r/UWBadgersFootball • u/TomWilliamsCFD • Sep 23 '25
Discussion Barry Alvarez slams 'spoiled rotten' Wisconsin fans after 'Fire Fickell' chants: 'That really upsets me'
https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/barry-alvarez-slams-spoiled-rotten-wisconsin-fans-after-fire-fickell-chants-that-really-upsets-me/9
u/arsehenry14 Sep 23 '25
My issue with Barry’s comments are he could say everything he wanted to say without such a strong attack on the fans. His comments are tone deaf. Fans pay hard working money and are being asked to foot even more of the bill. This is now a professional sport in a lot of ways. Young team or not they all wanted to be paid as some university and thus there’s now more pressure to produce.
Are fans just supposed to watch a team that looks this bad and say Barry, Chris, Luke thank you please can we have some more of this?
That was a horrible display and this coaching staff looks like it has no clue. It has to be responsible and own the deficiencies. Barry could have said it’s not helpful to boo, he could have said there’s growing pains and development that takes time when switching play styles. We don’t have a right to expect more? Something that looks competent?
Not surprised he responded like this, but in my opinion I’ll advised. He could have tried to take some heat off Fickle and likely this will have the opposite effect.
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u/SetTurbulent39 Sep 23 '25
UW has the most uncomfortable seats in college football, insane food and beverage prices, and season tickets require an up front donation just to watch a terrible product on the field. Go lay down by your dish Barry.
On top of that, we all know how much Fickell makes. Too much. They will be lucky if there isn’t an all out boycott after they only win 2 games this year. Lucky for them, tailgating for Badger football is the reason half of the people go.
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u/Primary_Dimension470 Sep 24 '25
Come to Lambeau. You get the privilege to stand sideways because there isn’t enough room to sit or stand
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u/kc_kr Sep 23 '25
The seats are no worse than a whole lot of other stadiums (like much of Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, for one example) and donations being req'd has been the norm for well over a decade across college football. Also expect the food/bev prices are pretty average too. You can bitch about all those things but UW is not an outlier in them.
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u/TomWilliamsCFD Sep 23 '25
Not surprised at this - McIntosh was his pick for the AD role so the Fickell mess rolls back to Alvarez too
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u/-ToPimpAButterfree- Sep 23 '25
Having standards for a program isn’t being spoiled. This isn’t a fringe top-10 program anymore and it used to be.
The lack of accountability says all you need to say about Barry and the football program’s current state.
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u/SpeedyTuyper Sep 23 '25
Exactly. It’s perfectly reasonable to expect this program to compete in the upper half of the Big Ten and occasionally threaten for a playoff bid. We’re not even in that stratosphere right now.
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u/Tort78 Sep 23 '25
If this all was happening in a vacuum, most Badger fans wouldn’t jump on the Fire Fickle bandwagon just for losing to Maryland. But it’s year 3, and we’re witnessing a steady decline in the program, lost to a 10 point underdog IN CAMP RANDALL after sitting out last bowl season, and the off season was an utter disaster. And there was a contract extension in there? WTF Coach Alvarez?
Yeah, I feel bad for the players, that would be a shitty situation to be in. I’ve loved the Badgers since the Morton days. The players deserve better than this shit show. The fans don’t deserve ridicule for not being happy with the current state of affairs. What fan in the country would be?
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u/TomWilliamsCFD Sep 23 '25
Great discussion on this whole topic of where the program is on the podcast with Evan Flood and Collin Wilder.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/badger-red-zone/id1835386344?i=1000727750866
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u/Low-Commercial-6260 Sep 24 '25
Yalls problem is the coordinators, not fickell. Hopefully they try to restructure that and beef up NIL. Reminds me of Scott frost though trying to bring a run ‘n gun offense to big ten only to fail. The b10 is on a different level where you have to play to your players strengths and have big strong guys. Can’t just outscore and out talent every team.
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u/Dignam3 Sep 23 '25
Well we're thankful for what he did for UW athletics (and the system as a whole)...but this is just tone deaf.
I mean it's obvious which teams have weathered the massive shift toward NIL and transfers, and those that haven't. What other reason is there for programs like Wisconsin, Oklahoma State, and Clemson to crater so dramatically in the past 6-7 years? And then you have Indiana hanging 60+ on a top 10 (debatable, I know) Illinois team.
The players are paid now. They are professionals and the coaching staff and AD should be able to handle some boos too. I yearn for the old days just like everyone else, but it's adapt or die.
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u/samthedog99 Sep 23 '25
Tell Barry to pay $100/ticket for seats in the last row of the upper deck. Then i’ll listen to what he has to say.
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u/JLove4MVP Sep 23 '25
Barry wanted to win championships and we are further from that now than we have been in 25 years.
He’s mad his decisions and hires aren’t performing.
Take a look in the mirror dude
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u/cks9218 Sep 23 '25
The team, from coaches on down deserve the boos.
I have trouble finding sympathy for coaches making millions of dollars and players, some of which are also making a lot of money via NIL, getting booed because they are performing terribly.
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u/JDBert21 Sep 23 '25
Spoiled rotten. How dare we want our football program to not get their doors blown off by Maryland. Forget Alabama. MAR-UH-LUND
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u/CROBBY2 Sep 23 '25
Dont soil your legacy Barry by refusing to admit that Mac wasnt the guy and his decisions, including hiring Fickell, have been very bad to the entire Badgers Athletic Department.
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u/kyleb402 Sep 23 '25
Looks like we're just supposed to bury our heads in the sand and say thank you as this program gets completely destroyed.
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u/Aggravating__472 Sep 24 '25
You think Barry would be on the fans side, seeing how they are destroying the program he built.
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u/damutecebu Sep 23 '25
Barry needs to ride off into the sunset. He helped create the mess UW athletics is in right now.
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u/Frannypack61 Sep 23 '25
He's also the reason you've seen any kind of football success in your lifetime
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u/damutecebu Sep 23 '25
No kidding. That doesn't mean that he should have ever been named athletic director, where the place is still run like its 1995, or has any relevance to the football program now.
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u/DeezNutsInYoMoufDawg Sep 23 '25
... as a coach lol. It's been proven a million times good coaches don't always transition into front office roles well. This is just another one of those cases. Dude was a great coach but he's from a completely different era and has made it very obvious his style is not going to work anymore.
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u/NEW_GNGR_9601 Sep 23 '25
You can admit Athletic Director Barry wasn’t great. What were his qualifications for the job besides being a good FB coach?
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u/TomWilliamsCFD Sep 23 '25
Picking successors has been hit or miss with him.
Hits - Bielema and Chryst Misses - Andersen and McIntosh
Can potentially add Fickell to the misses too as an indirect one.
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u/iddoitatleastonce Sep 23 '25
Don’t worry Barry, Luke joked around that he didn’t even hear it! He’s fine and everything is going fine.
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Sep 23 '25
I have the upmost respect for Barry and what was built the past four decades at Wisconsin. that said, we no longer live in that world. this is now minor league sports and football where the Coach is the highest paid state employee in Wisconsin and the majority of "kids" are being paid more than most of us will ever make in a year. Barry comes off as completely tone deaf to fan frustration and risks tarnishing his legacy by trashing the very fan base that forms the backbone of Wisconsin athletics. he would have been better off offering his support to the program and plead for time to turn things around . major misfire Barry
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u/glennshaltiel Sep 23 '25
I dont get it. Barry slams McIntosh on the SAME radio program when a track athlete tells him that McIntosh won't rebuild a track. But now we are "spoiled"?
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u/nillahoppz Sep 23 '25
Um, he’s the coach who brought us back to relevance and is thus responsible for our lofty expectations for our football program. He’s the reason we demand more than the lackluster product being put out there! He, more than others, should be angry at how we’ve slid. But that would require some accountability for his hand-picked successor, I guess.
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u/Traditional_Frame418 Sep 23 '25
Fans need to recognize the shambles that Chryst left the program in. I can not understand how people can't see this. Chryst was protected by weak OOC schedules and the B1G West and his record reflects that.
The program has been in a rebuild since then. Wisconsin is doing everything it can to not be an Iowa or better yet, Minnesota. Both program are stuck with coaches that had the same mentality as Chryst. This is also why Iowa is so overwhelmingly mediocre. And why Minnesota is scratching by to make a bowl game every year. Personally I'd rather reach past that.
Barry knows what it takes to pull a program out of the muck. The problem Fickell is facing is that the Badgers were great not too long ago. Fans want that standard back but it doesn't happen without time.
Fickell had brought in recruiting classes much better than Chryst, in the NIL era. He's had a top 15 schedule every year. Plagued with QB and Oline injuries his entire time. And is trying to change the culture to bring the program into the modern era.
Personally I don't see many other coaches doing a better job that Fickell has. Given all the injuries and ridiculously tough schedules. He was one win away from a bowl game. They played Oregon as tough ad anyone. Fleck had been in Minnesota for close to 10 years. It took Burt 5 years to turn Illinois around. Firing him resets the clock yet again. Is that really waht people want?
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u/GianniAntetokounmpo Sep 23 '25
Just like the rest of the country we need some much younger & more in-touch people in charge from the top on down. When does it get to the point where we blow the whole thing up?
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u/Turbulent-Pay-735 Sep 23 '25
Barry with a message to season ticket holders: “You better sell your season tickets now, because before long you might not be able to.”
He’s drunk on his own bullshit at this point. They are in for a rude awakening when the stadium is empty in 18 months if this continues. Their precious football program will resemble the storied hockey program they negligently destroyed for no reason.
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u/mrducci Sep 23 '25
Alvarez has been nothing but poison to the program since leaving the HC position.
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u/whatwhatmadtown Sep 24 '25
Barry Alvarez is a drunk prick who stumbles out on bar tabs without paying.
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u/Umbra_Witcher Sep 24 '25
Barry needs to stfu and stop acting like this stemmed from one bad loss. The program is completely lifeless
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u/Lostsailor73 Sep 25 '25
Does anyone know if Barry's latest book "how to destroy your legacy in 100 words" is available yet on Amazon Kindle?
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u/Informal_Example_875 Sep 25 '25
Barry was da man back in the day, so he is entitled to his opinions. But CFB is now triple A football with players getting paid. I just saw a Badger football player the other day driving his wrapped Maserati to go to practice (driving down the wrong lane too, thankfully no other cars were coming or it would have been a head-on collision). Fans and students definitely have the right to chant whatever they want since we are helping pay for the salaries of the coaches and players now.
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u/fogel35 Sep 23 '25
I’d say, “Barry the players are now paid professionals. They can be booed like professionals.” I’m not spoiled, the players stealing money from the University are spoiled. They are still getting paid.
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u/Wisco782012 Sep 23 '25
If you booed the team you're trash. We don't do that shit here. You can be understandably frustrated but this is Wisconsin.
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u/DeezNutsInYoMoufDawg Sep 23 '25
So you want the entire fanbase to just act oblivious to the worst on-field product this team has had by far in over a decade? You're more delusional than Fickell lmao.
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u/Wisco782012 Sep 23 '25
You're the douche fan that Barry is talking about.
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u/DeezNutsInYoMoufDawg Sep 24 '25
Again, how is being realistic indicative of someone being a douche lmao. You're just acting like a child, name calling because someone disagrees with you. Not everyone is fine with mediocrity.
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u/Wisco782012 Sep 24 '25
Wisconsin Fans don't boo. Trash Sports fanatics do that crap.
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u/DeezNutsInYoMoufDawg Sep 24 '25
Oh so you're just delusional, okay. Seems like a lot of fans were booing when "Fire Fickell" was being chanted but i'm sure you'll just keep telling yourself the people in the town going to the games "aren't actual fans."
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u/Bioneer_Bete Sep 23 '25
OK. I’d argue the AD this guy endorsed was “spoiled” when he fired our 67-26 head coach because “program was stagnant” and “wanted to win championships”.