Following his arrival in Madison with high hopes of championship contention and a new and brash vision, Luke Fickell’s first two years have been bumpy. Last year’s 5-7 finish was bitter – it was Wisconsin’s first bowl miss since 2001, adding to the pain of how it happened. The Badgers were coasting at 5-2, just one victory shy of bowl eligibility, before losing five in a row, capped by a season-finale defeat to Minnesota. That collapse has left fans and oddsmakers alike dubious, with the over-under for victories in 2025 at just 5.5, making even a bowl bid seem like a reach.
Some of the struggles go back to Luke Fickell going all-in to rebuild the offense. He let go of Phil Longo and replaced him with Jeff Grimes, trying to get that vintage Badger grit back while sprinkling in enough diversity to make defenses uncomfortable. The 2025 schedule doesn’t help him, either; it’s one of the most difficult in the nation, with only a few games in which Wisconsin will be the favorite. The margin for error is razor-thin, and everyone in Madison is aware of that. And so that takes us to what’s being said behind the scenes. Anonymous Big Ten coaches, speaking with Athlon Sports, have offered their opinions on Wisconsin’s predicament.
One of them states, “Nothing about the offense made sense here. [Phil] Longo moving on benefits everyone involved, and if they bounce back and become more of a modern version of that classic Wisconsin power run offense, you’ll wonder why they ever made the move in the first place.” Longo came to Wisconsin with a reputation for high-flying, pass-happy offenses—he set records at North Carolina and even helped quarterbacks like Sam Howell and Drake Maye become household names.
Anonymous Coaches’ Comments on Wisconsin in Athlon Sports CFB Magazine
“Nothing about the offense made sense here. [Phil] Longo moving on benefits everyone involved, and if they bounce back and become more of a modern version of that classic Wisconsin power run offense, you’ll… pic.twitter.com/1v79FWUYin
— The Big Ten Huddle (@TheBigTenHuddle) May 24, 2025
But at Wisconsin, the Air Raid simply never seemed to fit. The Badgers established school records for 2023 passing attempts and completions, but the offense always seemed out of whack with the program’s DNA. By 2024, the offense was unstable, and following a third consecutive loss—a close one to Oregon—Luke Fickell shut it down and dismissed Longo. The decision was greeted by a general sigh of relief, not only from fans but also from coaches throughout the league.
Now, onto Jeff Grimes. “[Jeff ] Grimes is a great hire, and they flipped the entire offense except for the backs. They need to go back to Wisconsin football this season, and they’ve got a young backfield that can do it.” Grimes has a history of constructing rugged, physical offenses, like what he did at BYU, Baylor, and most recently, Kansas, where his ground game was one of the country’s top units, and his units converted third downs at an elite level.
Coaches throughout the Big Ten view this as Wisconsin returning to its roots: amazing football, large offensive linemen, and young, talented backs poised to take on the load. There is a general feeling that Grimes is the correct fit for what Wisconsin requires presently. They view the transition as a course correction—returning to what made Wisconsin a perpetual Big Ten contender.
“[Luke] Fickell is the man, but the offensive problems have consumed the overall plan to such an extent that it’s simple to understand why some people might lose faith. I believe they simply overreached in attempting to make the program contemporary schematically,” the anonymous coach further said.
Fickell was a winner at Cincinnati, and he promised to elevate Wisconsin to the next level. Unfortunately, the past two years have been tough, and it’s understandable why some supporters and even some within the program are beginning to lose confidence. The record does the talking: 7-6 in 2023, then a disappointing 5-7 in 2024, ending a two-decade streak of bowls and losing all three trophy games to their rivals by large margins. The defense, supposedly Luke Fickell’s specialty, also slipped, falling from 17th in points allowed per game in 2022 to 52nd in 2024.
Fickell’s still the man, and no one doubts that he possesses the credentials to right the ship. But the effort to revamp the offense and ‘modernize’ the program went awry. Now, with a new OC on board and a returned emphasis on Wisconsin’s traditional virtues, the hope is that Luke Fickell can restore the Badgers to what made them good in the first place.
Wisconsin’s youth movement fuels Luke Fickell’s $40M hot seat drama
Wisconsin football’s greatest Achilles’ heel at the moment? It’s the youth movement—simple as that. The Badgers’ roster is just loaded with young, untested talent, and that’s responsible for the “hot seat” chatter surrounding Luke Fickell, whose $40 million deal now appears to be a whole lot less secure following last year’s disappointing season. The Badgers have experienced a whole lot of roster turnover, with upperclassmen rotating out and waves of freshmen and sophomores coming in to replace them. You glance at the 2025 roster, and it is a who’s who of “stars of the future”—guys like Darrion Dupree in the backfield, redshirt freshmen like Kyan Berry-Johnson at wide receiver, and a whole lot of young linebackers and defensive backs competing for snaps.
This young folks’ movement is no accident. Fickell and his coaching staff have been going hard after recruits, picking up 23 commits for 2025 and tapping into the transfer portal with vigor to attempt to plug gaps in a hurry. You can’t simulate experience, though, particularly within the Big Ten. When you’re counting on underclassmen to take major minutes at premium positions—quarterback, running back, even at the O-line—there’s a high learning curve.
The Badgers possess talent, but they lack that battle-tested quality that results from a roster with juniors and seniors who’ve been through the wars. That is why the oddsmakers are drawing a big red line around Fickell’s seat. Wisconsin missing a bowl game last season ended a streak that dated back more than two decades, and it’s not just the losses, so much as how they lost. The group appeared raw, out of kilter, and sometimes overwhelmed by the situation. That’s what happens when you have too many young players trying to sort things out on the spot.
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