There was a moment, not all that long ago, when it felt like the University of Wisconsin football program had finally found the right steward for its next era. Sit back and watch Fickell’s introductory press conference from Nov. 2022. You’ll see it: the fully formed blueprint, the clarity of vision, the confidence of a coach who had built Cincinnati into a College Football Playoff contender by leaning on something other schools couldn’t imitate.
Relationships. Development. High-school recruiting. Ownership of the Midwest. That was the sales pitch. That was the promise. And for about fifteen minutes, it sounded like the perfect marriage between a coach with a proven developmental background and a program that had built three decades of winning football on those very same values.