Mike Farrell Sports

College Football Recruiting, Opinion, and Analysis

Florida, Napier, Wisconsin & Fickell Share Paths to Destruction

Bad leadership decisions have ruined Wisconsin and Florida

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Sep 24
Sep 24

By Rock Westfall

As this is being written on Sunday morning, Billy Napier is still the head coach of the Florida Gators, but that status could change at a moment’s notice. Meanwhile, misery is the state of affairs for Luke Fickell of the Wisconsin Badgers, who is contractually locked in for seven more years. This is a scary thought for Wisconsin fans who can see the future and that it doesn’t work. Fickell is proven to be a fish out of water.

In an era when patience is an antiquated word and approach, Napier, Fickell, and their athletic director bosses, Scott Strickland of Florida and Chris MacIntosh of Wisconsin, are not meeting the demands of fans and donors. More to the point, each man deserves the heat he is taking. 

Billy Napier Has Become Indefensible 

When Billy Napier was hired, he was immediately granted massive upgrades in staff and facilities. Florida had fallen behind in the SEC arms race, and Napier was seen as the man who would fortify the program and boost recruiting after his predecessor Dan Mullen came off as lukewarm to chasing down 5-star talent. Napier’s recruiting has been marginally better than Mullen’s but not significantly so. And after hiring a staff that is larger than the governments of some nations, Florida is more unprepared and befuddled than ever.

On Saturday, Napier coached scared and showed how confused he has become. He hedged his quarterback bets, alternating between Graham Mertz and coveted prospect DJ Lagway at QB. There were calls for Napier to go all in with Lagway as the only way to save his job. But the experienced senior Mertz was more effective than the true freshman in a 33-20 home loss to the Texas A&M Aggies and their backup QB, Marcel Reed.

Florida is 1-2, with its only win against an FCS program. It was mauled by its two FBS opponents. What few defenders Napier has will whine about Florida’s tough schedule. A more realistic view is that Napier is in his third season, and his program is indefensibly worse than when he took over. 

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But with a $26 million buyout and no university president currently serving, what can Florida realistically do?  And what quality coach would want to step into this mess and with a fan base that historically and culturally has ZERO understanding or patience of the rebuild that will be required.  

Florida was once considered a plum job that was impossible to fail at. Yet Napier has been so bad that Mississippi coach Lane Kiffin, the dream boy of all failing programs, would likely laugh in Stricklin’s face.

Dan Mullen was fired for this? Perhaps Stricklin should follow Napier out the door.

A Fickell Future of Failure for Wisconsin  

As I wrote in a column last week, Wisconsin is betraying itself by trying to become something it was never meant to be. There is a reason why program godfather Barry Alvarez went with big linemen and dominant running backs, game-managing quarterbacks, and rock-ribbed defense for program-saving success. He realized that trying to chase down 5-star talent against elite power programs would never work in Madison.

Apparently, Paul Chryst felt the same way because he was fired after a heated meeting with athletic director Chris MacIntosh two years ago. MacIntosh wanted to “modernize” the program and its approach, hiring Luke Fickell away from Cincinnati to do so.

Fickell’s Badgers were outclassed in a 42-10 home loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide, a national embarrassment and emblematic of how inept the program has become. Most unforgivable is that Wisconsin has lost its identity, which made it a nationally respected program. Under Fickell, there is no there, there. Sadly and needlessly, a wonderfully unique college football brand has become a generic.

The loss to Alabama was reminiscent of when in 1989 Wisconsin lost to Miami-FL 51-3 3 on national TV, sparking the desperation to hire Alvarez.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SS4GhGxY2c

Wisconsin’s problem is that they just extended MacIntosh, and Fickell is locked into a contract that runs through 2031. The Badgers are notorious for being tight-fisted, so changes are not coming soon. But the one difference that Wisconsin will quickly see is apathy and a rapid erosion of fan and donor support that could transform into an avalanche. 

Meanwhile, Fickell has quickly taken on the look of Richard Nixon in the final days of Watergate.

Dan Mullen and Paul Chryst Get the Last Laugh

Paul Chryst was fired after a 2-3 start to the 2022 season. He was coming off a 9-4 record in 2021, including 6-3 in the Big Ten Conference. Chryst never had a losing full season or conference record. 

Ironically, Chryst’s one problem was letting coveted recruit QB Graham Mertz get into his head, tweaking the power offense with a more diversified attack. It was an omen to today’s crisis that Fickell and MacIntosh went all in on. Incredibly, the days of Alex Hornibrook and Jack Coan under center made then-lumbering Wisconsin a better program.

Dan Mullen recruited better at Florida than he is credited with. In December 2020 and September 2021, he nearly upset Nick Saban and the Mighty Alabama Crimson Tide dynasty, which was still at its peak. Florida was ranked 20th as late as its seventh game of 2021 but encountered a bad stretch of four losses in five games.

Mullen made some clumsy comments about recruiting that did not sound like he was fully committed, and he was fired based on public outcry. The move has proven to be cowardice and stupidity on the part of Strickland, who had a panic attack that has destroyed his program.

It’s unlikely Chryst and Mullen would have their programs in the current rotgut stench situation of Napier and Fickell.

Sadly, Wisconsin and Florida Football are dead and will not be back anytime soon, if ever.

Paul Chryst and Dan Mullen deserve the laugh of a lifetime.

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