Barry Alvarez slams state of Wisconsin football under Luke Fickell

“This spring practice is important, because after having a losing season, there has to be a pride in this team that they want to come back and bounce back and be relevant again,” Alvarez said on ESPN Radio in Madison.

“We worked our fannies off to start winning, win championships, and be good. Go to bowl games every year and damn it, we did it better than everyone for 20-some years. After not going for like a million years.”

He added: “Now, these guys have to fight their ass off to get back in that groove and I hope that they understand that. They’ve got a responsibility. I don’t like where we are right now. They need to bounce back and put this program back where it belongs.”

Wisconsin finished 5-7 last season and missed playing in a bowl game for the first time since 2001, ending college football’s third-longest bowl appearance streak after Georgia and Oklahoma.

Head coach Luke Fickell was a celebrated hire after he led the Cincinnati program to the College Football Playoff, but he’s just 13-13 overall so far.

Alvarez led the Badgers to 11 bowl games over his 16 years as head football coach before taking the athletic director position with the university in 2005.

And this isn’t the first time he’s expressed his dissatisfaction with the football program under Fickell’s leadership.

Back in October, he confirmed that he sent a text message to CBS college football play-by-play broadcaster Brad Nessler during Wisconsin’s loss to USC.

In particular, Alvarez was bothered by Fickell’s decision to run a 4th and 1 play from the shotgun formation, resulting in a turnover on downs that led to USC answering with a go-ahead touchdown.

Now, the Badgers embark on one of the hardest schedules in the Big Ten in 2025, playing at Alabama, at Michigan, at Oregon, and at Indiana, and at home against Ohio State.

Plenty of opportunities for Fickell and the Badgers to right the ship, or to leave more doubt around the direction of the program under his leadership.