Big Ten Football: Who is on the hot seat in 2025? (Fickell, Riley, Locksley)

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Fickell is gone if it doesn't look like the OL or DL are developing. I really don't think there is a solid enough base there for WI to be competitive. I know they have recruited well but I did not see a lot of impressive talent there when they played MN. If he shows he can develop talent and be competive he will get another year.
 

I can’t imagine McIntosh will ever fire Fickell. The amount of hubris required to fire Chryst, send Leonhard down the road is off the charts. Package deal, those two. The recent transfer portal fiasco hasn’t added to their image. I think he’s done a fine job.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
I can’t imagine McIntosh will ever fire Fickell. The amount of hubris required to fire Chryst, send Leonhard down the road is off the charts. Package deal, those two. The recent transfer portal fiasco hasn’t added to their image. I think he’s done a fine job.
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I hope they hang around for another 4-5 years if last season is any indicator of how the Axe game will continue to be going forward!
 

Strongazzoffer said:
So after 2018 he was 62-52 in big ten games? That's pretty good, even 65-76 is pretty fantastic at Northwestern. I doubt anyone in the next 50 years NW comes close to consistently having that program where Fitz had it at the height of his time there
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2 of the last 4 coaches including Fitz have had as much or I would argue more success than Fitz
 

Some guy said:
Pat Fitzgerald won 46% of his conference games and never won a big ten title
Randy Walker won 43% of his conference games and won a big ten title
Gary Barnett won 41% of his conference games and two big ten titles

Pat Fitzgerald maintained what became a solid program but a pretty good argument could be made he is their worst coach since 1992

Although I think Braun is worse.
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Not really relevant to the post, but just conjured up memory.

My Dad was raised in South Side of Chicago near the little village sign.

In 1995/96, amidst the Northwestern ascendency, I remember asking him if they were always that had always been that bad.

His answer,

No, they were worse.
When they put in 94, his first time recalling seeing the sign on the way from Minneapolis to Chicago, to visit family, somebody had graffitied the sign:

Interstate 94
Northwestern 0

Stupid, but still makes me laugh every time.
 


gophernut1 said:
Fickell is gone if it doesn't look like the OL or DL are developing. I really don't think there is a solid enough base there for WI to be competitive. I know they have recruited well but I did not see a lot of impressive talent there when they played MN. If he shows he can develop talent and be competive he will get another year.
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It's really incredible how vastly different Wisconsin looks. They used to be huge and athletic in the trenches, had multiple guys that looked 28 years old. Also, I think the rise of schools like Minnesota and Illinois (also Indiana, Rutgers, the PAC schools) mean that Wisconsin no longer is the default "go-to" B1G school after PSU, OSU, Michigan.
 

Interesting takes on Wisconsin talent given how good the recruiting and transfer classes have been ranked. Fickell will stay or go based on whether the transition to a new offense is successful. 2025 will be a good barometer for the transition.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Interesting takes on Wisconsin talent given how good the recruiting and transfer classes have been ranked. Fickell will stay or go based on whether the transition to a new offense is successful. 2025 will be a good barometer for the transition.
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I think if he wins 5 or fewer games he's gone. And I think there's at least a 50% chance of that happening.
 

Wisconsin definitely has a nice transfer haul and pretty good recruiting class. Problem they've lost a lot so there isn't a lot there to join and they decided to go away from identity that worked for them the last 30 plus years. It's not hard for a big ten team to bring in good players what's hard retention, having consistency and when you do have it it's not very wise to blow it up. The only thing harder is going from good to great to elites of the sport on a consistent basis, which is pretty impossible without an influx of money places like us and even Wisconsin just don't have
 



Strongazzoffer said:
Wisconsin definitely has a nice transfer haul and pretty good recruiting class. Problem they've lost a lot so there isn't a lot there to join and they decided to go away from identity that worked for them the last 30 plus years. It's not hard for a big ten team to bring in good players what's hard retention, having consistency and when you do have it it's not very wise to blow it up. The only thing harder is going from good to great to elites of the sport on a consistent basis, which is pretty impossible without an influx of money places like us and even Wisconsin just don't have
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The problem is they switched to a QB centric system with not enough wideouts and no QB who has found success.

Now they’re switching back, it’ll be interesting how easy it is to regain their old identity after leaving it for a few years.


Billy Edwards isn’t leading a Wisconsin spread offense to success. Maryland arguably has more talent and he couldn’t there. Is San Diego state guy?


They brought in nobody in the portal on offense who is an impact skill position player.
They didn’t look like they had impact guys on their roster last year.


Their defense may be significantly better.
Make Wisconsin Iowa again
 

Some guy said:
The problem is they switched to a QB centric system with not enough wideouts and no QB who has found success.

Now they’re switching back, it’ll be interesting how easy it is to regain their old identity after leaving it for a few years.


Billy Edwards isn’t leading a Wisconsin spread offense to success. Maryland arguably has more talent and he couldn’t there. Is San Diego state guy?


They brought in nobody in the portal on offense who is an impact skill position player.
They didn’t look like they had impact guys on their roster last year.


Their defense may be significantly better.
Make Wisconsin Iowa again
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IMO. They no longer have the hogs up front on both sides of the ball. FB is won and lost on the lines.
 

mggoph said:
IMO. They no longer have the hogs up front on both sides of the ball. FB is won and lost on the lines.
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Yup.
I think their portal may have been good enough to jump into the top half of the big ten on defense. But I don’t think they will on offense.

I think they’re 2-2 in the first 4 and finish 3-9

If they lose the opener they have 1-11 staring them in the face.
They simply aren’t good on offense and none of their portal additions are going to change that.
Then add to the fact they have a gauntlet schedule…your defense has to be so good to hold up vs that schedule with a bad offense.
 




WindyCityGopher said:
Riley has a $90 million buyout???? Good lord, at that point I'd be sandbagging the hell out of my effort to get fired and live on a beach in Thailand for awhile, a la Kliff Kingsbury.
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90 $ million buyout??????? Holy balls, I entered the wrong profession!!
 

Not sure what to do with Fickell, he seems to be recruiting well but the on field product hasn't been great. Do you fire him and go back to a Wisconsin guy? I think there will be a lot of pressure from that fanbase to go in that direction if they make a change. I believe Wisconsin has had to go to their backup QB both of his seasons too, which would be enough to get a complete free pass here. Imagine if we didn't have Max last year...

USC seems to have the same problem no matter the coach: lots of individual talent but they don't consistently play physical enough as a group to win week to week. They can look great against another helmet school and then get pushed around by a middle of the pack team that's hungry to beat a helmet school.
 

EG#9 said:
Not sure what to do with Fickell, he seems to be recruiting well but the on field product hasn't been great. Do you fire him and go back to a Wisconsin guy? I think there will be a lot of pressure from that fanbase to go in that direction if they make a change. I believe Wisconsin has had to go to their backup QB both of his seasons too, which would be enough to get a complete free pass here. Imagine if we didn't have Max last year...

USC seems to have the same problem no matter the coach: lots of individual talent but they don't consistently play physical enough as a group to win week to week. They can look great against another helmet school and then get pushed around by a middle of the pack team that's hungry to beat a helmet school.
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I predict Fickell gets fired in the next 1-2 years and Jim Leonhard is called back to take the job once thought to be his.
 

fmlizard said:
I predict Fickell gets fired in the next 1-2 years and Jim Leonhard is called back to take the job once thought to be his.
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Could very well happen, if Leonhard wants to go from NFL back to college game. I'm hoping Bert doesn't go to Iowa once Ferentz retires.
 

mggoph said:
Could very well happen, if Leonhard wants to go from NFL back to college game. I'm hoping Bert doesn't go to Iowa once Ferentz retires.
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I am fine if Bert goes to Iowa

At Arkansas and Illinois he is 57-56 (29-47)
He is under .500 overall 50% of the time at Illinois
He is under .500 in conference 50% of the time at Illinois


In 4 seasons he has had 2 seasons worse than Lovie’s last non covid season and 2 seasons better.

2024 Illinois was impressive
Their wins came against 1 team in the top half of the conference.
He could’ve made the playoff but he couldn’t beat the gophers.

In 2022 he had the best roster in the west, in my opinion, and didn’t win the division because he lost to Purdue at home in November and Lost to 5-7 Michigan State and 4-8 Indiana.


In 4 seasons he has beaten 4 teams that finished with a winning conference record. (This is the same number the gophers have in those 4 seasons)


He is a good coach, but he wouldn’t turn Iowa into 2005-2015 Wisconsin
 
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I don't think WI would go back to Bert. The old saying: If you are wandering in the forest and see the same tree twice, you are lost.
Now I could see Iowa (his alma mater) grabbing Bert if and when the Ferentz imperial regime crumbles or is overthrown.
 

Bert at Iowa could be bothersome from a consistency perspective. I'd like to see them have a handful of down years after ferentz leaves.
 

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