Whenever Wisconsin decides to pull the plug on this experiment gone awry, it will always come back to this one thing. Luke Fickell never had a clue what he was doing at the game's most important position of quarterback. Wisconsin went from a perennial bowl team prior to his arrival, to one that is not expected to win a game the rest of the way. His Badgers are on an awful four-game losing streak.
Chris Hummer of CBS Sports did a marvelous job of explaining why things have gone so southward for the Badgers under center of late. He cited not evaluating the right players for Wisconsin coming out of high school, having a bad stroke of luck when it comes to the health of their transfer portal quarterbacks, and of course, trying to run an Air Raid offense in Madison with the help of Phil Longo.
Longo has had a worse go of it since leaving Wisconsin. In his first year leading the Sam Houston Bearkats, they became the second team in FBS to be eliminated from bowl eligibility behind only the Oregon State Beavers after their dreadful 0-7 start. Although Longo is long gone, the problems still persist at Wisconsin. The elephant in the room is Fickell, who will make a poor goldfish climb a tree...
Fickell may not be a former quarterback, but his inability to figure out the position will cost him his job.
Luke Fickell may have run out of time to save this sinking Wisconsin ship
One of the things that Hummer pointed out in his article is it might be too late to do much of anything when it comes to Fickell saving his job. This has felt too far gone for the better part of this season already. The turning point was undeniable the complete botch-job and utter mishandling of the quarterback room from the Maryland game on. Big Ten play has brought out the worst in Fickell...
Rather than let Billy Edwards Jr. get healthy for one more week heading into the bye, Fickell forced the former Maryland Terrapins starter into action against his former team. Two drives later, and he was toast. Edwards has played a combined two quarters and two drives in six games for the Badgers. All signs point to him being held out even longer. Then came arguably the most questionable decision...
Instead of allowing Danny O'Neil play and gain confidence as the starter for as long as Edwards was out, Fickell decided to monkey with his reps and give playing time to third-stringer Hunter Simmons. Going with Simmons on the road at Michigan was head-scratching to say the least. No, it did not work out, but Fickell decided to roll with the Southern Illinois transfer vs. Iowa a week later. What a disaster!
Simply put, Fickell quit on his team in the final stages of the Michigan game. In return, his players effectively quit on him vs. Iowa. With a certain Ohio State beating coming down the pipeline on Saturday and another drubbing coming in the form of a road date at Oregon in two weeks, it has to be ending soon. Wisconsin has its second bye after the Oregon game. Maybe we get some relief then?
In the meantime, continue to put absolutely no trust and faith regarding Fickell and his quarterbacks.