Four games into the 2025 college football season, Wisconsin fans have finally had enough of head coach Luke Fickell. With the Badgers owning a disappointing 2-2 record through four games, they already need to be evaluating other options.
If the fan opinion was not already evident, it became crystal clear in Week 4. Frustrated viewers voiced their opinions during Wisconsin's embarrassing 27-10 loss to Maryland and drowned Camp Randall Stadium with “Fire Fickell” chants.
After the game, Wisconsin athletic director Chris McIntosh voiced his support of Fickell, essentially claiming that he would not fire the third-year coach midseason. Perhaps he does not want to make the same decision he did with Paul Chryst, or perhaps Fickell's massive contract buyout is dissuading.
Either way, regardless of McIntosh's comments, there are few coaches with a hotter seat than Fickell. Unless something changes quickly, Wisconsin needs to begin the 2026 college football season with a new coach at the helm.
Even in its struggles, a program like Wisconsin has options. Former Badger natives, like Wake Forest head coach Jake Dickert, immediately stand out, as do other thriving young head coaches like Duke's Manny Diaz. However, neither should be considered a top candidate.
Whether they fire Fickell midseason or not, here are the top five candidates to potentially replace him at the end of the season.
5. Brian Brohm, Louisville offensive coordinator
Brian Brohm has never been a head coach before, but he is a name that Wisconsin football fans should remember. Before he transitioned to coaching, Brohm began his professional football career as a second-round pick of the Green Bay Packers in the 2008 NFL Draft.
Brohm left Louisville as the team's second all-time passing yards leader, but his success did not translate to the next level. He never took the field for the Packers and lasted just two years in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills.
However, since hanging up his cleats, Brohm has truly found his calling card as one of the best offensive coordinators in college football. Under his brother, Jeff Brohm, the two rebuilt a previously lifeless Purdue team before moving to their alma mater in Louisville, where their success has sustained.
Since returning to Louisville, the Brohm brothers coached Tyler Shough into a second-round draft pick, while exciting Cardinals fans in a way that they have not felt since the Lamar Jackson era. Jeff Brohm gets the bulk of the credit, but Brian Brohm has been equally as impactful as a brilliant offensive mind.
At the rate that Louisville is currently trending, it is only a matter of time before Brian Brohm gets his shot. Wisconsin has a history of favoring defensive coaches, but something clearly needs to change. Brohm has already successfully rehabilitated two programs in the last decade.
4. Alex Golesh, USF head coach
What a run it has been for Alex Golesh. In just three years, he has quickly become one of the top up-and-coming head coaches, having taken a USF team that was 1-11 the year before his arrival to what should be three consecutive bowl seasons.
Barring a catastrophic drop-off, Golesh will be pursued by Power Four programs in the offseason. Wisconsin needs to be one of the teams reaching out. After learning under Matt Campbell and Josh Heupel, Golesh has proven his ability to quickly rebuild a lost program at the highest level.
Golesh is currently thriving in Florida, but his roots as a coach tie to the Midwest. He got his start in 2004 at Ohio State, before making ensuing stops at Northern Illinois, Toledo, Illinois and Iowa State.
Like Brohm, Golesh is the type of offensive-minded coach that Wisconsin needs. The Badgers have only topped 20 points in one of their four games thus far, despite being favored to win three of them.
With Florida flirting with the idea of firing Billy Napier, the Gators would be obvious candidates to hire Golesh in that scenario. Wisconsin needs to have him on its radar, as Golesh brings an approach almost exactly opposite to that of Luke Fickell.
3. Mike Tressel, Wisconsin defensive coordinator
If Wisconsin is going to promote from within, Mike Tressel should be the clear No. 1 option. Perhaps offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes gets a look, but that would be difficult to justify given what the team has produced offensively thus far.
Tressel, the nephew of current Ohio Lieutenant Governor and former Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel, has been on Luke Fickell's staff since 2021. Mike Tressel was Fickell's defensive coordinator at Cincinnati before following him in the same role at Wisconsin.
Before aligning with Fickell, Tressel worked under Mark Dantonio at Michigan State for over a decade. Dantonio briefly named him as the Spartans' acting head coach when he retired in 2020, before Mel Tucker took over.
After Fickell led Cincinnati to the playoffs in 2021, there was no doubt that he would receive a shot with a Power Four program. However, many have long believed that Tressel has been the true mastermind of his teams' defensive success.
Throughout his three-decade career, Tressel has been nearly unanimously praised everywhere he has gone. Since moving up to Division I, he has spent all but three years between either Dantonio or Fickell — two of those while on Jim Tressel's staff at Ohio State. He is, on all accounts, cut from the same cloth as his uncle and likely will not disappoint once given the opportunity to lead a program.
2. Fran Brown, Syracuse head coach
Fran Brown is not the most conventional coach, but it is that approach that leads his players to fully buy into his system. At this point, a coach like Brown might be precisely what Wisconsin football needs.
In his first season at the helm, Brown led Syracuse to a 10-3 record in 2024, its first double-digit win season since 2018. He received the Bear Bryant Newcomer Coach of the Year award and the Steve Spurrier First-Year Coach award at the end of the season, over Curt Cignetti, Shane Beamer, Kenny Dillingham, and others.
Four games into his second year, he has already led the Orange to a monumental upset of Clemson. It is clear that Brown has already established a culture at Syracuse that will enable it to quickly become a legitimate ACC contender.
Wisconsin fans might want a coach more proven than Brown, but several programs have recognized recent success after hiring similar candidates. Texas A&M went with Mike Elko after just two years at Duke, and Tennessee hired Josh Heupel after just three years with UCF.
Brown, a New Jersey native, already has Big Ten experience after spending two years with Rutgers in 2020 and 2021. He is the type of defensive-minded coach that Wisconsin tends to favor, who has turned Syracuse into an offensive dynamo. The culture in Madison is clearly not there under Luke Fickell, and Brown is the type of leader who can quickly change that.
1. Lance Leipold, Kansas head coach
Lance Leipold is the obvious answer whenever Wisconsin fans dream about the team's next head football coach. His name does not make any major headlines, but Leipold is the next rising head coach on the Power Four scene.
Leipold is currently in his fifth year as the head coach of Kansas, but his entire career is rooted in the Badger State. Not only is he from Jefferson, Wisconsin, but the 61-year-old got his big break as the head coach of Division III powerhouse Wisconsin-Whitewater.
During his eight years at Wisconsin-Whitewater, Leipold claimed six Division III titles. After proving himself as a winning head coach in the state, Leipold accepted a vacant position at Buffalo, where he was twice named the MAC Coach of the Year.
Leipold has not yet achieved the same type of championship-level success at Kansas, but the Jayhawks have secured a top-25 ranking in three of his first four years at the helm. Before he arrived in 2021, they had not previously breached the rankings since 2009.
Leipold is not an immediate fix, but he is a proven winner with a track record of rebuilding struggling programs. He quickly turned Kansas from a joke to a sleeper Big 12 contender, and should be considered the best-case scenario if Wisconsin fires Fickell.
