With the speculation that Wisconsin football head coach Luke Fickell is on the hot seat, that was amplified more regarding Saturday's game against the Maryland Terrapins. After Wisconsin football received a whooping from Alabama in the weekend prior, the team was down big at halftime to Maryland, prompting a rowdy response from the fans.
As the Baders were down 20-0 at halftime, the team would hear loud “Fire Fickell” chants as the program was heading back into the locker room to prepare for the second half, according to Adam Rittenberg of ESPN.
“Wisconsin booed off the field at halftime, down 20-0 to Maryland, while students chant, “Fire Fickell.” Tough scene in Madison,” Rittenberg wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Wisconsin football under Luke Fickell has been vastly underperforming
With fans voicing their opinions on the head coach, the Wisconsin football team gave Fickell a contract extension earlier this year, despite the losing record with the program. Results need to be shown on the field, and promises need to be kept, which haven't been happening with Fickell at the helm thus far.
After losing to the Crimson Tide, Fickell laid down some goals coming into that game, like playing “poised” and “confident” in the first half. As it happened last weekend and Saturday against Maryland, the exact opposite happened.
“Well, that’s obviously not, not easy to swallow,” Fickell said, via SB Nation. “And the truth of the matter is, I told those guys: that was a much better team than we are right now, and they showed it, and they did everything that they needed to do. They played complementary football, and we did not.”
“We knew we had to come out here in the first half in particular and play solid, play poised, play confident, find a way to make some plays on both sides of the ball,” Fickell continued. “But really, make sure that what we could do was make some adjustments at halftime and come out the second half and make sure that we could put the pressure on them. And it’s exactly opposite of what we did, so it’s tough to swallow.”
At any rate, the Badgers would score three points in the third quarter, and barring a 17-point comeback, the program will be 2-2 with a matchup against No. 21 Michigan Wolverines after.
