Will Wisconsin's Football Coach Be Fired? Answer Is Shockingly Simple

Is Wisconsin football coach Luke Fickell a dead man walking in Madison?

The Badgers are coming off a pathetic 5-7 season, and fans are in a state of open revolt against the program.

It turns out that you can't take a program that spent multiple decades getting used to being a regional power and then have them tolerate a garbage product.

Fickell is 13-13 during his time in Madison. It's been nothing short of a massive disappointment. It's borderline been a disaster, and there's growing chatter that he might be on his way out.

Will Wisconsin fire Luke Fickell?

It seems like the temperature has been getting turned up significantly on Fickell following the horrible season, a mass exodus to the transfer portal and fans giving up.

So, will the Badgers coach lose his job?

Stewart Mandel predicts Fickell will be fired this season and return to Cincy. Jesse Temple, a popular Wisconsin beat writer, predicted in The Athletic that Fickell will get a total of four seasons to prove he deserves to stay at Wisconsin.

Okay, I guess we'll address this again for everyone. The Badgers aren't going to fire Luke Fickell in 2025, unless the team is something so bad that the administration is left with no choice.

Fickell's priority in 2025 isn't just winning games. It's showing strides in the right direction. A 7-5 season, while still unacceptable, will be an improvement. The situation is even easier to understand when you realize Wisconsin's schedule next season features Alabama, Michigan, Iowa, Ohio State, Oregon, Washington, Indiana and Minnesota.

Anyone who thinks the Badgers are going to go 11-1 is an idiot. The program is in a dark place, and Fickell inherited a situation that had deteriorated from where it was just a few years earlier.

Has he been a disappointment? Yes. Is he going to be fired in the near future? Absolutely not. AD Chris McIntosh isn't going to pull the trigger on firing two football coaches and all the buyout money that comes with it in the span of just a few years.

You know who would likely lose their job next? McIntosh.

That's not a great incentive for the AD to kick Fickell to the curb.

The situation isn't great, but Luke Fickell isn't losing his job……at least for a couple more years and a lot more losses in that time span. Everyone take a deep breath, crack a beer, relax and wait to see how it shakes out. Let me know what you think at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.

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David Hookstead is a reporter for OutKick covering a variety of topics with a focus on football and culture. He also hosts of the podcast American Joyride that is accessible on Outkick where he interviews American heroes and outlines their unique stories. Before joining OutKick, Hookstead worked for the Daily Caller for seven years covering similar topics. Hookstead is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin.