturday the Beginning of the End?

MADISON, Wis. — The rain stopped pouring at Camp Randall Stadium roughly two hours prior to kickoff. However, the ‘boos’ kept raining down throughout Saturday’s 27-10 loss to Maryland (4-0). I called Saturday the most important game of the Luke Fickell era. Not because a win for Wisconsin (2-2) would do anything for the program, but because of what a loss might mean. Not only did the Badgers lose, they were outclassed and dragged by a Maryland team that had never beaten the UW program and finished 17th in the Big Ten Conference last season.

Not that they weren’t before, but all the questions, all the concern, all the criticism of Fickell leading up to Saturday, it all just got very real.

Fickell has been at the crossroads since his team’s five-game losing streak to end the 2024 season. After Saturday, I think it’s fair to say he’s now on the wrong side of the tracks. Following Saturday’s loss, the most damaging of his career, Fickell accepted responsibility. However, I’m not sure there are many folks left out there who cared what he had to say.

“That’s a really difficult one,” Fickell said in his opening statement. “We did not play well today, and I’m the first one to start with that.”

That’s been said a few times since 2023 now. Saturday’s defeat was perhaps the toughest on the eyes since I started covering the program in 2010 and since I’ve been watching regularly, which started in the early 2000’s. If you don’t include that final meaningless touchdown drive, Wisconsin finished with just over 200 yards of total offense and ran for 61 yards on 42 carries. The Badgers also surrendered six sacks and went 3-of-17 on third down. Again…this was against MARYLAND.

In the post game press conference, the media went probing for answers, and Fickell took things in a lot of different directions. It started with a lack of confidence from his players, and then he pointed to losing Billy Edwards in the first quarter as a deflating moment. Most of the hard-hitting press conference questions resulted in a lot of long-winded responses that boiled down to putting their heads down and getting back to work — a good attitude, but doesn’t solve anything in the short or long term, at least not anymore.

Wisconsin has been trying to turn things around since 2020 and it’s only gotten worse, with things hitting an all-time low Saturday. Looking at the way the Badgers were unable to get any sort of push on the offensive line, how their quarterback was running for his life, and how open the opposing receivers were at times, it felt like UW was facing Ohio State at times. But they weren’t. Instead, it was Maryland, who has never had a winning record in Big Ten play.

Fickell is now 15-15 overall as head coach at Wisconsin. The Badgers have lost six consecutive Big Ten games, five of which have come by double digits. At some point, it has to be realized that the answer is something greater than anything going on in the weight room, film study, or between the lines on Saturdays. Huge transfer classes, strong recruiting classes, numerous new hires, and establishing a player-led leadership council — none of it has mattered yet.

Trying to reveal said answer, I asked Fickell if he could put a finger on a bigger issue inside the locker room or behind the scenes to explain what has happened to a once proud program since his arrival.

“I don’t oversell. I really don’t,” he said. “In the short amount of time, I hope you guys have recognized that. And I do believe the cultures, those things those guys are, what we are, is what our strengths need to be. But there’s a lack of identity right now in trying to figure out what that is. There’s some ups and downs that when things don’t go well, we’ve had a hard time getting ourselves out of that hole. That’s just unfortunate to where we are right now.

“When you’ve got a group of leadership, it can be a good thing, but when you don’t have a leader or the leader, it can be a little bit more difficult. I know that’s what I am and I’m supposed to be, and I need to be, but from within, it makes it a little bit more difficult. And I’ll be honest, Billy has been that since he walked in the door here, and he still continues to try to be that, but without him out there right now, it does leave a little bit of that void.

“But there’s frustration in there. Don’t get me wrong. Everybody hurts. I don’t overly worry about that, keeping them and finding a way to create and generate more of an identity is, to me, the biggest thing.”

Not sure much of that had to do with what I was asking, but round and round we go with “identity” again. Almost three years later, we still don’t have an answer to what is Wisconsin football under Fickell?

It can be a buzz term, but if any era of Wisconsin football speaks to a lack of identity, it’s the one we’re currently living through. Despite massive changes on offense to try and establish a punishing run game, the Badgers put up a whopping 61 yards on 42 carries against a Maryland, a team that surrendered almost 200 yards on the ground to Northern Illinois two weeks ago. Getting bigger and stronger defensively has had some benefits. The Badgers are one of the best in the country at stopping the run, but nobody would say they’ve been overly tested yet.

“I can’t tell you what our identity is,” said Fickell.

There is somewhat of an identity. Just not a positive one. Wisconsin is a team that fails to move on from first big mistake or punch thrown. On Saturday, it came early. The Badgers drove right down the field and got in field goal range for Nathanial Vakos. Maryland blocks the kick and proceeds to score 17 unanswered points. Meanwhile, UW was sloppy and almost lifeless up until a meaningless 80-yard touchdown drive to close the game.

It almost doesn’t matter when the first miscue happens, either. They can be playing their best ball at home against No. 3 Penn State. At home, under the lights, all the momentum on their side, the Badgers crumbled as soon as Braedyn Locke threw that interception, and they never got over it, losing the final five games and missing the postseason for the first time since 2001. And you can point to those swings in just about every loss of the Fickell era.

Right now, the identity is a program that, mentally, feels very fragile.

“It starts with the attitude,” said junior guard Joe Brunner. “I don’t know if the whole team doesn’t have it or if they do, but you’ve gotta be tough, nasty, disciplined. We’ve got to address that and see who’s not and who is. I think you’ve gotta address the attitude that guys have going into game week. When they line up across from someone, are they trying to put them in the dirt?”

Boy, a lot can change in a few years.

Fickell’s hiring was viewed as a can’t-miss and a home run. He came in with a championship or bust mentality and everybody, myself included, ate it up. And unless you were married to Chryst or Leonhard, why wouldn’t you? This was a guy who took Cincinnati of all schools to the college football playoffs. USC wanted Fickell. Couldn’t get him. Notre Dame wanted him. No-go. And Fickell settled on Wisconsin, a place he felt matched his identity. For far too long the Badgers were just sitting on the stoop in front of the door that opened to the big boys of college football. Fickell was the guy who was going to knock that door down.

To Fickell’s credit, I don’t believe this is a locker room that’s given up on him. Wisconsin came out with fire in the second half. For whatever reason, they just couldn’t do anything with it outside of a field goal from Vakos. That wasn’t a team that quit on Saturday, which the Badgers admittedly did in 2024.

The good news for Fickell and his future? There are a lot of opportunities left. You beat Michigan, Ohio State, or Oregon — heck, even just get a trophy or two back from Iowa and Minnesota, and a lot will be forgiven. Not all, but damage can still be undone. I’ve been wrong before, but from everything I hear, I don’t think athletic director Chris McIntosh is looking to make any big changes this season or before 2026. Obviously, there’s a long way to go, and there was once a time when McIntosh wasn’t planning on doing anything with the previous head coach.

If McIntosh learned anything from his previous big decision, you don’t fire a head coach until you’re certain there’s no way back and you definitely don’t make emotional firings. However, Saturday felt like rock bottom in more ways than one.

Fickell needs to give the fans, the alumni, and his returning players something to hang onto here. Two years ago, he inherited more of a mess than any of us knew. He also took over a locker room that was loyal to Paul Chryst and Jim Leonhard. There was still light at the end of the tunnel. Last season, Wisconsin played most of the year with a backup quarterback who was in over his head, a defensive scheme that didn’t fit the Big Ten, and an offensive coordinator who didn’t mesh with the head coach. Hit the refresh button, try again, and there was still light at the end of the tunnel.

Barely getting by against Miami (OH), struggling for 2.5 quarters versus Middle Tennessee State, back-to-back games where Wisconsin looks like they don’t belong on the same field as their opponent — all this on the heels of a five-game losing streak to end the previous season — I’m having a hard time seeing any light right now.

Fickell may not have heard the frustrations from the fan base on Saturday, at least he said as much. But Fickell insists nobody is hurting more or trying to right the ship more than him.

“I’m frustrated,” he said. “It eats at my gut every single day, but I’m here every down, ‘pound the rock, pound the rock.’ We have to stay in a belief that we’re going to find our way through this. It’s just gonna be a helluva a battle.”