It’s only a matter of time before Wisconsin triggers Luke Fickell’s buyout and gets him out of Madison. Last week’s 37-0 loss for the Badgers to Iowa felt like it was the end and maybe the only reason they're prolonging it is because they are making sure they have all of his $25 million buyout ready to hand him upon firing him.
Wisconsin travels to play Ohio State and if last week was any indication, Fickell has already lost his team and he’s coaching more as a formality than anything. His buyout is relatively affordable, considering Penn State had to cough up $56 million to get James Franklin out of Happy Valley.
Like Billy Napier’s situation at Florida, this doesn’t feel like if Fickell gets fired but rather when. For both coaches, it could ultimately mean they’re coaching their final games and their respective teams this weekend. As Fickell’s future looks more and more glum, let’s take a look at some replacements the Badgers should be ready to call once things are official.
Matt Campbell, Iowa State Cyclones
The Wisconsin job is probably more attractive than the Penn State job for a couple of reasons. For one, Wisconsin’s championship window doesn’t exist right now so they won’t need to immediately come in and start winning. This is the perfect job for a coach like Campbell. Each year, he has Iowa State on the cusp of competing on a national level and a bad loss here or there halts it.
At Wisconsin, he’d still keep a lot of his midwest pipelines while getting into a more competitive market as a Big Ten coach. Campbell’s name is going to be floated around a lot as a replacement candidate for quite a few jobs that are already open and the ones that will soon open up.
Kenny Dillingham, Arizona State Sun Devils
In one season, Kenny Dillingham turned Arizona State from an afterthought in the Big 12 to a CFP contender and save for losing Sam Leavitt for a game, could still be contending for a spot in the playoff field. While that feels like a longshot, it’s not a longshot to think he could be chosen to rebuild Wisconsin like he did Arizona State.
Dillingham is a great candidate as he’ll bring a discipline that will actually make this team better in the long run. Wisconsin just feels like a team that’s going through the motions at this point. They’ve lost four straight games, including three straight conference games. They’ve scored more than 10 points once during that stretch.
This team needs a coach that will breathe new life into it and the energy Dillingham brings to Arizona State would transfer extremely well to a team that needs just about anything to make football fun again in Madison.
James Franklin
James Franklin might have just gotten himself a job after his exclusive interview with ESPN a week after he was fired at Penn State. He still wants to coach and wants to win a national championship and what better way to make his former team feel bad than to stay in the conference and have a chance to beat them. Franklin would be ideal for Wisconsin not just because of his familiarity with the Big Ten, but because he wouldn’t have the same pressure he did at Penn State.
While he did reach the CFP semifinals last year and had a largely successful tenure at Penn State, Wisconsin would accept the success he had at Penn State. For Penn State, they wanted more and at Wisconsin, he wouldn’t have that same demand.
Manny Diaz, Duke Blue Devils
Manny Diaz is another name that could be floated in this upcoming cycle. While Duke has had a couple tough losses this year, the Blue Devils are a sleeper team that has been trending upward since Diaz took over. He could want to build on a bigger stage and landing in the Big Ten would be just that.
It feels like with the way things have gone for Diaz at Duke the next natural step is to do the same rebuilding job on a bigger stage.
Alex Golesh, South Florida Bulls
Everybody has had a front-row seat to Alex Golesh and what he’s done at South Florida this season. The Bulls are back in the AP top 25 poll rankings and make a strong argument to be the Group of 5’s representative in the College Football Playoff. This season, South Florida knocked off Florida for their monumental win of the season.
Golesh is in his third year at South Florida and proved that he’s good enough to coach in and win the big games. Wisconsin needs that and while jumping from the AAC to the Big Ten won’t be easy, Wisconsin has to strike while it’s hot and Golesh could end up landing with another team.