Wisconsin Badgers are not among the favorites to dominate in the Big Ten Conference for the 2025 season. Naturally, head coach Luke Fickell, is not viewed as among the best ones, too.
USA Today’s Paul Myerberg released his ranking of all 18 Big Ten coaches and Fickell, who is entering his third year as Badgers coach, did not crack the Top 10.
Highest on the list is Ryan Day of the Ohio State Buckeyes. Completing the Top 5 are James Franklin (Penn State Nittany Lions), Kirk Ferentz (Iowa Hawkeyes), Dan Lanning (Oregon Ducks), and Matt Rhule (Nebraska Cornhuskers).
Fickell is ranked 11th and Myerberg has a simple explanation.
“Like [Lincoln] Riley, Fickell has struggled since joining the Big Ten with major fanfare,” Myerberg wrote.
“After turning Cincinnati into a Group of Five powerhouse and reaching the College Football Playoff, Fickell has gone 12-13 in two full seasons with the Badgers, including last year’s team ending a run of 22 consecutive bowl appearances with the program’s first losing record since 2001. His missteps since arriving in Madison, notably at quarterback, makes this a huge season for Fickell’s future.”
Luke Fickell says he’s addressed that QB issue
The Badgers lost their last season’s main QB Tyler Van Dyke to SMU Mustangs but they got a new one in Billy Edwards Jr.
Fickell is impressed with his new signal caller and looking at him during spring trainings, he claimed that they are not trying to do to him what they did to their previous quarterbacks.
He’s a pro, and I think first walking in the door, we handed over the keys to him different than any of the times before. When a new guy came in, it was more like, “Hey, let’s compete,” knowing what you expected. Whether it was Tanner Mordecai or Tyler Van Dyke. But I thought that was a mistake from us in those two years
The new college football season will start on August 23. Two more months of preparations to go and it’s time for Fickell and Badgers to prove doubters wrong.
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