The next Power Four head coach in college football has been fired. After seeing DeShaun Foster and Brent Fry be ousted by UCLA and Virginia Tech after their 0-3 starts last week, Mike Gundy was let go by his alma mater after a 1-2 start to the season at Oklahoma State. His beloved Cowboys lost at home to in-state rival Tulsa. Gundy was not about to announce his retirement so he was terminated.
As for what this means for Luke Fickell at Wisconsin, his seat just got a whole helluva lot toastier. Outside of Billy Napier at Florida, is there a hotter seat in college football? Though both failing Power Four head coaches have complicated buyouts, neither program is living up to their lofty standards under their current leaderships. The fact Gundy was let go mid-year as an institution speaks volumes.
Yes, Fickell may be a more likable guy in some capacities than Gundy, but he has nowhere near the track record of success at his current school than Gundy did at Oklahoma State. We are talking about the Cowboys firing one of their greatest quarterbacks of all time, as well as their greatest head coach of all time mid-season... If not for money, there is no justifiable excuse to keep this nasty band-aid on.
It is absolutely wild that only four Power Four jobs opened up during last year, not including Stanford...
Luke Fickell's poor coaching comes into focus after Mike Gundy's firing
Success can look different across the board, but so can failure. How Foster, Gundy and Pry all failed was not the same, just like how it will not look the same for guys like Fickell, Napier, Sam Pittman at Arkansas and David Braun at Northwestern. For Fickell, his failure at Wisconsin is probably closer to what cost Pry his job in Blacksburg with two overconfident idiots who did not recruit or develop at all.
For Gundy, the game passed him by. It was what cost Mack Brown his job in North Carolina the second time through, just like it will eventually cost Kirk Ferentz his job at Iowa. Father Time comes for us all. As for Fickell, Father Time is not what we are worried about, only The Time Value of Money. Letting him go would cost the university so much money. Then again, his product is so embarrassing.
In the end, Wisconsin may need to move on from Fickell before it has any hope of getting better. This is the worst Wisconsin football has looked in over 35 years. Fickell may have led Cincinnati to New Year's Six Bowls and the College Football Playoff out of the Group of Five, but what has he done for Wisconsin lately? So far he has said one dumb thing after another at the podium, so he is ... Gundy?!
The whole point in all of this is Fickell has less room to stand on to keep his job with Gundy now gone.