The University of Wisconsin Badger football team suffered a gut-wrenching loss to No.1 Oregon on Nov. 16. Wisconsin, despite leading throughout the first three quarters, let Oregon slip away late in the game, giving up 10 points to the Ducks while producing just 21 yards of total offense in the fourth quarter. This summed up the Badger season in big games — lead early and fall apart in the second half, whether to USC, Penn State or Oregon.

Just a day after this loss, the UW football team fired offensive coordinator Phil Longo, blaming him for Wisconsin’s consistently paltry offensive showings. The current offense ranked 97th in scoring and 102nd in passing among Division 1 FBS programs. Wisconsin finished the season a mediocre 5-7, quite the opposite of the expectations by fans when head coach Luke Fickell was lured in on a lucrative contract worth up to $57 million.

In 2021, Fickell made a big splash leading Cincinnati to an undefeated regular season and became the first non-power 5 program to make the College Football Playoff, falling to the University of Alabama there.

While the offense certainly wasn’t firing on all cylinders, firing Phil Longo doesn’t seem like an effective solution to this problem. The Badgers haven’t just been flat on offense, but on defense, too. The team gave up over 400 yards and 40 points to both Iowa and Nebraska, two teams that UW has consistently held to low scores and beaten in the past.

In September, the Badgers held USC to 10 points in the first half. But they exploded in the second half, scoring 28 unanswered points to win the game, as the Badger offense sputtered. The problem seems to extend beyond its paltry offense and into its lackluster defense.

Others may lament recruiting problems and simply boil it down to UW not having the talent to compete against big-name programs. But this doesn’t seem to make sense either, as UW has had a flurry of high-ranked recruits and transfers in Coach Fickell’s first two years, but these recruits haven’t seemed to change the team’s offensive or defensive firepower. The Badgers brought in transfers CJ Williams, a 4-star and highest-ranked receiver recruit in Badgers’ history, 4-star Quarterback Tyler Van Dyke and 4-star Tanner Mordecai.

In fact, in Fickell’s first two years, the team averaged 23.8 points per game on offense and gave up 21.6 on defense. In former coach Paul Chryst’s seven years — not including the shortened 2020 season and the 2022 season in which he was fired —  UW averaged 29.6 points per game and gave up an average of 17.1 points.

So, while Fickell’s entrance brought in highly ranked transfers, the offense and defense have both been statistically worse. And while the sample size is small — two seasons for Fickell compared to seven for Chryst — the results have not been promising so far.

Moreover, while UW may not have always been the most exciting team to watch in Chryst’s years, they were winners with an identity — a strong running game, coupled with end-around, steady passing and a stout defense. When the Badgers lost, it was often close and the result of an offense that couldn’t keep pace, not a combined struggle fest on offense and defense. Under Chryst, the Badgers were winners of the Cotton Bowl, Orange Bowl, Pinstripe Bowl and made an appearance at the coveted Rose Bowl.

So far, Fickell’s two UW teams have seemed rudderless, lacking a true identity, a mish-mash of runs, screen passes and short yardage plays with the occasional deep shot. This offense has at times looked promising — see the first half of the USC game — but it has never been able to stay consistent, unlike the Badger teams of the Chryst era.

Last but not least, Chryst understood and was a part of the UW-Madison football culture. A former quarterback and tight end at UW, then assistant coach, Chryst was an insider of the football culture at UW. He brought in coaches, like vaunted defensive coordinator Jim Leonard, who also had experience at UW.

While it’s good to bring in new faces and fresh ideas — admittedly, the UW offense could be downright difficult to watch rush on first, second and third downs, while Ohio State passed for 80 yards on first down — it seems as if Fickell came in and attempted to bring change to a place he knew little about, which is never a recipe for success.

Phil Longo’s firing likely won’t solve all of UW’s football problems. They seem to stem beyond the offense, into the coaching staff and maybe into the athletic director’s office, where its sweeping change was prioritized over cultural continuity with the hire of Fickell over Leonard.

Perhaps we look back on the Chryst era with rose-colored glasses. After all, Chryst was never able to beat vaunted Big Ten programs like Ohio State and bring home a Big Ten Championship. But so far, the results haven’t been promising in the Fickell era, and fans are longing for the teams of the Chryst era.

Until then, fans will have to make do with a stellar band, Jump Around and a host of overpriced drinking establishments. So maybe all isn’t lost after all.