Rastall Ramblings: Badgers Get Needed win After Demoralizing Commitment to Fickell

For one shining moment, Wisconsin Badgers football was fun again.

The Badgers earned their first win over a ranked opponent in four years with a 13-10 victory against No. 23 Washington this past Saturday in Madison, ending the program’s 11-game losing streak against ranked foes and their 11-game losing streak against Power Four opponents dating back to last year.

It was a much-needed morale boost for a program that had hit its lowest point since the Don Morton era of the late 1980s. The final defensive stop to force a turnover on downs that iced the game led to embattled head coach Luke Fickell being mobbed in celebration on the sidelines. Students rushed the field at Camp Randall Stadium to commemorate what was, for most of them, the first truly memorable home win of their time in Madison.

Wisconsin’s upset of the Huskies wound up being one of the stories of the day in college football and it was a lot of fun as a Badgers fan, but it did little to change the big picture situation of the program.

Badgers football made national headlines for more dubious reasons two days prior to that Washington win when athletic director Chris McIntosh confirmed that Fickell would be back for the 2026 season with an increase in the program’s NIL spending.

While there had been enough media reports and signals from McIntosh himself to suggest that Fickell was going to stick around prior to that, it was still demoralizing to have it confirmed. 

The issues that have plagued the Badgers during the Fickell era do not seem like the kind that can be fixed by a little more NIL money. Three years into his tenure, the program has continuously gotten worse and it’s hard to discern an identity for Wisconsin football these days.

The defense has had more than its share of positive performances since 2023, but it’s been nowhere near good enough consistently to offset the horror show that’s been the offense. While the Badgers’ horrible injury luck at quarterback has exacerbated these issues significantly, the fact that the backup QBs have often looked this woeful is still reflects poorly on the coaching staff.

The win over the Huskies was a good example of the issues that persist. The defense played lights out — with standout freshmen linebackers Mason Posa and Cooper Catalano stealing the show and providing at least some hope for the future — but the offense barely scraped enough points together to win. In fact, the Badger aerial attack was so ineffective that backup punter Sean West was the team’s leading passer on the day by virtue of a 24-yard completion on a fake punt.

As cathartic as Saturday was, it wasn’t exactly a sustainable formula for success. And even though the crowd that was present put their all into rooting on Wisconsin, the stands were alarmingly empty, and it wasn’t just because of the cruddy weather.

Even with that win, the Badgers are about to miss out on bowl season for a second straight year, which will be confirmed when they are likely incinerated by Indiana this weekend. Given how poorly Fickell’s tenure has gone, McIntosh giving him a vote of confidence feels like reiterating your faith in the structural integrity of the Titanic five minutes after it snapped in half.

I’d love to be wrong. Hopefully that extra boost in NIL, better injury luck at quarterback and a less daunting schedule leads to a meaningful turnaround in 2026. But that seems like wishful thinking. Not firing Fickell now feels like a lack of ambition due to how competitive the college football coaching carousel is going to be, and it seems like both Fickell and now McIntosh are dead men walking just waiting to eventually be fired.

The temporary rejuvenation of the Washington win doesn’t change that feeling.