Nothing is going right for the Wisconsin Badgers and head man Luke Fickell. Last Saturday night, the Badgers had a golden opportunity to take down the No. 1 team in the country, but they shot themselves in the foot. In the end, Oregon escaped Madison with a 16-13 win.
Fickell then decided enough was enough, and he fired Phil Longo as offensive coordinator. Longo simply was not getting the job done and a change needed to be made. So, with Longo out, who will take over the offense against Nebraska and then Minnesota?
Understandably, Fickell was asked about this on Monday. You'd have to imagine he would just hand things over to one of his offensive assistants. Instead, Fickell said it will be a 'collaborative' process. Not only that, his response to the question sure has people talking, but not in a good way.
Luke Fickell on who calls plays: "Why does it matter? The offense will be run and those guys will do a lot of things collaboratively. I don’t think it really is important as to who is calling it. I guess it gives you the ability to point a finger at somebody if that’s the case."
— Jesse Temple (@jessetemple) November 18, 2024
Luke Fickell has a lot of people talking over his play-caller comments
Why does it matter? Well, it matters because this team is 5-5 on the year, on a three-game losing streak and on the verge of ending a 22-year streak of making a bowl game. It also matters because the offense looked so poor this season, Longo was canned.
A quick look on social media shows that plenty of Wisconsin fans are not happy with what Fickell had to say and we don't blame them for that. Had Wisconsin closed things out against Oregon, we wouldn't even be having this conversation, but the fact of the matter here is that the Ducks made plays late and the Badgers didn't.
Fickell confirmed that Braedyn Locke will remain his starting quarterback too. Following the loss in Week 12, plenty of Wisconsin supporters were calling for him to be benched in favor of freshman Mabrey Mettauer, but that's not going to happen.
With Nebraska next up on the schedule, Wisconsin has a great chance to capture win No. 6 on the year, but quarterback Dylan Raiola has essentially guaranteed a win. A victory for the Badgers will quiet loads of Fickell haters, but another loss will only add more pressure on him.