2025 Wisconsin Season Thread

[847badgerfan]

I have to ask:

you openly acknowledge that the school has not been aligned on sports and especially on football. You acknowledge that they were not prepared for the NIL era and the recruiting and portal work that goes with it. But you still seem to think it’s about how horrible the coaches are?

wouldn’t you agree that there wouldn’t be much difference with any other coach given the school’s lack of preparedness for the stupid way college football has gone?

This head coach has alienated boosters, fans, ex-players, media, blows off events (golf, fundraisers, etc). He doesn't know the names of many of his players. He hasn't talked on the phone with the top 3 rated recruits (or any of them) since they committed (he's about to lose them).

He couldn't even be bothered with showing up to a banquet celebrating the 1999-2000 Rose Bowl champions, just 3 weeks ago today.

FFS. I could go on. This guy is a disaster, and the institution is not helping.

[Honestbuckeye]

This head coach has alienated boosters, fans, ex-players, media, blows off events (golf, fundraisers, etc). He doesn't know the names of many of his players. He hasn't talked on the phone with the top 3 recruits since the committed (he's about to lose them).

He couldn't even be bothered with showing up to a banquet celebrating the 1999-2000 Rose Bowl champions, just 3 weeks ago today.

FFS. I could go on. This guy is a disaster, and the institution is not helping.

Ok. I didn’t know all of that.  That is horrible- and a bit shocking since he has typically had the opposite reputation.  

The players clearly play hard- probably more for each other than for him.  

[847badgerfan]

He doesn't really do any coaching. The assistants do the work. The players are doing it for them, and for each other.

[847badgerfan]

This is more for @Honestbuckeye and the Badger fans here. From Evan Flood at On3.



 Badger Extra broke the news that McIntosh held a team meeting in October, informing the players that Fickell would be back in 2026. Every player on the roster has a different experience, but the latest rumblings suggest there will be a substantial exodus of players hitting the transfer portal, specifically on the defensive side of the ball. I’ve also heard that when McIntosh told the team of his decision to retain Fickell, it wasn’t some ‘rah-rah’ moment. McIntosh came down to the practice field, raised his voice, and forced it on them. It wasn’t so much a message of ‘You don’t have to worry about your coach getting fired’ as much as a statement of ‘This is your head coach. You need to figure it out.’ I’m also now told there are a lot of veteran players telling the younger guys in the locker room to ‘Get Out.’

[Brutus Buckeye]

Yeah, I don't know how you'd recruit or retain players when the home atmosphere is more hostile than the road. They are going to have to sign the whole Saluki scout team. 

[SFBadger96]

well, the head coach is responsible for NIL and the recruiting and portal work that goes with it

And he's been there for three years. When they fired Chryst, McIntosh said they were making the change to win championships. So he knew they were changing course. It's too late to blame Chryst--this is on McIntosh and Fickell.

As for the Chancellor, I think it's too soon to judge where she is on intercollegiate sports' relationship to the health of the university--she has had McIntosh the whole time, and the Fickell hire was a good decision at the time based on what we all knew. Her decision on McIntosh going forward will tell us how well she understands all of this. In the abstract, and AD should be able to miss on a football coach and survive. What worries me, as I've said before, is that the Badgers get to 6-6 next year because their schedule is so much easier, and McIntosh trumpets that as evidence that he made the right choice.

My view is that anything less than 8-4 is a further indictment of Fickell. Frankly, even 8-4 wouldn't be that great against the coming schedule.

Notre Dame (Neutral Site)
Home games:
Pittsburgh
Western Illinois
Michigan State
Rutgers
USC
Minnesota

Away games:
Iowa
Maryland
Penn State
Purdue
UCLA

[Honestbuckeye]

This is more for @Honestbuckeye and the Badger fans here. From Evan Flood at On3.



 Badger Extra broke the news that McIntosh held a team meeting in October, informing the players that Fickell would be back in 2026. Every player on the roster has a different experience, but the latest rumblings suggest there will be a substantial exodus of players hitting the transfer portal, specifically on the defensive side of the ball. I’ve also heard that when McIntosh told the team of his decision to retain Fickell, it wasn’t some ‘rah-rah’ moment. McIntosh came down to the practice field, raised his voice, and forced it on them. It wasn’t so much a message of ‘You don’t have to worry about your coach getting fired’ as much as a statement of ‘This is your head coach. You need to figure it out.’ I’m also now told there are a lot of veteran players telling the younger guys in the locker room to ‘Get Out.’

That is very telling- and damning.  That might not be fixable.  😟

[MrNubbz]

This is more for @Honestbuckeye and the Badger fans here. From Evan Flood at On3.

 Badger Extra  I’m also now told there are a lot of veteran players telling the younger guys in the locker room to ‘Get Out.’

If it's this bad perhaps the Prez should have told the AD "WE WILL" decide when the season's over.Then if they have to hire an interim that gives UW some time to find a solid replacement.Don't hit the panic button and pull a Mel/MSU mismanagement some of these programs will throw gobs of green at a bunch a retreads based on the amount of firings with more to come

[bayareabadger]

Some real gratuitously dumb motherfuckers running this show.

I am more patient than most. But you can’t go 5-7 and follow it with 2-10 at a modestly sized school and retain that guy. 

[Brutus Buckeye]

Wisconsin prides itself on doing things differently than the football factories, who would have canned him after the scene that was made at the Maryland game. 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Some real gratuitously dumb motherfuckers running this show.

I am more patient than most. But you can’t go 5-7 and follow it with 2-10 at a modestly sized school and retain that guy.

Yep. And if you're gonna do it, you'd better have a bunch of people falling on their sword to explain WHY you retain that guy. 

I.e. you have to be sitting there basically admitting that the organization wasn't giving him the resources he needed, and that you believe in retrospect that what he was asking for was the right thing. And that you believe he's the right man for the job if he gets the institutional support he was calling out for, and now you're going to give it to him.

It doesn't have to be public, but it has to be "leaked" or at least rumored in the right circles. 

I'm reminded of when Matt Painter was being courted by Mizzou for their head coaching job. Now, this was before he had his two bad seasons, so it's not like he was in the same position as Fickell. But what could have been a "poison the well" situation if it was spun that he was just holding his alma mater hostage because he wanted more money, ended up being spun as a "Painter vs the AD for resources" battle where he was fighting for assistant coach compensation and institutional support that he believed was necessary to compete at the level that he expected. The spin ended up being that he was fighting to make sure that he wasn't hiking uphill through quicksand just to be at 80% of what Izzo or Indiana or UM/OSU were willing to do to make their programs successful. He wasn't fighting for his own glory; he was fighting for the program.

The only way out of this is to actively spin it that Fickell is the right man for the job, but it was external factors--factors that will be changed--that kept him from succeeding. 

But unlike Painter, I don't know if you can pull that off when he hasn't actually succeeded at Wisconsin. He hasn't built the goodwill, or the fan/booster trust, to spin this IMHO.

[847badgerfan]

In Minneapolis? Is it the most likely remaining win? Sure. But I will still be surprised if it happens.

This week, on the other hand, will be a blood bath; the reverse of the 2010 massacre.

This belongs on the Wisconsin season thread, but, seriously, the leeway McIntosh is giving Fickell is insane given what he fired Chryst for. I'm not arguing that it was a bad decision to fire Chryst. Many people argued at the time that it had to be done. Ok, fine. But the double standard is just wild.

I have it on pretty good authority that the difference here is that Fickel agreed to make changes when Mac sat him down. I don't know what those changes are, but we'll see.


Chryst, on the other hand, said "Fuck you" (for real) when Mac asked him what changes he was going to make. He was fired immediately.

[MrNubbz]

Isn't that what Christ said to the Pharisees or was it Pilate?

[SFBadger96]

Ok, sure, but look at their records side by side, look at why McIntosh was having that conversation with Chryst:

Year	W	L	Year	W	L
2015	10	3	2023	7	6
2016	11	3	2024	5	7
20171	13	1	2025	3	6
2018	8	5
20192	10	4
20203	4	3
2021	9	4
20204	2	3
Totals	67	26		9	15

¹ Won Orange Bowl; lost conference title game to Ohio State by 6 points.
² Went to Rose Bowl, lost by 1 (Oregon); lost to Ohio State in conference title game by 13; embarrassing 1-pt upset loss to a bad Illinois 
³ Covid
⁴ Lost at home to a good, but not great Washington State team. Massacred (38-0 and 66-7) two body bag opponents. Not competitive against Ohio State in Columbus (ended year AP 4 after losing in the CFP semifinal to eventual champion, UGA, by one point; i.e., OSU was really, really good). Lost badly to Illinois (who ended the season 8-5, i.e., that was a good team, but the Badgers were embarrassed--again--in that loss). Team is 2-3, and didn't look good against Illinois or Ohio State.

So McIntosh calls Chryst into his office and wonders what's going to change to fix the problem with the coach who is career .720, has one of the best seasons (2017) any Wisconsin team has had, has never missed a bowl game, and whose worst non-Covid season was 8-5 (five years before the firing). Bad answer, fired.

So in comes Fickell, who is the coaching carousel's gem hire, McIntosh promises Wisconsin isn't content to win the B1G West, it wants championships. Fickell eeks out a bowl game his first season (7-6), where they lose to LSU in the ReliaQuest Bowl. Again losing to Washington State, then Iowa, then Ohio State, then Indiana (pre-Cignetti; 2023 Indian went 3-9), then Northwestern.

Ok, but year two will be better...Nope. Wisconsin misses a bowl game for the first time since 2001. Uncompetitive against Alabama (in Madison), uncompetitive at USC (7-6), uncompetitive against Penn State, embarrassed at rival Iowa, almost pulls an upset against Oregon in Madison, uncompetitive at Nebraska (7-6), and embarrassed in Madison by rival Minnesota.

Ah, but year three is the charm, right? Suspect win over terrible Miami (OH), Alabama embarrasses them, MARYLAND embarrasses them in Madison (to date MD's only conference win; Wisconsin was down 27-3 until a garbage time TD), showed some fight in a loss to Michigan (game was never in doubt), massacred at home by Iowa (first home shutout since 1980), massacred again at home by Ohio State (first back-to-back shutouts since 1977, first at home since the 60s), defense looks competent in convincing loss at Oregon (bonus points: the weather played well on Wisconsin's behalf), and somehow achieved their first conference win in over a year beating Washington at home despite their punter having the most passing yards--also the first win over a ranked team (AP 24, CP NR) in the Fickell era (Chryst had two of those in his last full season, and three the non-Covid season before that).

So maybe Fickell handled the interview better. Generally Fickell is pretty good in a press conference. His teams suck. Each worse than the last. Yes, they had a tough schedule this season, but anyone watching this team sees that it's not just that they are playing good teams; this team's offense is the worst I've ever seen in Madison, and not by a little. The team is bad, not just the victims of a tough schedule.

And that's my point: McIntosh fired Chryst--perhaps deservedly--during a slide in which Chryst apparently didn't react well to being questioned. Chryst, who is the second-winningest coach in the program's last century. Fickell has, to date, been downright bad, and getting worse. He was brought to Madison to make changes--and make them he did. Turning a proud program into the laughing stock of the B1G. Intending no offense to Purdue, Wisconsin ain't Purdue.

Make it make sense!

There is a beat down, potentially of epic proportions (Cignetti doesn't seem to mind running up the score), coming this Saturday. Then a convincing loss to Illinois. Then a prayer in Minneapolis. Best case, Wisconsin goes 4-8--a meek 4-8.

That, my friends, is a double standard in the way McIntosh treated his football coaches.