Wisconsin Football Preview 2025: Luke Fickell Has To Start Delivering Wins for the Badgers

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Wisconsin Offense Breakdown
Wisconsin Defense Breakdown
Season Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season

To keep it fair to Fickell, yes, Wisconsin had to do something to try busting through its own ceiling.

Since the CFP era began, few Power Five-now-Four programs got closer to the College Football Playoff without getting in.

The school that was so miserable for so long at college football before Barry Alvarez showed up - hand raised as a Badger who never enjoyed a bowl game or NCAA Tournament during his college experience - might have been among the very, very good, but it needed a tweak.

Sometimes the new-Jan-Brady style-changing wig fits. It took a few years, and Mike Leach as the offensive coordinator to get it going, for Oklahoma to shift from its historically devastating rushing style to a national title-good passing attack.

Sometimes fixing what’s not broken is a cataclysmic mistake with no real hope of restoring the sustainable glory - two words: Nebraska Cornhuskers.

At the moment, Wisconsin falls somewhere in between, but the positive results have to come fast for Fickell in Year Three, and … they won’t.

Fickell hasn’t had a whole lot of luck, and he’s getting even less this year with one of the nation’s most brutal schedules.

There’s more depth, the quarterback situation should finally be a positive, and overall, the team should be far more like what it needs to be to make this all work. But grade this season on a curve.

As long as there appears to be a clear plan and style to build around, okay. This can be another stepping stone season in the progression, but seriously, this schedule is borderline unfair.

On the positive side, Fickell will have lots and lots of chances to pull off a breakthrough win or two to change everything, but first, Wisconsin has GOT to get more production out of … 
 
Wisconsin Offense Breakdown
Wisconsin Defense Breakdown
Season Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season