It's been a few months
since we heard
the student section
chanting to fire the coach.
What have you seen
since then
that gives you faith
that the decision to keep
the coach was the right one?
Well, for one thing, we saw
two pretty great victories
after that moment
against both Illinois
and Washington.
But more generally
I think that while
last season's
football performance wasn't
what any of us would
wish for, and it's what
we have to do better than that.
There's no question about that.
But I also think
that what we've seen is that
this team
can pull together
the resources
the discipline
and the know-how to help
Badger football perform
at the level that all of us
rightly expect it to.
There are fans out there
that say, well
one of the reasons
that you kept Coach Fickell
is because you are the one
who hired him, and
it would look awkward if you
admitting a mistake
to let him go.
Is there any basis in that?
No, I mean
I understand and
I appreciate
the frustration of our fans.
I share in it.
But I think
my job
was to try to determine
what it will take
to move us forward
and to be successful.
And when we looked
at every aspect
of our program
certainly with the leadership
in our football program
with Coach Fickell
and we weighed
that against what we need
to be successful
in the future
we realized
we have a great coach here.
We need to do more
to invest in the program.
Like the chancellor said
my goal is to position
this program to be successful
in the long run
and there's no room
for pride in that.