2025 Wisconsin Season Thread

[FearlessF]

this is about my 4th year of NOT doing the Sharkwater Tailgate in Lincoln

all good/great things must come to an end

[847badgerfan]

It would take a major effort and a lot of air miles to do that these days.

[SFBadger96]

Sitting at 2-2, (0-1), here is what Wisconsin has remaining
Bye (mercifully, but will it matter?)
@Michigan: a team that just beat up a much better offensive line than Wisconsin has. If the Badgers score in Ann Arbor it will be on defense, or a minor miracle.
Iowa: back in Camp Randall against a traditional rival, could Wisconsin pull an upset? Not likely.
Ohio State: no chance, even at home.
@Oregon: nope.
Washington: maybe? not likely, but maybe. The Huskies travel helps.
@Indiana: nope.
Illinois: ??
@Minnesota: ??

I expect the Badgers to be dogs in every remaining game. But if they lose to Iowa at home, this team will be 2-6 (0-4) when it gets back to Camp Randall, likely having been absolutely blasted in its last two games. How will the team have any fight left?

If he wins the next four, you guys are gonna be acting like you had his back the whole time.

You can keep the receipts. I'm not worried about embarrassment, and I'll be happy to be wrong. But it's not happening.


Is McIntosh lining up donor support? Is he scanning the field for who the next hire will be? Or is drowning in his own misery, knowing that picking the head football coach is what the AD is judged on.

Realistically, random chance probably tells me the team will pull one upset and finish 3-9. But 2-10 is more likely than 4-8. And regardless of the injuries, the mistakes this team consistently makes show that it simply isn't prepared. There's no getting around that failure for a coach in his third year.

The time is now to pull the plug. McIntosh has already given the kiss of death "I support the head football coach" line. The only question is whether it comes after getting smoked in Michigan, losing to Iowa at home, getting smoked by Ohio State at home, getting smoked in Eugene, or does McIntosh limp all the way to the bitter 2-10 or 3-9 end, and does the University get rid of him at the same time?

[SFBadger96]

It will be interesting to contrast what happens with McIntosh and Fickell versus how McIntosh handled Chryst. Chryst wasn't McIntosh's guy, but I think a lot of people were surprised when he was fired after losing at home to Illinois (which finished the year 8-5). At that point the Badgers were 0-2 in the B1G, having also lost badly at Ohio State, but coming out of Covid, the Badgers were 9-4 in 2021--the season before the firing. In 2019--so before Covid, the Badgers were competitive in the B1G championship game against Ohio State, but lost by a touchdown, then lost to Oregon in the Rose Bowl by 1. Those aren't the kind of seasons that normally lead to a quick hook for a head coach. It's almost like McIntosh was looking for a reason. To be fair, campus insiders say that recruiting had become a shambles in those intervening years.

Because of the sudden firing, Jim Leonhard was elevated from DC to interim head coach. He had been fielding very good defenses as the DC since 2017. 847Badge says he wasn't much of a recruiter, but he did field aggressive and generally successful units. Once Jim was the interim head coach, he wasn't going to go back to being the DC, which meant he was up or out. And we know the history: out. Did the Badgers turn their season around after losing to a good Illinois team? Not really. Reviewing the rest of their schedule, they were ok--they won games they should have won--although losing in OT at MSU was not great--but they didn't win any remaining big games: they were not especially competitive at Iowa, and Minnesota handled them in Madison.

What does that mean for Fickell in year three? He's only 0-1 in the B1G, but it was as embarrassing a loss as the Badgers have had in a long time. The team didn't look good against the cupcake part of the schedule, and got smoked at Alabama. I'm curious to see how long Fickell remains because the losses will rack up. So after such a short hook for Chryst, how long for Fickell? Or is the buyout just too tough to handle?

EDIT: I'm looking at 2021 and it wasn't a bad season, nor was it especially good, but hardly the stuff of firings. The Badgers started off slowly, losing at home to Penn State, then to Notre Dame at Soldier Field, then at home to Michigan, to finish off a rough 1-3 start, but ND ended the season #8 and Michigan #3, so those weren't bad losses. The Badgers dominated Iowa (10-4, final AP #23), but lost to Minnesota (9-4) in Minneapolis, then won their bowl game against Arizona State (8-5 before the Sun Devils vacated their wins).

[ELA]

https://twitter.com/BoardGeniuses/status/1970157390680211765

[betarhoalphadelta]

What does that mean for Fickell in year three? 

My question... Under Fickell, what is Wisconsin's identity? 

I feel like going all the way back to Barry, when the rest of the conference zigged (went spread and high volume passing), Wisconsin zagged (power run game). And that was their identity all the way through Chryst, with only the possible exception of Gary Anderson?

It's a difficult identity, because you're never going to have the horses to truly compete with the big boy programs at Wisconsin. But they were consistently successful at remaining around the top third of the conference year-in year-out. 

As someone who isn't paying close attention, it seems like Fickell has abandoned that? And now... I'm not sure what they are...

[ELA]

My question... Under Fickell, what is Wisconsin's identity?

I feel like going all the way back to Barry, when the rest of the conference zigged (went spread and high volume passing), Wisconsin zagged (power run game). And that was their identity all the way through Chryst, with only the possible exception of Gary Anderson?

It's a difficult identity, because you're never going to have the horses to truly compete with the big boy programs at Wisconsin. But they were consistently successful at remaining around the top third of the conference year-in year-out.

As someone who isn't paying close attention, it seems like Fickell has abandoned that? And now... I'm not sure what they are...

How many UW teams would have made the current 12 team playoff?  I would guess at lease a half dozen off the top of my head

[ELA]

How many UW teams would have made the current 12 team playoff?  I would guess at lease a half dozen off the top of my head

Looks like 1993, 1998, 1999, 2006, 2010, 2011, 2016, 2017, and 2019

[Mdot21]

My question... Under Fickell, what is Wisconsin's identity?

I feel like going all the way back to Barry, when the rest of the conference zigged (went spread and high volume passing), Wisconsin zagged (power run game). And that was their identity all the way through Chryst, with only the possible exception of Gary Anderson?

It's a difficult identity, because you're never going to have the horses to truly compete with the big boy programs at Wisconsin. But they were consistently successful at remaining around the top third of the conference year-in year-out.

As someone who isn't paying close attention, it seems like Fickell has abandoned that? And now... I'm not sure what they are...

disagree completely. 

Wisconsin didn't have the QB play or WR's to get over the hump- but they MOST definitely had the OL play and RB's to hang with the big boys under the Alvarez formula/identity for 30 years.

The run of OLs and RB's they went on was pretty gnarly. They never really had the WR's to match ever- and the one time they got an NFL QB (Russ) they were 11-3 and lost all those games by one score- @MSU (which they avenged in the B1G chip), @Ohio St., and in the Rose Bowl vs Oregon. 

IF the 12 team playoff was around back then- they were making the playoff plenty of times. Under Fickell they appeared to have fallen off the map. Year 1 was 7-6- ok fine that's year one- most coaches get a break year 1. However 5-7 last year in Year 2 and it's not looking pretty for year 3. They haven't been this bad in a very long time if you throw out that weird COVID year when they were 4-3. 

[SFBadger96]

1) Their identity is losing (to be fair: mediocrity). That's what they've done in the last three years.

2) 2019, 2017, maybe 2016, 2012, 2011, 2006, 1999, 1998, 1993. There might be a couple of others squeaking in at the bottom of the 12-team table.

3) Very unlikely that the UW admin is willing to ignore the sexual harassment claim against Mel Tucker.

4) We don't need an alum, we need someone who can coach a major D1 football program who wins and competes with the big kids. We don't need to beat OSU, Michigan, Penn State, and Oregon all the time, but we need to compete with them.

[847badgerfan]

Clueless.


"I think it is all the same, right? I'm a part of them, you know, trying to figure out, hey, what's your identity? I don't come in here and oversell, like I've said before, right?

So I can't tell you what our identity is."

"I wouldn't tell you what our identity is, right? If things were going really well, and this was the other way around, I would say our identity is what we put on film. And so, that's where we're all trying to push ourselves to.

I can't grant them confidence. I again, you stand tall. You stand in front of them guys every single day and try to say it's about a belief."

There's your identity answer from Looke. The answer to the questions is NONE.

[SFBadger96]

That press conference was rough. The problem is the team is so unprepared that there's nothing for him to lean on to try to refocus them. As he admitted, there is no one thing (or even two or three things) that they can fix to turn this around.

I keep thinking about a conversation I had with Barry Alvarez about this time in 2007. In a brief moment in the hallway, I asked him if Notre Dame (under Charlie Weis, in his third season) was going to get any better. He chuckled and without any hesitation said no. At that point the Irish were 0-3, with blowout losses to Georgia Tech, Penn State, and Michigan. The Irish went 3-9 that year. Unlike the Badgers, the Irish were coming off of good initial seasons under Weis: 10-3 (2005) and a 9-3 (2006). The wheels fell off in 2007, but the initial returns with Weis had been good. As a reference point, ND was 5-7, then 6-6 in Willingham's last two years before Weis. The Irish went 7-6 then 6-6 in 2008 and 2009. ND fired Weis after a wild loss I attended at Stanford Stadium where neither team could play defense. 

Don't know how this relates, except that a coach in his third season shouldn't be reaching new lows, and anyone who has watched the Badgers play has serious questions about whether they have a win in them in their remaining 8 games.

[betarhoalphadelta]

disagree completely.

Wisconsin didn't have the QB play or WR's to get over the hump- but they MOST definitely had the OL play and RB's to hang with the big boys under the Alvarez formula/identity for 30 years.

I wasn't being critical. The formula/identity worked. They were pretty much in a tier just below the helmet level in the B1G for damn near 30 years. Other teams spent time in that tier, but none anywhere near that consistently nor for that long.

But what I was saying is that when you have Wisconsin's talent level, that's pretty much the ceiling. You can be competitive with the helmets, but you're not equal to them.

Because you can be hyper-focused on recruiting and winning the battles for the big uglies and the RBs when you have that offensive system, but it's a turn-off for the QBs and the WRs. Whereas the helmets can more easily attract any/all positions. 

Rather I was saying that deviating from the system is problematic. It's a state with roughly half the population of Michigan or Ohio or Pennsylvania, the homes of the B1G's helmets. If you don't have a unique identity, what's Wisconsin going to offer recruits that Illinois or Iowa or Nebraska aren't? 

[847badgerfan]

Wisconsin went to 6 Rose Bowls in 20 years. Only OSU went to more.