Over the weekend, the Wisconsin Badgers had a great opportunity to send a message to the rest of the Big Ten. Penn State and James Franklin made their way to town and it felt like the stars were aligning for an upset win to be posted - Wisconsin was even up at halftime.
The Badgers hosted the Nittany Lions in front of a packed house in Madison, but in the end, Penn State dominated play in the fourth quarter and left with a convincing 28-13 win. With the loss, the Badgers are now 5-3 on the year and 3-2 in conference play.
As you might have been able to guess, fans were not happy with the result, with plenty of people calling out head coach Luke Fickell. Now in his second full season with the team, it doesn't help that the head coach can't seem to get things done against ranked opponents. Matter of fact, he is yet to post a single win there while running the show for Wisconsin:
Wisconsin is now 0-5 vs. ranked teams under head coach Luke Fickell.
— Dillon Graff (@DillonGraff) October 27, 2024
Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell is 0-5 vs. ranked teams
Yup, that's simply not going to cut it. Having an 0-5 record against ranked teams is not what people were expecting out of Fickell when it was announced that he'd be taking over as the team's new head coach. It goes without saying, but this is something he needs to change as soon as possible.
Thus far this campaign, Wisconsin has posted victories over Western Michigan, South Dakota, Purdue, Rutgers and Northwestern. However, the team lost to No. 3 Penn State, No. 14 Alabama and also against USC.
The squad's next shot against a ranked opponent? That'd be a Nov. 16 clash against No. 1 Oregon at Camp Randall Stadium. Barring a major upset, it's looking like Fickell's record will unfortunately drop to 0-6 vs Top 25 programs. The fact of the matter is that the Badgers have been in a rebuild and things aren't going to change overnight.
On social media, plenty of Badgers supporters are calling for Fickell to get fired, but it's simply far too early for that. At the same time, this team needs to show some fight the rest of the fall and some key primetime wins need to be posted in 2025. Otherwise, even more heat will be coming in on Fickell and his coaches.