Signs point to Wisconsin football head coach Luke Fickell returning in 2026
Despite many considering Fickell squarely on a white-hot seat, it appears he'll be back next season.
The Wisconsin football team is a lost program. There is no identity, even by the admission of the players on the team. The team is in free-fall, sitting at 2-5 after losing five straight including getting beat down and shut out by both Iowa and Ohio State in back-to-back games.
Coaches have been fired for less. Much less. We are already seeing it across college football. Penn State fired James Franklin with a $50 million buyout. A buyout of Luke Fickell’s contract would pennies compared to that. Florida axed Billy Napier, and Florida State’s Mike Norvell is squarely on a white hot seat himself.
So why won’t Wisconsin just call it a day and cut it’s losses with Luke Fickell? It seems like the obvious choice, right?
Not according to Wisconsin athletic director Chris McIntosh. After the humiliating loss to Maryland at home and the ‘Fire Fickell’ chants from the crowd, McIntosh issues a ‘vote of confidence’ in the football coach. Many consider votes of confidence as a precursor to firing a coach, but the Wisconsin AD meant it.
Now, after two even more humiliating losses, McIntosh is finally doing something about it. It’s just not necessarily the thing you’d think he would be doing first.
In a statement this morning, McIntosh talked about the disappointment of the season, but also the importance of providing more money to get the program back to where it should be.
So essentially, McIntosh and the higher ups at the university are seeing there is a problem with the performance of the team (duh), and are throwing money at the problem in hopes that it will help. Hopefully they are right.
In his statement, he makes no mention of replacing Fickell. Instead, he talks about supporting him more financially, saying “we must provide our coaches the tools necessary to succeed.”
That doesn’t really seem like someone ready to fire their head coach. When Fickell met with the media today, he told reporters he had not been told yet whether he will be back next year, but all signs would point to him returning in 2026.
McIntosh clearly thinks Fickell is still a coach who can turn the Badgers into contenders if he has enough financial backing. It may not be immediate, but with time and money, he can do it.
On the other hand, is this McIntosh not simply not ready to admit Fickell was a bad hire? The two will be connected forever, like a GM and a quarterback in the NFL, your first hire/choice will always be connected. When McIntosh fired Chryst, whoever he hired would always be connected to him.
Hopefully it’s the former and not the latter. Either way, Fickell doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.
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