How bout them Hawks









I watched this, wow. You almost have to feel sorry for Fickell. He can't sit up there and say he has no answers but he has no answers. It will be really tough to keep that team together for the rest of the season.
I think that team has been lost since last year. Fickle knows he’s done. Everything he’s saying there is a show for his players but I don’t blame him. He sold himself to Wisconsin and the players and he failed.

There’s 2 sides to every contract and if Wisconsin signed it that’s on them. Fickle knows he’s done and he’ll have a whole bunch of really big checks coming his way for sitting at home. He’ll be fine for the rest of his life.
 



I think he hit the right notes. He looked stunned, more than anything. Just stunned.

I always wonder if they say stuff during these things that are directly aimed at staff or the team. Something they would understand that we wouldn't. Almost like private code. An inside joke, except it's a shot across the bow instead of a joke.
 


I think he hit the right notes. He looked stunned, more than anything. Just stunned.

I always wonder if they say stuff during these things that are directly aimed at staff or the team. Something they would understand that we wouldn't. Almost like private code. An inside joke, except it's a shot across the bow instead of a joke.
Watched the whole press conference. Honestly felt bad for him. Key phrase was that he has, in his view, never been in a situation like this. He is right. He as a whisper away from the head job at Ohio St. He took Cincy to a higher level. He attempted to bring air raid to WI. Seemed like a plan. Yes, he better move on. His choice or not.
 








I don't think he helped much in his presser earlier in the week. Made mention how Iowa had bullied them in all aspects of the game last year and that was not going to happen this year. He gave Iowa a chance to say "Hold my beer." I bet they wish they wouldn't have given Paul Chryst such a hard time, or they should have hired Jim Leonard.
 


I don't think he helped much in his presser earlier in the week. Made mention how Iowa had bullied them in all aspects of the game last year and that was not going to happen this year. He gave Iowa a chance to say "Hold my beer." I bet they wish they wouldn't have given Paul Chryst such a hard time, or they should have hired Jim Leonard.

Yah. I never played football. I dunno if there's any truth to the bulletin board material thing. I think there's gotta be some truth to it. But also, no real practical effect. Also, it seems rare to me. At least rare enough that it rises to the point where it's discussed outside the locker room or that a marginally invested fan like me is aware of. I basically come here. Most of the stuff I click on outside of here is usually about recruits or injury news. I don't get into the weeds on week to week game stuff. It doesn't often burble up to the point of me being aware of it.

But I did see it. And thought "Gee, that seems a weirdly specific shot across the bow and aimed at Ferentz and his staff."

Some rather ephemeral things we fans have wondered about (strength, conditioning, recruiting of real athletes) for awhile now. I mean, you don't have to reach far for criticism of Iowa football. All you have to do is say "offense/passing game" and the only rational response from Iowa would be "well, yeah, but we're always good on defense and special teams....complimentary football!!!"

I clicked on a followup (so algorithm comes in to play if I was aware of Fickell's comments in the first place)....allegedly Kirk's response was "We've heard that before, Luke." 100% sure it was fake/clickbait. But my thought is, such an oddly specific shot that Fickell took struck enough nerve to generate some clickbait/ragebait.
 


Yah. I never played football. I dunno if there's any truth to the bulletin board material thing. I think there's gotta be some truth to it. But also, no real practical effect. Also, it seems rare to me. At least rare enough that it rises to the point where it's discussed outside the locker room or that a marginally invested fan like me is aware of. I basically come here. Most of the stuff I click on outside of here is usually about recruits or injury news. I don't get into the weeds on week to week game stuff. It doesn't often burble up to the point of me being aware of it.

But I did see it. And thought "Gee, that seems a weirdly specific shot across the bow and aimed at Ferentz and his staff."

Some rather ephemeral things we fans have wondered about (strength, conditioning, recruiting of real athletes) for awhile now. I mean, you don't have to reach far for criticism of Iowa football. All you have to do is say "offense/passing game" and the only rational response from Iowa would be "well, yeah, but we're always good on defense and special teams....complimentary football!!!"

I clicked on a followup (so algorithm comes in to play if I was aware of Fickell's comments in the first place)....allegedly Kirk's response was "We've heard that before, Luke." 100% sure it was fake/clickbait. But my thought is, such an oddly specific shot that Fickell took struck enough nerve to generate some clickbait/ragebait.
You can do the motivational stuff but you don't go public with it. You don't tell media that your team has been sweating over this thing all year, doing 42 pushups and reps all year, blah blah blah. 'Cause all it does is make you look like a gigantic dumbass if it doesn't work. If you do that stuff, you come out public with it after you whoop their ass, not before.
 


You can do the motivational stuff but you don't go public with it. You don't tell media that your team has been sweating over this thing all year, doing 42 pushups and reps all year, blah blah blah. 'Cause all it does is make you look like a gigantic dumbass if it doesn't work. If you do that stuff, you come out public with it after you whoop their ass, not before.

Then again, Rutgers did that. But fair on to them. They certainly circled Iowa on the calendar. But I don't remember them making any comments. The 2025 Iowa team would definitely have been a real opportunity for them if they could have won. And the 2025 Rutgers team definitely could have been the team with an opportunity to do it. And as far as I know, all they ever said is they thought this was their year to do it. And they kept it close enough to be a winnable game....until it wasn't.

And yeah, you throw in their Wave drone show and that sorta softens any animosity that might come over being circled on the calendar. I don't call that drone show classy. I know some did. I just thought it was weird. If I'm the people deciding on that stuff for Rutgers athletics....I say "OK, drone show. Let's make it about Rutger's traditions. And what might be cool is to throw somewhere in there something about The Wave as an acknowledgement to our opponent". Kind of like letting a visiting band have time for 1 or 2 pieces on the field at the halftime show. But not the whole damn show. Weird.
 


From the Wisky side of things they have nobody to blame but themselves. You go hiring a guy that's going to totally do a 180 to what your culture of 30 plus yrs has been and it blows up this soon/this bad then come on... Sure some in the media thought that it might work initially just because they liked Fickell and he'd done well at Cinci. But that hire was a huge gamble that they lost on and that AD should go down with the ship on that.

But I think many fans and those with a brain could see just how drastic of a change that'd be and know it wasn't going to work. Definitely not right away. Then you factor in the expansion of the league, NIL, etc and it's just a lot all at once.

Fickell will be fine regardless if they rip the band aid off on him soon or if they make him coach out the yr as a lame duck. That'd be my punishment to him cause obviously he isn't going to quit. Make these last 5 or however many games he has left be losses on his record and not an assistant interim HC. Blow it up after the yr and start from scratch. New AD new HC all the way down.

A 20 million plus buyout sure would be nice to have. This will stain his reputation some for sure he won't land on his feet as a HC right away. But he won't be out of football like Chryst has been pretty much as an analyst or whatever he's been doing.

It'll be curious between he and Franklin who pops up where and what they end up doing again down the road.
 


It'll be curious between he and Franklin who pops up where and what they end up doing again down the road.

I mean, I bet the UFL would take 20 million dollars and let you have a franchise. Surely 50 million.
Then they could coach forever and never worry about being fired.
 


Then again, Rutgers did that. But fair on to them. They certainly circled Iowa on the calendar. But I don't remember them making any comments. The 2025 Iowa team would definitely have been a real opportunity for them if they could have won. And the 2025 Rutgers team definitely could have been the team with an opportunity to do it. And as far as I know, all they ever said is they thought this was their year to do it. And they kept it close enough to be a winnable game....until it wasn't.

And yeah, you throw in their Wave drone show and that sorta softens any animosity that might come over being circled on the calendar. I don't call that drone show classy. I know some did. I just thought it was weird. If I'm the people deciding on that stuff for Rutgers athletics....I say "OK, drone show. Let's make it about Rutger's traditions. And what might be cool is to throw somewhere in there something about The Wave as an acknowledgement to our opponent". Kind of like letting a visiting band have time for 1 or 2 pieces on the field at the halftime show. But not the whole damn show. Weird.
At the end of the day though, Rugters knows who they are and Wisconsin doesn't.

Rutgers also kept the game competitive and Wisconsin beat themselves already before kickoff.

Wisconsin has made three fatal mistakes that got them where they are. First they fired Paul Chryst who was Kirk Ferentz reincarnate. Second they didn't hire Jim Leonhard to replace him. Third, they hired an in-over-his-head dork from a different conference who had no clue what it takes to win a game in the Big Ten, let alone be competitive. And funnily enough they're about to do it again because unless they're going to kidnap James Franklin and threaten his kids with the cartel, there's no one with Big Ten experience who's going to be available to bail their sorry asses out. Matt Rhule is being suggested as the next PSU coach, and after that, who is there? Another SEC/ACC/B12 flop who lost his job? A Conference USA superstar? They don't have the money to go out and buy away a stud coach so their next hire is going to be a total guess and we all know how most of those work.

This whole poop show in Madison is nebraska 2.0 again and I'm here for it. They thought they could still trade in Barry Alvarez's Cadillac even up on a new one, and were too stupid to realize it was only worth salvage value until it was too late.

Poor guys...
 




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