Ranking the five worst Wisconsin football seasons in the last 25 years
Even winning programs have down years. See our rankings of the five worst Wisconsin football seasons from the past 25 years.
In the past 25 seasons, there haven’t been many teams who has had more success than the Wisconsin football team. In the past quarter century, the Badgers boast an overall 220-103 record (68.1 winning percentage) and have missed a bowl game just twice in that span, and are 13-10 in postseason play.
But even when a program is that successful, there are still bound to be some down years, and the Badgers have had a handful.
Zach Kruse of PackersWire recently wrote an article ranking the 5 best and 5 worst Packers teams of the last 25 years. Taking that idea and applying it to the Badgers, here are my five worst Wisconsin football seasons of the past 25 years.
No. 5 - 2022
7-6 overall, 4-5 in Big Ten
I have the 2022 season coming in at No. 5 because it was the end of the Paul Chryst era, where the Badgers went 67-26 in the span of just over seven seasons.
At the start of 2022, the Badgers entered the preseason polls at No. 18, but an upset loss to Washington State at home in Week 2 quickly put them out of the rankings, where they wouldn’t return for the rest of the season.
After a blowout loss to Ohio State in Columbus, the Badgers fell to 2-2. Up next was a game against Illinois, which at the time was a team the Badgers beat with regularity. In an extremely disappointing display of football, the Illini beat the Badgers 34-10 in front of a stunned Camp Randall crowd. After the loss, AD Chris McIntosh fired Paul Chryst and named defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard the interim head coach.
Leonhard was able to do some damage control and keep the Badgers bowl-eligible by going 4-2 over the next six games, but a loss to Minnesota at home cost the Badgers the Axe and dropped the team to just 7-6 overall and 4-5 in the Big Ten.
The season itself was disappointing, but when it was all said and done, Chryst was gone, and the Badgers also lost Leonhard, one of the best defensive coaches in all of college football, after the program brought in Luke Fickell as the next head coach.
While Fickell brought a lot of excitement for the future, the loss of Leonhard was a significant blow to the program, especially in retrospect.
No. 4 - 2008
7-6 overall, 3-5 in Big Ten
The Badgers entered the 2008 season with some high expectations. The preseason AP Poll had Wisconsin at No. 13 to start the regular season.
The program was coming off a 9-4 season, which was somewhat disappointing, as they started the season at No. 7 and reached as high as No. 5, culminating in an Outback Bowl appearance and finishing as the No. 24 team in the country.
PJ Hill and John Clay formed a solid running attack, going for a combined 2,045 yards and 22 touchdowns.
Inconsistent play at the quarterback position from Dustin Sherer and Allan Everidge limited the Badgers. The duo completed just 54% of their passes for 2,338 yards, 11 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions.
An injury to All-American tight end Travis Beckum didn’t help, but that did allow junior tight end Garrett Graham to break out. Graham won the receiving triple crown on the team, leading the Badgers in receptions (40), receiving yards (540), and receiving touchdowns (5).
After a 3-0 start, including a win over No. 21 Fresno State, the Badgers hopped into the top 10 of the rankings. Things were looking up, and momentum was building.
Then they dropped four conference games in a row, including a brutal 7-48 loss at home to Penn State and then a loss to Iowa at the end of the losing streak. The Badgers finished the regular season going 5-1, with the final win coming in the last week of the season when they narrowly defeated Cal Poly, an FCS school, 36-35 in overtime at home.
The season ended with a 13-42 loss to Florida State in the Champs Sports Bowl.
The Badgers breaking into the top 10 of the rankings a few weeks into the season, and then ending up finishing the season unranked and getting blown out in a bowl game to end the season, made for a very disappointing season.
No. 3 - 2002
8-6 overall, 2-6 in Big Ten
The Badgers were coming off a nightmare 2001 season, where the Badgers had a losing record and missed a bowl game.
They entered the season as the No. 25 team and won their first five games, all against non-conference opponents. Then came the Big Ten schedule. At 5-0, the Badgers entered conference play against Penn State as the No. 19 team in the country. A 31-34 loss to the Nittany Lions was the first of three losses in a row. The Badgers lost to Penn State, Indiana, and Ohio State in consecutive games.
A win against Michigan State broke the losing streak, but a new three-game skid started immediately after with a 3-20 loss to Iowa. The Badgers would go on to lose to Illinois and Michigan.
Sitting at 6-6, the Badgers were able to right the ship a bit with a 49-31 victory over Minnesota to win the Axe and become bowl-eligible.
Wisconsin went on to beat No. 14 Colorado in the Alamo Bowl, 31-28, to cap off the season.
An 8-6 overall record doesn’t seem like that bad of a season, but a 2-6 conference record, which is the worst conference record of any Wisconsin team in the last 25 years, was disappointing, especially under Barry Alvarez.
No. 2 - 2001
5-7 overall, 3-5 in Big Ten
The 2001 Wisconsin football season, under the seasoned leadership of head coach Barry Alvarez, marked a rare and significant downturn for the program. Coming off a successful late-90s run that included back-to-back Rose Bowl victories (1998, 1999) under Ron Dayne, the 2001 campaign was a stark reminder that even established programs face rebuilding challenges. It was a disappointing season primarily because it resulted in a losing record and a missed bowl game, a rarity for the Badgers at the time.
Entering 2001, Wisconsin was still navigating the post-Ron Dayne era, looking for new offensive leaders to emerge. While there was always an expectation of competitiveness under Alvarez, the team faced questions about replacing such a generational talent.
The season started with a win over Virginia, but then consecutive losses to No. 7 Oregon and No. 19 Fresno State dropped the Badgers to 1-2 overall. The team would go on to win just three conference games in the season, one of which was over No. 21 Ohio State. But losses to Indiana, Illinois, and Minnesota made things even worse.
The loss to the Gophers not only gave the Axe to their bitter rivals, but it also knocked them out of bowl-game eligibility. The 2001 team finished with a 5-7 overall record, the team’s first losing season since 1995 when the Badgers went 4-5-2.
It was the last time the Badgers would miss a bowl game until 2024.
No. 1 - 2024
5-7 overall, 3-6 in Big Ten
Some may view this as recency bias, but there were only two seasons in the past 25 where the Badgers finished with a losing record. In both 2001 and 2024, they ended the seasons with identical 5-7 records and a missed bowl game. The only two in the 25-year span. The 2024 Badgers snapped the 22-year bowl streak.
Coming into 2024, there was a sense of anticipation for what Fickell could build in his second year. While the 2023 season had its ups and downs, the expectation was for the team to show more cohesion and progress, especially with more of Fickell's recruits integrating into the system. The schedule, however, was immediately recognized as a significant challenge, featuring multiple College Football Playoff contenders.
The Air Raid offense under Longo continued to be pathetic with Braedyn Locke at quarterback. The offense couldn’t move the ball, and head-scratchingly continued to try to convert 4th-and-short situations by running out of shotgun.
What might make this season the worst in the past 25 years is that there wasn’t necessarily any one thing that you could point at and change to turn the program around. The 2025 season looks to be even more difficult than 2024. Right now, after the 2024 season, there isn’t a lot of optimism about the state of the program as true contenders moving forward.
This was a relatively easy list to come up with because of the success the program has had over the past 25 seasons. My next task will be to find the five best seasons in the past 5 years, which will be much more difficult.
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