Luke Fickell deserved to be fired last season, and even he would admit that much. However, Chris McIntosh decided to back him up and keep him around. Well, maybe better said, it was Fickell himself who decided to keep himself around. The Athletic’s Justin Williams released a free report this week about the pivotal upcoming season for Fickell. Yet, it was the story about how Fickell was almost fired, or maybe almost quit, that really stole the show.
Williams tells the story of Fickell heading back to his office after “Fire Fickell” chants rained down on him after Wisconsin fell to Iowa. The season was unraveling, and he was fully expecting athletic director Chris McIntosh to agree with the chanting fans at Camp Randall. However, Williams tells the story of McIntosh asking Fickell what he wanted, whether to quit or to press through the noise. Fickell slept on it and the next day decided to stay. Williams quotes Fickell as saying, “There’s nothing I would rather do than pull ourselves out of where we are,”
Fickell almost quit, but instead decided his desire was to find a way through. To pull the Wisconsin program back together and get it to prominence again. Unlike McIntosh, who fled as soon as he could, Fickell stuck it out, took the boos on the chin, and found a way to win the offseason…