Whether you side on all things analytical or narrative in discussing sports, one thing holds true. There is nothing worth celebrating when it comes to Wisconsin Badgers footbal. We are in the midst of the worst run this program has experienced since the late 1980s. It was not until Barry Alvarez took over in 1990 that things started to improve. He became an iconic at Wisconsin after his 16-year tenure.
For as much flack as Luke Fickell has received, most of which is totally his fault, it may not be entirely his. Based on some analytical data that Bill Radjewski gathered for CollegeFootballData.com, history is repeating itself in the worst way possible in Madison. He cites that the past 15 seasons of Badgers football since 2010 eerily patterns what happened to the program from 1950 to 1965. It is not good.
One major inflection point was Bret Bielema leaving Wisconsin for Arkansas after the 2012 season...
The past 15 years of Wisconsin football resemble a similar pattern from 1950 to 1965.
— Bill Radjewski | CollegeFootballData.com (@CFB_Data) October 20, 2025
Last time, it took a good 20+ years and the hiring of an up-and-coming coach by the name of Barry Alvarez to dig them out of it. https://t.co/vUjre37ns8 pic.twitter.com/PgmYfGAUdA
Since Fickell only took over the reins of this team in 2023, Wisconsin was already in the midst of a decade-long decline before he arrived. Paul Chryst being out a decade after Bielema left is when things really started to take a turn. Radjewski then pointed out that it took 20-plus years of being in the doldrums before Wisconsin found itself a new identity under Alvarez. Get ready for the dark ages.
Wisconsin may not be down for as long as it was between Milton Bruhn and Alvarez, but that was bad.
Luke Fickell might not be the root cause of what is ruining Wisconsin
Does Fickell need to go? Yes, but there seems to be a much larger problem at hand. The head coach in charge at Wisconsin needs to reflect the identity of what it takes to win here. When this program is at its best, the Badgers run the football at will behind its homegrown offensive line. They play great team-first defense on the other side of the ball. Most importantly, the head coach embraces this all.
So long before Fickell thought he could make a goldfish climb a tree by trying to run Air Raid concepts in Madison, Wisconsin, the program was already starting to lose its way. One of the things that people tend to forget about what started the 15-year slide for this program has more to do with things out of the Badgers' control: That is the Big Ten got better across the board with its coaches...
Bielema is an excellent head coach, as illustrated by what he did at Wisconsin before and what he is doing now at Illinois. What happened shortly thereafter is the Big Ten started paying big-time coaches big-time money. In came the likes of James Franklin, Jim Harbaugh and Urban Meyer. None are still at Penn State, Michigan and Ohio State, but you get the big picture, right? No more easy wins.
In the end, Wisconsin not only needs the right head coach to lead them the right way, but it may also need for other programs in the Big Ten to be down for the Badgers to reclaim market share. Ohio State is always good. Penn State had scandal. Michigan toiled away into relative obscurity in between Lloyd Carr and Harbaugh. It is why coaches like Bielema, Mark Dantonio and Kirk Ferentz all thrived.
Now with the Big Ten adding four former Pac-12 teams into the mix, the new dark ages are upon us...