'We need a culture of guys that refuse to lose,' Luke Fickell expects more in 2025

The Wisconsin football team finished 12th in the Big Ten last year and missed a bowl game with only five wins. The schedule doesn't get any easier this year for the Badgers, but the expectations from fans, coaches, and even players are higher. There needs to be a progression towards winning or the culture from the head coach on down will need to change. It's been well-documented that Luke Fickell is on the hot seat, and fans aren't going to give him much of a leash.

This week, the Wisconsin Football social media team posted a speech that Fickell was giving to his team, and the focus was on winning. His team needs to have a distaste for losing and can't just be fine with that culture.

Luke Fickell tells Wisconsin football that there needs to be a distaste for losing

Undoubtedly, there needs to be a culture shift on the team. The hope of the optimistic fans is that it comes from Fickell finally having his own recruits ready to play and perform. This will be the first year fans should see significant playing time from those original recruits. That may be where the culture comes from first. This message from Fickell is part of that philosophy.

"Until we create a culture where it's just like a hate, a distaste, for losing, we're not gonna have a way to win the battles in the fourth quarter...We've got to have guys that refuse to lose. I know it's tough, guys, and it's going to be tougher. But what we've got to make sure is we create the culture of the guys that refuse to lose. They have a distaste for losing. Every one of us are going to not win at some point in time. It happens. That's what sports are all about. But how do you handle it? What does it really do to you? Does it motivate you? And when you don't win, it's something that burns at your gut. It's motivating. It gets your ass back out here to keep going and to keep pushing. And that's what we're trying to create. That's a culture. "

Luke Fickell

Will this message work, and will this culture be created by Fickell and his staff? 2025 will be a prove-it year in many ways, and hopefully, this just isn't a speech but a real culture that is established.