CBS Sports brutally ranks $54 million Big Ten coach as seat gets warmer after 4-8 season originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Wisconsin Badgers fell short of a bowl berth once again this past season, leaving many fans and media pundits wondering whether coach Luke Fickell is the key to success. His team, despite a late-season surge, finished 4-8 and was arguably left with more questions than answers entering a critical off-season in Madison.
One person who was willing to give Fickell another go, however, is AD Chris McIntosh. In November of this past year, McIntosh reassured ESPN that Fickell is still the coach the university trusts to lead the football program forward.
"If Wisconsin is going to be as competitive as we expect, the support has to be as competitive," McIntosh said. "There's no getting around it. Our people, our fans, are passionate about Wisconsin football. I'd have it no other way. A successful football program is important to the university, the state and our lettermen."
Despite McIntosh's comfort level with giving Fickell more resources to succeed, it wasn't enough for CBS Sports not to put Fickell amongst the 10 coaches entering this fall needing a noticeable turnaround.
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"Is it too little, too late for Fickell?" Brad Crawford wrote, ranking Fickell No. 2. "Like others facing pressure in 2026, he received public backing from his athletic director toward the tail end of last season after Wisconsin chose not to absorb a sizable buyout and move on from the third-year coach after his second consecutive lackluster campaign. Since taking over at Wisconsin, Fickell is 10-17 against Big Ten opponents, has struggled against ranked competition (2-11) and failed to move the needle in recruiting."
Fickell has been content with defining his culture as "really good," even though wins haven't translated.
"These guys still go out," Fickell said after his team was 2-2. "They do everything you ask them to do. If we’d asked them to practice four days during the bye week, they’d practice all four days during the bye week. But I think that’s what’s going to be challenged, and has been challenged and will continue to be challenged, is our ability to say, look, guys, we know we have to get better. There’s a process to getting better. We have to see some of those steps to getting better."
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We'll see if Fickell begins to take steps in the right direction, which begins with a productive spring.
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