On the Sunday OR Monday following the final Saturday of the regular season in College Football the Wisconsin Badgers named Luke Fickell as their new head coach. Fickell becomes the Badgers’ 31st head football coach. This is a massive move for the Badgers who had one of their roughest seasons in decades. The Badgers finished the season 6-6 overall and 4-5 in Big Ten play. It was a season that featured turmoil in many areas, the most prominent being within the coaching staff.
A Rough Season
In 2015 the Badgers named Paul Chryst their new head coach and saw immediate success with him at the helm. In his first three seasons, they had double-digit wins for a combined record of 34-7. Through his next three full seasons, outside of the shortened 2020 season, they went 27-13 which is still very good as they won over eight games each season. Overall in his first seven seasons, he went 65-23 with seven bowl appearances where they went 6-1.
There was some concern in 2021 when the Badgers started 1-3 with all three losses coming against ranked opponents. Despite these issues, they won their next seven games and finished 9-4. They capped it off with a victory in the Las Vegas Bowl.
There was a lot of excitement prior to the 2022 season. They hired new offensive coordinator Bobby Engram who was supposed to be a key piece in building a passing game into the Badgers’ offense. Additionally, QB Graham Mertz was supposed to have improved a lot as he moved into his third season as their starting QB.
The Badgers started the season 2-1 with massive blowouts against Illinois State and New Mexico State as well as a brutal 17-14 loss to Washington State. However, once Big Ten play began it was a horrible sight as they lost their first two conference games to Ohio State and Illinois by a combined score of 86-31. The last time they performed this poorly in back-to-back games was in 2008 when they lost to Penn State and Iowa by a combined score of 86-24.
After the ugly loss at home to Illinois, the Badgers took quick action and fired Chryst just five games into his eighth season. Their incredible defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard was brought on as the interim head coach. In his seven games, the Badgers went 4-3 to secure a spot in a bowl game.
The six wins for Wisconsin were their fewest in a full season since 2001 when they went 5-7, which was the last time they failed to make a bowl game.
For the standards at which Wisconsin holds itself, this was unacceptable and they knew they needed to make a splash with their next head coach.
A Major Addition
The Badgers filled the head coaching spot with the excellent Luke Fickell who is coming from Cincinnati.
Fickell took over as the head coach for the Bearcats in 2017. His first season did not go well as they went 4-8, but their struggles were short-lived. In 2018 they went 11-2 with a point differential of +226. Also notable about that season is that they claimed their first bowl game victory since 2012.
He followed that excellent season with another 11-win season in 2019. They went to the American Athletic Conference title game for the first time since it began in 2015. They wrapped up the season with their second straight bowl game victory.
In a shortened 2020 season, they went 9-1 including their first-ever AAC Championship game victory.
The 2021 season was historic for Fickell and the Bearcats as they went 13-0 in the regular season for the first time in school history. They posted an incredible +301-point differential. They made such a statement that they claimed the fourth spot in the College Football Playoff where they lost to Alabama.
The 2022 season was solid, but not to the level of previous years after star QB Desmond Ritter went into the NFL. They wrapped up the season 9-3 and failed to make the AAC Championship game for the first time since 2017.
In six seasons Fickell posted a 57-18 overall record with the Bearcats. They went 2-1 in AAC Championship games and 2-2 in Bowl Games. A massive reason Cincinnati moved back into the national spotlight was their incredible head coach.
The Badgers need to turn things around after one of their worst seasons in decades. Bringing on Luke Fickell as the next head coach should inspire plenty of confidence after several incredible seasons with Cincinnati. With the new head coach solidified it will be very interesting to see what happens with Jim Leonhard. Will he stay on as defensive coordinator or move on to other head coaching positions?
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