Just because Luke Fickell survived the first of Wiconsin's two annual byes does not mean he should be long for the Wisconsin Badgers job. After winning their first two games of the year over the Miami RedHawks and the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders, Wisconsin got crushed in its next two vs. Power Four competition in the Alabama Crimson Tide on the road and vs. the Maryland Terrapins at home.
At 2-2 on the season and 0-1 in Big Ten play, it is only league games the rest of the way for Fickell's team. With the way the Badgers played vs. Maryland in their Big Ten opener, there is very little belief this team is going to win a single league game this year. Yes, they may be able to beat Iowa at home in two weeks, but the longer Fickell remains in this role as head coach, it will be Don Morton nonsense...
The latest example of why Fickell is the wrong guy to lead the Badgers came from Monday's presser.
Luke Fickell further proves he should have been let go over a week ago
Despite being a total Big Ten bottom-feeder, Fickell described Wisconsin's culture as "really good."
“The culture and the nature of these guys is really good. They came out in the bye week, on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, like we practiced, and they came out with energy. They came out, did what you asked them to do."
If what we have seen is "really good" in Fickell's eyes, then mediocre football has to be outstanding!
Here is everything Fickell had to say at the podium on Monday during his weekly press conference.
Every time this man takes the podium, he says yet another thing that makes him out to be a total idiot.
These good locker room vibes are not translating onto the football field
While the Badgers have a nice collection of good, all-round guys, college football is big business, and whatever we have seen out of Fickell for the last two-plus seasons is simply just not good enough. Recruiting people who are likable may make it nice to go into work. That is all good and fine, so long as the results back them up. The problem with Wisconsin is the results are continuously disastrous.
This latest quote from Fickell only further proves that he is totally over his skis as Wisconsin's head coach. He got this job because he beat up on Group of Five competition when he was essentially leading a Power Four team in the Cincinnati Bearcats. The one year where the Ohio State Buckeyes were not the least bit good this century, guess who was serving as their interim coach? It was Fickell!
Money talks and lesser stuff walks, but at some point, Fickell is robbing the great taxpayers of Wisconsin blind. He may be only a football coach, but he is also a public employee, probably the highest compensated one in the state. That is the nature of the beast of being the face of a traditional football power. It is not settling for mediocrity under Fickell; it is pulling the wool over everyone's eyes.
It is why this team is more likely to finish the year on a 10-game slide than to achieve even a 4-8 mark.