The best hire of the 2022 college head coaching cycle was Luke Fickell, but since then, it has gone downhill for the Wisconsin Badgers.

In 2021, Luke Fickell had the Desmond Ridder-led Cincinnati Bearcats in the four-team College Football Playoff. He was flying high and was the most coveted new coaching hire.

The Wisconsin Badgers went after Fickell and made him their next head coach, putting him in charge of finding the heartbeat inside of a once-proud program. 

Everything about Fickell seemed to be the proper fit for the Badgers. Fickell is a Midwest guy who played football in the Big Ten, understands what it is like to win in the conference, and has turned a program around before.

Week 8 Weekend Preview - Biggest Big Ten Matchups | Playoff Game in South Bend | SEC Barnburners Its Week 8 (I know the header says Week 7) in College Football and while the Buckeyes are heading to Madison to take on the Badgers, there are plenty of othe...

All the ingredients to turn Wisconsin into a winner were there.

However, in Year 4 of the Fickell experiment, he is living on borrowed time. The Badgers enter Saturday with a 2-4 record and a four-game losing streak. Their most recent loss was a 37-0 beating at the hands of the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Wisconsin will not get a reprieve after the top-ranked Buckeyes come to town. The Badgers will travel to Eugene next to take on an angry Oregon group, followed by a tough Washington team and then the No. 3 Indiana Hoosiers. 

So, where did it go wrong for the Badgers?

Fickell made one critical fundamental error when he took over the program. Instead of staying with Wisconsin's traditional, hard-nosed, physical, run-first approach, he tried to implement a spread-style attack, and it was his death knell.

The Badgers haven't been able to attract the players necessary to be a successful pass-first offense; thus, the entire program has suffered in a big way. 

In the current era of college football, it is hard enough to field a competitive football team, but now players don't have to put up with being on a bad team. When things go south inside a program, nothing is stopping guys from packing their bags and finding a new home.

As Wisconsin looks inward and likely pivots in a new direction, it has to go back to its roots.

The Badgers can become relevant again if they return to the old school style of football. That may not be the most entertaining brand, but it is what they need to do to return to the top of their game.

Fickell will be looking for a new home in 2026.  It isn't official, but it is time for a change for the Badgers. He will be lucky to survive the next month of football with Wisconsin, let alone the rest of the year. 

The Big Ten is a better conference when Wisconsin is relevant. The Badgers need to do whatever it takes to get back to that point and become a player on the national scale again.