Wisconsin Football Coach Scores Massive Victory With Fans, But Will It Save His Job?
Luke Fickell is 17-21 since being hired by the Wisconsin Badgers.
Has Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell done enough to cool his seat going into the 2026 season?
As OutKick readers know, I've been incredibly critical of Fickell over the past couple years. His tenure in Madison leading the Badgers has been nothing short of a total disaster.
He holds a pathetic 17-21 record with the program. The days of winning 10+ games a season and appearing in major bowl games feels like it was in a different lifetime.
It's honestly shocking how far the program has fallen since the 2019 season – the last one that resulted in a Rose Bowl appearance.
Luke Fickell's time in Madison leading the Wisconsin Badgers has been nothing short of a total disaster. (Photo by Dan Sanger/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Has Luke Fickell down enough to calm fans?
The 2025 campaign saw mass calls for Fickell to be fired. It would have been more than justified. Instead, the university administration and athletic department backed him amid growing outrage and made it clear he would return for the 2026 season.
Following the announcement, Fickell did manage to lead the Badgers to impressive wins over Washington and Illinois. Both were victories against teams ranked at the time.
However, that was hardly enough to quell the uprising after ending the season with a loss to bitter rival Minnesota.
It's a house of horrors with the occasional bright spot. Yet, even in the darkest of times, there's a way to find hope, and Fickell gave fans a big reason to believe with a recent roster addition.
The Badgers received a commitment from former Old Dominion QB Colton Joseph. He was one of the top passers in the transfer portal after scoring 34 total touchdowns with 3,631 total yards of offense in 2025.
Wisconsin desperately needs to fix what has become a cursed QB room. Let's take a little walk down memory lane:
- Tanner Mordecai: Missed several games in 2023 with a hand injury.
- Tyler Van Dyke: Suffered season-ending injury on the opening drive of the third game of the season in 2024.
- Billy Edwards: Suffered a lower body injury in the first half of the season opener in 2025. Barely touched the field again. Transferred to UNC at the end of the year.
That's three straight years of Wisconsin losing its starting QB for the entire season or extended time. There are a lot of problems in Madison, but winning in the Big Ten without consistent QB play is borderline impossible.
Wisconsin hasn't had a solid and consistent QB play since Jack Coan was the starter in 2019. That was back when President Donald Trump was still in his first term in the White House. Again, we're talking about eras that might as well be in a different lifetime.
By securing a legitimately solid dual-threat QB, Fickell has given the team the chance to fix its biggest gaping hole:
The inability to run an offense that works week in and week out.
Joseph gives Wisconsin the ability to not just throw the ball, but much more importantly, open the offense up with the threat of a QB who can run all over the place.
We know the offense works when that's the case because dual-threat true freshman Carter Smith, who will likely be QB2, had some really nice moments when he was starting.
Fans just need some hope, and Fickell might have given them enough at this point where he's not facing pitchforks and torches to open the season.
The strong end to the season (minus the Minnesota loss) matched with the addition of Joseph certainly looks great on paper when assessing the future.
Wisconsin adding Colton Joseph at QB might help Fickell's cause. Photo by Ross Harried/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Will it be enough? Time will tell, and the situation could implode like in previous years. For now, fans can at least get excited about something going into the 2026 season. How long the good will last will be fascinating to watch. Let me know what you think at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.