MADISON, Wis. — It was exactly two years ago, on Oct. 2, 2022, when Wisconsin athletic director Chris McIntosh fired coach Paul Chryst five games into the season, sending shockwaves across college football and a message about the demand for higher expectations in the program.
There was no doubt the Badgers slipped by the end of Chryst’s once-successful tenure. Wisconsin was 13-10 over its final 23 games under Chryst, including 7-8 in Big Ten play, with a blowout loss at home to Illinois on his last full day in charge. There was no doubt the Badgers needed to be better.
The question two years later is two-fold: Are they? And if not, are they in a position to be better later?
You’d be hard-pressed to say the answer to the first question is yes based strictly around the on-field results, which ultimately matter most. Luke Fickell, whom McIntosh hired over interim coach Jim Leonhard in late November 2022, is 9-8 overall and 5-5 in Big Ten games since last season. The offense, while different, is not better. And neither is the defense.
Wisconsin’s scoring offense ranks tied for 107th nationally at 21.5 points per game. That’s two points lower than in Fickell’s debut last season, which was the worst mark for the program in 19 years. Wisconsin’s scoring defense is tied for 88th (26.8 points per game). The Badgers rank 103rd nationally in total offense and 66th in total defense.
Fickell went 4-8 in his first season at Cincinnati and had the Bearcats at 11-2 by Year 2. Wisconsin, last year 7-6 overall and 5-4 in the conference, is 2-2 overall and 0-1 in league play to open this season. The process at Wisconsin has proven to be far slower and more methodical, like attempting to turn around a cruise ship. It doesn’t mean the Badgers won’t ultimately set themselves on the right course under Fickell. It does mean they’re nowhere near there yet.
I asked Fickell this week about the areas in which he had seen steps forward with Wisconsin’s program since he took over and where he needed to see more. He used the words “baby steps” five times in his answer.
“I don’t know that there’s one giant leap,” Fickell said. “Everybody’s looking for that giant leap. I’ve been in programs before where you see where that giant leap is. And I would say right now, it’s baby steps. I think things that we’ve done inside the locker room have helped us and have created a different environment. I think things that we’ve done on the field in little ways have created things that we need to continue to build upon.
“Are we still waiting for that giant leap? Yeah, maybe. It’s not as obvious. It’s not as evident because all you get to see is Saturdays. But I can tell you that there’s a lot of baby steps that lead to the things that make greater changes.”
That’s about the best thing Wisconsin and its fans have to go on right now. If you’re looking for where the program has improved, it would appear to be in the infrastructure Fickell has attempted to build with his strength and conditioning program and his recruiting department — two pillars he wanted to upgrade that haven’t yielded more wins but could in the future.
Director of football strength and conditioning Brady Collins, who was with Fickell at Cincinnati, has earned praise from players for his training methods. Meanwhile, Wisconsin signed a top-25 recruiting class in 2024 for just the second time in program history behind a school-record 11 four-star 247Sports Composite recruits. Its 2025 class includes five four-star recruits. Given the lack of strong recruiting late in Chryst’s tenure, Fickell’s tenaciousness in that category with Pat Lambert and Max Stienecker is notable.
Still, Fickell’s challenges are numerous. He needs to develop young players over time, something Wisconsin traditionally excelled at over the years, during a transfer portal/NIL era that makes doing so more difficult than ever. He needs to successfully manage his roster and hit on enough difference-makers through the portal. He needs to establish and maintain a positive culture and find an identity on which the team can consistently rely. He needs to do all that while trying to win enough games so as not to slow momentum.
Optimism from outside the program that Fickell can author a turnaround given all the difficulties facing Wisconsin and the roughly .500 product to date may be waning some. But players, for their part, continue to strike a positive tone publicly, which is at least encouraging when juxtaposed against disappointments in previous seasons.
After Wisconsin’s loss to Illinois in 2022, safety John Torchio said: “Something needs to change because that’s not us. That’s not the Wisconsin football we all know.” After Wisconsin’s loss to Northwestern last season, safety Hunter Wohler lamented a lack of effort by his teammates and said: “This is miles different from what I grew up watching.”
Wohler, after a 38-21 loss to USC on Saturday in which the Badgers led 21-10 at halftime, said this: “I think we’re on the up. Two back-to-back losses look bad. But I think we’re trending upwards. And I think there’s going to be a lot of good things to take away from this game. I still have faith in coach and I still have faith in this team and what we can accomplish.”
During Big Ten media days in July, McIntosh preached the value of patience — perhaps an expected response given the slow start and his hiring decision — by citing his own experience as a former Badgers player, which began with a losing record and ended with consecutive Rose Bowl appearances under Barry Alvarez. McIntosh told me: “I think we have the right leader in our program. I think we’re building something special. I can see the progress we’re making. I have a great appreciation for the work that’s being put in, and I do think that the aggregate of all those things will pay off for Wisconsin football.”
Fickell doesn’t project as the type of person who will stand for inferior results for long. He seems willing to make staff changes if necessary, as he did by replacing offensive line coach Jack Bicknell Jr. after last season. Offensive coordinator Phil Longo and defensive coordinator Mike Tressel have struggled to meld their styles with the players on Wisconsin’s roster.
Injuries to the starting quarterback in consecutive seasons cloud progress, but it’s not as though the offense or the team looked consistently good when those quarterbacks were healthy. Fickell will have to decide whether to stay with or alter course based on how the next eight regular season games play out. No matter what he chooses, he’ll need the players capable of executing the schemes at a high level.
“You sit in there and you talk to the guys about how much they’ve worked and how much they’ve dedicated themselves and how much they’ve committed themselves, whether that’s the offseason, whether that’s fall camp, that’s going away for 13, 14 days,” Fickell said. “All those things don’t guarantee you that on Saturday you’re going to be the winner. All those things don’t guarantee you that you’re going to get the ball 30 times, or you’re going to have eight, 10 sacks. A lot of times they’re baby steps. A lot of times, there’s things that continue to grow.
“So I can’t tell you that there’s one spot. I can tell you that the leadership, I feel really confident in. It might not show as much to the guys that are outside the program. But there are baby steps that continue to be taken that are going to lead us to where we want to go.”
Whoever took over Wisconsin was going to need time to dig the program out of a hole. Fickell, backed by a seven-year contract that averages $7.8 million annually, still has that time. Another two years will provide a more representative barometer on the Fickell era, by which point his Badgers teams will have had an opportunity to play plenty of Big Ten opponents the program used to regularly beat, as well as Michigan, Notre Dame, Alabama twice, Oregon twice, Penn State twice and Ohio State twice.
By then, those baby steps had better turn into the leaps he’s counting on.
(Top photo: Jeff Hanisch / Imagn Images)
