Luke Fickell Is 0-4 Against Iowa and Has Been Outscored 124-16. Wisconsin Got Shut Out Again.
Wisconsin walked into Kinnick Stadium on Halloween ranked No. 25, sitting at 5-2, a week removed from beating No. 16 USC 24-7. It walked out having been shut out 30-0 for the second straight year by the same opponent.
Luke Fickell did not try to spin it. “Well, that’s an old-fashioned ass whopping,” he said to open his press conference, and that was the most accurate sentence anyone offered all afternoon.
The Numbers Are Brutal
Wisconsin finished with 235 total yards, 52 of them on the ground, and nine first downs. It turned the ball over three times. Iowa put up 362 yards and 21 first downs and scored 10 points in each of the first three quarters, which was more than enough.
“We didn’t play like we were prepared today,” Fickell said. “I don’t know that I could find any positives.” He was not interested in assigning blame: “all three phases of the game we were completely manhandled for 60-plus minutes.”
Four Years, Zero Wins, Sixteen Points
Fickell is 0-4 against Iowa since arriving in Madison. The scores: 15-6, 42-10, 37-0 and now 30-0. Mark Livingston of Sports Illustrated tallied the aggregate at 124-16, and Wisconsin has not scored a single point against Iowa in two years.
That number follows him regardless of how November goes. Wisconsin hired Fickell off a 57-18 run at Cincinnati that included an undefeated 2021 regular season. In Madison he is 22-24 overall and 13-19 in the Big Ten.
The Quarterback Job Is Open Again
Colton Joseph, the Old Dominion transfer who was Wisconsin’s prize portal addition, went 5-of-14 for 90 yards. It was his third straight game under 100 passing yards. True freshman Ryan Hopkins replaced him late in the third quarter and went 8-of-13 for 93 yards with an interception, out-throwing the starter in less than a half.
Fickell would not commit either way. “We got to look and see who’s going to give us the best opportunities,” he said. “I don’t know that anyone did anything specific today that tells us that.”
Wisconsin is 97th nationally in scoring offense at 23.6 points per game, per NCAA statistics through October 31. Fickell said the staff “jumbled around the offensive line more today than we ever have.”
Nobody Has Reported a Decision
Wisconsin has made no announcement about Fickell, and no named reporter has reported that a decision is coming. That is worth stating plainly, because the hot-seat machinery has already started humming.
What is on the record: CBS Sports put Fickell in its preseason “win or be fired” tier alongside Mike Norvell and Dave Aranda. Aranda has since been fired at Baylor, as has Maryland’s Mike Locksley. Three days before the Iowa game, Athlon Sports moved Fickell into its “cooling off” group.
The athletic director who twice defended him, Chris McIntosh, left in April for a Big Ten role. His replacement, Shawn Eichorst, started July 1 and has never given Fickell a public vote of confidence. “There’s going to be a ton of support, and there’s going to be times for us to step back and reflect and evaluate,” Eichorst said in July. He fired Bo Pelini during his run as Nebraska’s AD.
Reported buyout estimates run from roughly $19 million to $22.8 million. John Steppe of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel put it near $21.3 million for a December 1 termination, under a formula paying 80 percent of remaining compensation on a deal running through March 2030. Steppe stressed those are estimates.
Iowa Just Keeps Doing This
Kirk Ferentz, in his 28th season, got exactly the game he wanted. Hank Brown went 20-of-24 for 222 yards and two scores, Caden Buhr hit field goals of 24, 28 and a career-long 54, and the defense forced three turnovers.
“If you watch the game, it was truly a team win,” Ferentz said. Iowa is 6-2 and kept the Heartland Trophy.
Wisconsin, at 5-3, still has Rutgers at home, trips to Maryland and Purdue, and Minnesota on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Nine wins is still available. So is a finish that makes this the last Halloween anyone asks him about Iowa.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
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