MADISON, Wis. — It wasn’t unusual for Wisconsin’s football players to convene Sunday so head coach Luke Fickell could address the team, quickly debrief them on the previous game and set an agenda for the upcoming week. Most unusual, however, was the content of his talk because Fickell informed them that the Badgers would be moving forward without offensive coordinator Phil Longo.
Even if, deep down, players knew this partnership wasn’t working, they also didn’t expect to wake up a day after a 16-13 loss to No. 1 Oregon and discover Longo was gone — particularly with two games remaining in the regular season.
“It’s college football for you,” center Jake Renfro said. “Anything can happen at any given moment. There’s no good time or place for anything. So it was definitely a shock to all of us. But it happens. You’ve got to live and learn and move on.”
How quickly Wisconsin can move on will dictate whether the Badgers replicate their small late-season run from a year ago when they defeated Nebraska and Minnesota to close the regular season on a high note. Wisconsin (5-5, 3-4 Big Ten) plays at Nebraska (5-5, 2-5) on Saturday afternoon and then is home to Minnesota (6-4, 4-3). The Badgers will have opportunities to clinch both a bowl game and a winning record for the 23rd consecutive season.
They will have to do so by picking themselves up amid a three-game losing streak in yet another disappointing campaign. They also will require a different approach, with Wisconsin’s play caller, sideline signaler and quarterbacks coach no longer with the program.
“When you take a hard loss against Penn State, an Iowa game which shouldn’t have ended up like it was and another hard loss against Oregon alone, that hurts the morale,” wide receiver CJ Williams said. “And then you have something like this, with someone we were all really close with and we all looked up to as a coach and as a man, it sucks.”
Players were understandably coy about what the game plan looks like for Nebraska, saying only that they believed they had a good plan in place. The Athletic has previously reported through a source with knowledge of the situation that tight ends coach Nate Letton will call plays, with wide receivers coach Kenny Guiton helping to signal plays in from the sideline. Players also are likely to huddle more between snaps and may use wristbands with the plays on them to help avoid confusion at the line of scrimmage.
Luke Fickell on who calls plays: “Why does it matter? The offense will be run and those guys will do a lot of things collaboratively. I don’t think it really is important as to who is calling it. I guess it gives you the ability to point a finger at somebody if that’s the case.”
— Jesse Temple (@jessetemple) November 18, 2024
“We’re ready for anything,” Renfro said. “Whatever the challenge is going to be. And this week unfortunately it’s Nebraska — for them, not for us. So we’re ready to embrace that challenge and bring a beatdown to Nebraska.”
The Badgers have consistently said the right things this season despite the lack of results, though frustration clearly began to show on the faces of some players after the Oregon loss. Wisconsin is tied for 96th nationally in scoring offense at 23.9 points per game. That’s only slightly better than in Longo’s first season when the Badgers averaged 23.5 points. They represent the two worst marks for the program over the past 20 years.
When players were asked this week why the offense didn’t work under Longo, there were few answers to be found. Still, multiple players insisted that the leadership remained strong and that there was plenty to play for to serve as motivation. In that regard, it would seem — at least outwardly — that Fickell hasn’t lost the team.
“No matter what our record is and what we’ve been through, you’ve got two trophy games on the line,” said quarterback Braedyn Locke, who has started 10 games in two seasons due to injuries to the starter. “You’ve got a whole lot of seniors that have bled and sweat and given this program everything that they’ve got for four, five, six years. And if that doesn’t mean something to you and that doesn’t make you want to give this thing everything that you’ve got, that’s tough.”
Plenty of decisions will need to be made by players about their futures by the time the transfer portal window opens on Dec. 9. Several members of the roster, including Locke, came to Wisconsin to be a part of the offense Longo was installing. Fickell’s next offensive coordinator hire will go a long way toward determining who stays and who goes.
Fickell’s press conference on Monday, which will be remembered for his combativeness to expected questions about Longo’s departure, contained a message about the importance of hope. He was asked specifically about what he would tell recruits two weeks before signing day, but his response was directed at everyone inside the building.
“I think the philosophy of the whole program is do you believe and trust in who we are and what we do?” Fickell said. “I know it’s a little bit more difficult if you’re in a position where you’re not sure who your coach is going to be. But a lot of that is the belief in what it is that we’re doing as a whole, from the leadership from the very top moving forward.”
He went on to say: “Deep down inside, if people believe in who you are and what you’re doing, then they’ll have some blind faith that whatever you do moving forward, it’ll be a good thing.”
Fickell is 76-36 as a head coach during his career, but he’s also just 13-11, including 8-8 in Big Ten games, at Wisconsin. He is 0-6 against ranked opponents and, since the start of last season, has just three victories against teams with winning records: Rutgers in both seasons and FCS foe South Dakota earlier this season.
Fifth-year Wisconsin tight end Riley Nowakowski, who arrived as an in-state walk-on under the previous coaching staff, has witnessed great change during his time with the program. He said faith in Fickell in the locker room hasn’t wavered and noted players do see growth taking place, even if the on-field results don’t show it.
Renfro began his career with Fickell at Cincinnati and started 13 games at center for the Bearcats in 2021 when they became the only Group of 5 team to reach the four-team College Football Playoff. Renfro had a message for people questioning where Wisconsin’s program could go under Fickell.
“It’s proven,” Renfro said. “I’ve been a part of it in the past, so I know. That blind faith, it’s hard to have. You just have to have a good group of leaders to keep pushing and show the other guys who may not believe fully yet that this system works.
“This coaching staff is great. Just keep pushing forward. Give it your all each and every day and it’s going to work out. Yeah, we’re sitting at 5-5 right now. But we’ve battled each and every day. We’ve battled each and every week. And we’re going to get better.”
As former Wisconsin coach Paul Chryst liked to say, “Hope is not a method.”
But for this group of players — and fans alike — it may be all they have to go on at this point.
(Photo of Braedyn Locke: John Fisher / Getty Images)
