The Wisconsin football program hasn't been great, well, actually just bad. A four-win season is what Luke Fickell and the Badgers are coming off of. While there is momentum in the transfer portal and recruiting, it hasn't yet converted to wins. There's also some energy with an easier Big Ten schedule coming up to help right the ship; that's nice. But that's not a sustainable solution, especially for a fanbase that wants to be at the top of the Big Ten, not fighting for scraps at the bottom.
Wisconsin's new athletic director, Shawn Eichorst, knows this is a big part of his task. He gave a quote to Mark Stewart of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "I'm fired up to get a chance to get with (Luke Fickell) face-to-face and really understand more about what's going on, and more importantly, how can I be helpful."
One of the first things people are thinking about when it comes to Wisconsin's new athletic director is helping get football back to the top. Eichorst was hired out of Texas to help bring some of the winning ways (that happen behind the scenes) to Wisconsin. He was part of hiring Steve Sarkisian, modernizing the UT pay-for-play structures, and implementing many of the front office procedures. So what's the play for Wisconsin?
Shawn Eichorst: "I'm fired up to get a chance to get with (Luke Fickell) face-to-face and really understand more about what's going on, and more importantly, how can I be helpful."
— Mark Stewart Ⓜ️ (@MarkStewartMJS) July 2, 2026
Evaluating UW football early focus of new AD https://t.co/u1tq2ofAu3 via @journalsentinel
Shawn Eichorst has both failure and success on his football resume
Related: These 3 positives of the potential Shawn Eichorst hire outweighs any negatives
Eichorst comes back to Wisconsin with a mixed bag of reviews. He essentially crushed the Nebraska football program, which it has yet to recover. While he has said his time at Nebraska was something he had to learn from, he has grown since then. He also said that any decisions that weren't made in a vacuum, aka, he was pushed to make these calls. Like firing 9-win season Bo Pelini and hiring Mike Riley. Yikes. He then pushed Riley to fire his above-average defensive coordinator for Bob Diaco, who was really bad. Like really bad.
However, he then went to Texas in 2018, and while he wasn't the athletic director, he was instrumental in the football program. He was a major reason Steve Sarkisian was hired, and Sark even said this about Eichorst, "I’m so grateful for our time with Shawn. He played a key role in hiring me and has tirelessly helped us build the foundation for success. He’s passionate about college football. I have no doubt he’ll have tremendous success leading Wisconsin."
His time at Texas is the major reason he's being brought home to Wisconsin. He helped elevate the entire athletics program, was a force in moving Texas from the Big 12 to the SEC, fundraised, created a structure for paying athletes, and even helped create more pathways for the athletes to get paid. This is all incredibly important for Wisconsin.
College athletics is at a critical juncture, and getting things right is a must right now. It's good to hear that Eichorst is going to sit with Fickell and work on a plan to get things going. It also doesn't sound like he's going to come in and immediately make wholesale changes, but instead try to help Fickell in year one. Yet, there's some open-endedness to his quote, and even his time in Texas, that makes you think, Fickell will have a short leash.
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