2026 Wisconsin Off-season Thread

[847badgerfan]

I don't think 7-5 gets it done - especially if 2 out of those 7 aren't Iowa and Minnesota.

[SFBadger96]

Yeah, I think the Minnesota game in Madison could decide his fate. Honestly, if it's in question at that point of the season, his fate should have already been decided, but I doubt that will be the case. I think Badger fans need to get used to mediocre football for the next few years. We'll see how the season ticket sales go.

Made me relook the last few coaches' seasons because I know we had plenty of mediocre seasons under them, but...

Bielema had two rough seasons at the beginning (after a 12-1 season), but put Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship discussion for four of his seven seasons. Losses to Northwestern were his achilles heel. And I'm really curious to know more about what happened in 2012.

Chryst was a beast to start. His first five years may have been the best five-year stretch in Wisconsin history (but for not winning the Rose Bowl). And then he cratered with/after COVID. I'm curious to know what would have happened if he hadn't been fired. I was led to believe it was the right choice at the time, but man, we haven't gotten anything for it.

Going all the way back to Alvarez, he had some stinkers in there, but by and large, teams that came to Camp Randall knew they were in for a battle, even when the team's record wasn't that good. And the three Rose Bowl wins, as well as his final Capital One Bowl, are hard to argue with. Oh, and he rebuilt the program from the ashes into the beast that people looked up to for the better part of 25 years.

[SFBadger96]

Jeebus, I'm re-looking this, and Chyrst had one bad year: Covid. The 9-4 season the next year wasn't glorious, but it did include a 7-game win streak and a bowl win over Arizona State. The Penn State loss looked worse as the season when on, but the Badgers going 9-4 with losses to end-of-year #3 Michigan, #8 Notre Dame, and away to 9-4 Minnesota doesn't look that bad.

Revisiting his firing the next season...that was insane. Sure, he should not have lost at home to Washington State, and the Illinois game looked bad, but it's not hard to believe that without his firing, the team might have won, instead of losing, the double overtime game in East Lansing, which would have resulted in an 8-5 year, and a 5-4 season in the Big Ten. Great? No. End of the world? Absolutely not. Even if the year ended the same: 7-6, not end of the world. Certainly no worse than Barry's 2000-2003 stretch, or Bielema's 2007-08.

I know the thinking is that he was no longer recruiting, but could he have turned it around? Alvarez did during the stretch I mentioned.

Wild.

[bayareabadger]

I don't think 7-5 gets it done - especially if 2 out of those 7 aren't Iowa and Minnesota.

I want this to be true, but I’m a little skeptical is.

[bayareabadger]

Jeebus, I'm re-looking this, and Chyrst had one bad year: Covid. The 9-4 season the next year wasn't glorious, but it did include a 7-game win streak and a bowl win over Arizona State. The Penn State loss looked worse as the season when on, but the Badgers going 9-4 with losses to end-of-year #3 Michigan, #8 Notre Dame, and away to 9-4 Minnesota doesn't look that bad.

Revisiting his firing the next season...that was insane. Sure, he should not have lost at home to Washington State, and the Illinois game looked bad, but it's not hard to believe that without his firing, the team might have won, instead of losing, the double overtime game in East Lansing, which would have resulted in an 8-5 year, and a 5-4 season in the Big Ten. Great? No. End of the world? Absolutely not. Even if the year ended the same: 7-6, not end of the world. Certainly no worse than Barry's 2000-2003 stretch, or Bielema's 2007-08.

I know the thinking is that he was no longer recruiting, but could he have turned it around? Alvarez did during the stretch I mentioned.

Wild.

It seems like a “soft skills” firing, which made sense at the time. And the fact his teams had been relying on the side of the ball that wasn’t his specialty for those last two-plus years.

[GopherRock]

Season ticket sales down 20% over the last two years. Makes sense. And unacceptable.

And my prediction is the team goes 7-5, plays in a crappy bowl game, and the new AD tells everyone that this is a sign of progress, so the Fickell show will continue. Sigh. Could go 8-4 with a win over Minnesota, and Fickell could still deserve to be fired. With four Big Ten games at camp Randall, USC is the only team that is likely to be ranked (Michigan State, USC, Rutgers, Minnesota), and the Badgers should at least have a winning record in their conference home games. If they go 2-2, that would be a serious indictment.

At the 7-5 rate (or even 8-4), the season ticket sales probably don't drop any more, but also don't rebound much, if at all.

How much does Fickell's buyout go down to after this season? Last time I looked it was still going to be bigger than their payroll this season.

[847badgerfan]

Coach Dad went a year without a recruiting department, was very lazy in his coaching searches, lost touch with the fanbase, and started losing games.

It was time.

[bayareabadger]

How much does Fickell's buyout go down to after this season? Last time I looked it was still going to be bigger than their payroll this season.

It drops by something like $6.2 million. So it’ll be about $19 million next year.

Buyout world is wild. 

[bayareabadger]

Coach Dad went a year without a recruiting department, was very lazy in his coaching searches, lost touch with the fanbase, and started losing games.

It was time.

I wonder if a better A.D. could’ve found a way to build up infrastructure around him. But either way, he wouldn’t have been able to function in the current era.

[847badgerfan]

How much does Fickell's buyout go down to after this season? Last time I looked it was still going to be bigger than their payroll this season.

Doesn't matter.

Ticket revenue is down about $15-18 Million from where it was two years ago. Not to mention the donations.

[847badgerfan]

I wonder if a better A.D. could’ve found a way to build up infrastructure around him. But either way, he wouldn’t have been able to function in the current era.

His AD couldn't function in this era either. That's why he bailed.

[847badgerfan]

I'm really curious to know more about what happened in 2012.

Biggest thing? Bert lost his offensive staff and didn't get along with his new staff. Biggest mistake was hiring Mike Markuson at OL coach. 3 games in he was fired and replaced by graduate assistant Bart Miller. That move saved the season, so to speak.

Interestingly, Miller is now the OL coach for Bert, at Illinois.

[SFBadger96]

Yeah, I remember everything said about Chryst at the time, but I expected the team to improve following his firing. It did not. Under Leonhard, maybe, but honestly, maybe not. It's not as though it was a complete turnaround. They won games they would have been expected to win, and lost games they would have been expected to lose--except for the Michigan State game, which they lost. I wonder--which is purely hypothetical, of course--if Chryst would have been capable of righting the ship, because when he was on, he was really on. Those first five years were amazing.

And 2012...interesting. Was Brett's foot already out the door? I recall whispers about drinking too much and carousing with the coeds, which might well have been related to Mrs. Bielema not loving Madison. Backfield with Ball, White, and Gordon. Stave under center. Inexcusable loss to Oregon State at home, then lost to Nebraska, to start 3-2, but with the three wins over garbage teams. The loss to Michigan State at home, mid-season, was also an ugly one, even if in OT. The OT losses to Ohio State at home was excusable; and the OT loss on the road to Penn State wasn't terrible (it wasn't excusable, either; PSU wasn't that good that season). The domination of Nebraska in the Big Ten Championship game was fun, and they put up a pretty good fight in a Rose Bowl they had no business being in. Kind of a strange season, capped with the head coach leaving for Arkansas.

[847badgerfan]

I just think Bert really wanted to build a program and get out from under the Barry shadow.

That and losing his OC, who was really great at that time.

He was almost fired in 2008 for the off-field stuff. He's cleaned that up.