2025-26 Coaching Carousel

[DoctorWho85]

When Fickell was at Cincy, he was able to get better talent than the other schools in the AAC. When he left Cincy, Cincy was headed to the Big 12 and Cincy was probably going to struggle. Wisconsin looked like a good job as they were an upper tier Big 10 program, but Wisconsin won using a hard nosed style of play and developing players as they did not have better talent than many Big 10 schools. Fickell has not risen to the challenge.

Hes a good coach, it just doesn't appear Wisconsin was a good fit for him

 

[huskymedic]

Badgers down 20-0 @ half:

 

[BlueWolf25]

Badgers down 20-0 @ half:

Yeah he’s gone

 

[Chin Diesel]

Fired or quitting/resigning, I don't see Dabo coaching past next season.

 

[Drew]

 

[Purple Stein]

It's OK. He's a man. He's 40.

 

[huskymedic]

It's OK. He's a man. He's 40.

 

[Jetskies]

It's OK. He's a man. He's 40.

wow this is the guy from that rant? He was there a longgg time! He had to have been one of the longest tenured FBS coaches... that makes it sadder.

 

[ShakyTheMohel]

wow this is the guy from that rant? He was there a longgg time! He had to have been one of the longest tenured FBS coaches... that makes it sadder.

I haven’t followed them close…but OSU was known to have amazing amount of donor funds…so NIL shouldn’t have been an issue. So what happened here? Did the game just pass him by? Was he not able to adapt to the portal? Is he Dabo light?

 

[Purple Stein]

wow this is the guy from that rant? He was there a longgg time! He had to have been one of the longest tenured FBS coaches... that makes it sadder.

He played at OSU 86-89, was an assistant coach there from 90-95, then Assistant Head Coach/Head Coach from 01-now. So he has spent most of the last 40 years of his life there, and this is a sad way for that to end.

That said, without ever leaving, he went Edsall 2.0 on them, so OSU wasn't left with much of a choice.

 

[KryHavok]

Good will gets you jack today. He won 65.4% of his games as HC and was 12-6 in Bowls, ranked in final AP Top 25 ten times yet last year's 3-9 record coupled with 1-2 to start this year were his doom. I wish we had that kind of run over the last 21 years.

 

[ShakyTheMohel]

Good will gets you jack today. He won 65.4% of his games as HC and was 12-6 in Bowls, ranked in final AP Top 25 ten times yet last year's 3-9 record coupled with 1-2 to start this year were his doom. I wish we had that kind of run over the last 21 years.

what forced their hand was how God awful they were this year. As I asked…how did they get so bad so fast?

 

[Exit 4]

The NY Football Giants might be able to build a fantasy coaching roster this winter of ex-college coaches; Gundy, Fickell, Dabo and more to come.

 

[Jetskies]

He played at OSU 86-89, was an assistant coach there from 90-95, then Assistant Head Coach/Head Coach from 01-now. So he has spent most of the last 40 years of his life there, and this is a sad way for that to end.

That said, without ever leaving, he went Edsall 2.0 on them, so OSU wasn't left with much of a choice.

mmmm edsall 2.0 - he did not adjust to the NIL era? can u imagine RE in this era, we'd be losing 33-14 to CCSU lol

jokes aside, i'm very sad for Gundy - it seems to me he cared a lot about OSU, beyond the money. you don't stay that long, and stay and stay and stay, without a genuine loyalty to your alma mater. Surely he had other opportunities come up along the way. with a single school as your entire resume, you'd want to end it on a proper retirement. Dang....

 

[Kolumbo]

CR probably played at least a small part in this. Okie State was in a BCS/P5 conference with Texas and Oklahoma for 28 years. All of a sudden it was in a relegated conference with ucf and cincy. That had to affect recruiting on some level if players are deciding between Okie State and an SEC program.

 

[UConnJim]

CR probably played at least a small part in this. Okie State was in a BCS/P5 conference with Texas and Oklahoma for 28 years. All of a sudden it was in a relegated conference with ucf and cincy. That had to affect recruiting on some level if players are deciding between Okie State and an SEC program.

I think CR is a small part, but it seemed like Mike Gundy was tired and he struggled to adjust to the portal/NIL era and on field performance suffered. And, I have to wonder if T Boone Pickens not being around to help fund/lead OSU athletics is also impacting football.

 

[freescooter]

Hes a good coach, it just doesn't appear Wisconsin was a good fit for him

I think a lot of these guys who are successful don’t quite get how tough it is to succeed at a mid-level P4 program where there is already a pretty well established hierarchy. Wisconsin is one of the B list Big 10 programs. They can have pretty good teams but they need to climb over too many others to win the conference championship. Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Oregon, all need to off plus Wisconsin needs to have a great team that year for them to win the Big 10. The have been to a championship game a time or 2 but haven’t won the Big10 since 2012. We’ve seen this movie before. Butch Jones at Tennessee, Tom Herman at Texas, and a bunch, Charlie Strong at Texas. All of them had great things going where they were, moved up and didn’t succeed or didn’t succeed enough. PS we might be adding Kelly to the list in a weird way. Popular and reasonably successful at ND. But LSU is
maybe not B list but A- in the SEC.

 

[DoctorWho85]

I think a lot of these guys who are successful don’t quite get how tough it is to succeed at a mid-level P4 program where there is already a pretty well established hierarchy. Wisconsin is one of the B list Big 10 programs. They can have pretty good teams but they need to climb over too many others to win the conference championship. Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Oregon, all need to off plus Wisconsin needs to have a great team that year for them to win the Big 10. The have been to a championship game a time or 2 but haven’t won the Big10 since 2012. We’ve seen this movie before. Butch Jones at Tennessee, Tom Herman at Texas, and a bunch, Charlie Strong at Texas. All of them had great things going where they were, moved up and didn’t succeed or didn’t succeed enough. PS we might be adding Kelly to the list in a weird way. Popular and reasonably successful at ND. But LSU is
maybe not B list but A- in the SEC.

I thought Charlie Strong was a bad hire for Texas. He's a great coach it just felt like he didn't fit with what they wanted. I think Fickell lands on his feet as a cooridinator somewhere. Maybe him and Diaco and team up lmao

 

[huskymedic]

 

[DoctorWho85]

Maybe they should look at NDSU, SDSU, Montana and USD for their next coach. They have been absolutely dominant at the FCS level.

Edit: I maybe have alterior motives as I am a UND grad student and I want us to win the MVC

 

[CCSUblue]

Imagine having a guy like Adam Peters on your search committee...if they can't get someone good it means no one good wants to coach there.

 

[UConnJim]

Imagine having a guy like Adam Peters on your search committee...if they can't get someone good it means no one good wants to coach there.

The problem at UCLA is support and money as they have been running large deficits. Joining the Big 10 will help, but it just doesn't seem like they are committed to athletics.

 

[freescooter]

The problem at UCLA is support and money as they have been running large deficits. Joining the Big 10 will help, but it just doesn't seem like they are committed to athletics.

UCLA is UCONN, UNC on the west coast. It is a basketball school at heart.