Woah! Looks like the college football programs are getting grilled over some hot BBQ grill. Now that the 2024 season had dropped curtains, things were supposed to be cooled down. But not everyone is lucky enough to enjoy that soothing atmosphere. Turns out that Wisconsin Badgers HC Luke Fickell finds himself in the unlucky one’s tribe.

This does not come as a surprise. After all, Fickell turned out to be a disappointment as the Badgers had a nosedive ending the season 5-7. Not to worry, he finds four other companions whose boats are sinking too.

Luke Fickell joins the ‘Scorching Hot Seat’ club

The frustration with Fickell has been real among Wisconsin fans. After all, they have by now forgotten how victory actually tastes like. They are now 13-13 overall in his tenure, and fans have been calling for his job. Fickell’s program is coming off a miserable 5-7 season that featured lopsided losses to rivals Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota. This further exposed his weakness as he landed in direct comparison to his predecessor in Wisconsin. Paul Chryst was 6-0 against Nebraska. Maybe it hurts the fans more knowing that the Badgers pay $7,725,000 to someone like Fickell. Ever since he took up his role in November 2022, the program has lost its glitz and glamor. Looks like the HC can no longer save himself this time. 

On February 5, All College Football shared the College Football Report’s tweet on their IG story. The caption read, “College Football Head Coach Hot Seat Tiers.” It came with a table with different categories- ‘Scorching Hot Seat,’ ‘Hot Seat,’ ‘Warm Seat,’ ‘Room Temperature Seat,’ ‘Cold Seat,’ ‘Icemen.’ No wonder, Fickell found himself in the first category. Who did he find himself with? Oklahoma Sooners HC Brent Venables, Florida State Seminoles HC Mike Norvell, Auburn Tigers HC Hugh Freeze, and Arkansas Razorbacks HC Sam Pittman. 

In his third season as the head coach of the Oklahoma football program, Venables led the Sooners to a lackluster 6-6 regular season. That’s why the Sooners fans no longer want him. For Florida State, in 2023, the Seminoles won the ACC championship, coming off a 13-1 record. Cut two, Norvell’s program lost to three straight unranked opponents in 2024. The Tigers too ended the season on a low note, 5-7. This included an embarrassing 17-7 loss of Freeze and Co. at home to Vanderbilt. And what about Pittman?

Well, the Razorbacks fans are not happy with him returning for the sixth season, that’s because of their regression under the HC. 7-6 in 2022, 4-8 in 2023 and 7-6 in 2024, they had enough. But for Fickell, there comes a mixed review.  

Cutting off Luke Fickell will be a pricey dismissal   

While the chatter grows for Fickell that he might be on his way out, there comes another narrative. Jesse Temple, a popular Wisconsin beat writer, predicted in The Athletic that the HC still has some time on his hands. According to the analyst, Fickell will get a total of four seasons to prove he deserves to stay at Wisconsin. But looks like the vote in favor of the HC is just a handful.

The supporter for Wisconsin’s ‘Fire Fickell’ mission is more. One of Fansided’s college football experts, John Buhler, agrees that it’s a now-or-never kind of situation for the HC. “I am very concerned about Luke Fickell’s staying power at Wisconsin…Over the last two years, Fickell has devolved into a painfully mediocre Power Four head coach,” wrote the analyst. However, getting rid of their HC would be a costly affair for the Badgers. 

Back in 2022, Luke Fickell had signed a seven-year contract. Last year in January, he signed a one-year extension that means his contract runs through March 31, 2031. So as per the calculations, the Wisconsin HC has a contract buyout of $40,186,667, the 13th-highest in Division I. However, the Badgers hold some experience. Back in 2022, they decided to part ways with Paul Chryst, who reportedly accepted an $11 million buyout. Let’s sit back and see if the Badgers cut Fickell loose or stick to their guns!