This is not good at all for Luke Fickell's case to keep his job at Wisconsin heading into the second bye. Wisconsin is not expected to be even remotely competitive when the Badgers take on the No. 6 Oregon Ducks on Saturday evening. With their second bye of the season coming up, one where Wisconsin will probably be 2-6 (0-5) and riding a six-game slide, Fickell needed another distraction...
Unfortunately, he is not going to get it in the form of Hugh Freeze over at Auburn. Had the Tigers lost their fifth SEC game in a row to a dead for rights Arkansas team being led by an interim coach, he would have been fired before lunchtime on Sunday. Instead, Auburn finally made its long overdue quarterback switch and won its first conference game of the season over the Razorbacks, 33-24.
Entering Week 9, Fickell, Freeze and Florida State head coach Mike Norvell were sitting on arguably the three hottest seats in the Power Four. Although Fickell and Norvell did get votes of confidence earlier in the week from their respective athletic directors, keep in mind that Florida State is on a bye this week. So the Seminoles cannot lose another game before November, but Fickell has that in him.
If Wisconsin get shut out for the third week in a row, it should be left with no choice but to let him go.
Hugh Freeze beating Arkansas thrusts Luke Fickell even more into focus
ESPN's Pete Thamel wrote about this year's revolution on the coaching carousel on Friday. There are currently six Power Four teams going with interim head coaches the rest of the way, seven if we were to include Frank Reich effectively being the Jim Grobe for Stanford in the wake of Troy Taylor's scandal. Thamel feels Auburn, Florida State and Wisconsin are the most likely jobs to next open up.
Frankly, it may not matter the order in which Auburn, Florida State and Wisconsin become available. Let's just accept that it is increasingly likely that it will happen before the end of the season. What is important to know is Florida State is not firing Norvell on Sunday. Auburn may throw Freeze under the bus anyway after a win like Florida did Billy Napier after a win. Auburn does not have a bye until later...
To tie a bow on this, the next most likely head coach in the Power Four to be fired midseason would have to be Fickell, based on Florida State being on a bye and Auburn getting a league win on Saturday afternoon. Wisconsin may be more than content to just ride this sad bag of crap out. It would be shameful to do so. However, Wisconsin may go a month in between scoring points during the season.
If Wisconsin get shut out for the third weekend in a row, Jennifer Mnookin will need to pull the plug.