Luke Fickell maintains hopeful mindset despite losing 10th straight game to power-conference foe
MADISON – Luke Fickell still has hope.
After quarterback Hunter Simmons threw his interception that went off the intended receiver’s hands, the third-year Wisconsin coach looked in his players’ eyes with the question of, “Is there a loss of hope?”
“Is somebody going to be like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is like last week,’” Fickell said shortly after a 34-0 loss to No. 1 Ohio State on Oct. 18 and a week after a 37-0 loss to Iowa. “And what gives me hope is, no, I didn’t see that.”
But for those outside the program – a program that has lost its last 10 games against power-conference teams – that same sense of hope does not seem quite so commonplace.
The “Fire Fickell” chants are becoming somewhat customary from the student section, albeit perhaps without the same ferocity or frequency as earlier in the five-game losing streak. The same could be said about the booing from the Camp Randall Stadium crowd.
The most glaring sign of that lack of hope might be who has not been there, however. Tickets scanned data, which the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel obtained via an open records request, showed that two of Wisconsin’s first four home games had fewer than 50,000 ticketed fans in a stadium with more than 72,000 ticketed seats.
In the Badgers’ fifth home game against Ohio State, noticeable parts of the student section – including the top 20 rows in Section O – appeared to be empty in the final minute of the first half. That was with plenty of time for the lines for entry to subside and before fans might leave at halftime or after “Jump Around.”
As has been the case in other games, the student section was especially sparse shortly after the fourth quarter began.
Less than an hour before the game started, third-party ticket reseller StubHub had some tickets listed for less than $20. And that was for a game against a marquee, top-ranked opponent whose fans traveled relatively well.
Fickell has hope about that changing, too.
“When we win games, they’ll come back,” Fickell said of the fans. “That’s our job. … That’s what we got to continue to find is the ways to motivate us intrinsically that puts a better product out there so we don’t have to worry about things like that.”
Wisconsin outside linebacker Darryl Peterson III, now in his fifth season in Madison, said the Badgers can’t focus on the fans’ negativity.
“Either stick with us now or – there’s no good way to put it,” Peterson said. “If you’re going to boo us, why come to the games? … We got a lot better things to worry about than fans booing us and stuff like that.”
Cornerback Omillio Agard’s message to frustrated fans was simple: “I apologize.”
“We’re not what you wanted this year, but we’re going to keep going,” Agard said. “We’re going to keep fighting. And that’s all you can ask from us.”
Wisconsin (2-5, 0-4 Big Ten) has lost all five games against power-conference opponents so far this season. Those five opponents have outscored the Badgers, 160-34. The last two opponents – unranked Iowa and No. 1 Ohio State – in particular have outscored the Badgers, 71-0.
“Yeah, you want to see better,” Fickell said. “I want to see better. There’s a disappointment inside that locker room, but it’s not from a lack of guys that are trying to put the product on the field and represent the ‘W’ the way the ‘W’ is supposed to be represented.”
The fan frustration – and historic lows for the program – has prompted questions about Fickell’s future.
After the second game of the five-game losing streak, athletic director Chris McIntosh expressed his support for Fickell in an interview with the Journal Sentinel and Wisconsin State Journal. But Fickell’s name has unsurprisingly surfaced in national articles about which coaches are in the hot seat as he continues to underperform expectations.
“I believe he’s here to stay,” Agard said of Fickell’s job security. “I have nothing to do with the higher-ups and everything like that, but I believe he’s here to stay. And I love Coach Fick, and I feel like our team is doing a good job of not letting the outside noise get in and creep in.”
Agard’s optimism fits with Fickell’s hopeful mindset, even as many people in the below-capacity crowds watching Fickell’s teams may feel differently about the team’s circumstances and the role he should have in it.
“Hope is one of those things that you got to find from within,” Fickell said. “It’s not easy for the guys and the people outside maybe to find it and see it, but I’ll tell you this. The guys in the locker room – it’s different. They trust each other. They believe in each other.”
