McIntosh took steps to keep quiet his pursuit of Fickell. Former UW athletic director Barry Alvarez said Sunday that McIntosh told him he had “been hiding in cars, I’ve been flying in planes and changing the tail number so nobody could track me.”
But one person figured it out earlier this month: Alvarez’s wife, Cindy.
Barry Alvarez needed a ride to the Dane County Regional Airport two weeks ago to catch a flight with UW booster Ted Kellner to Iowa for the Badgers’ game against the Hawkeyes on Nov. 12. When Cindy Alvarez asked her husband why he couldn’t get a ride from McIntosh, Barry Alvarez said McIntosh had a 7:30 a.m. interview Saturday.
“Hmm,” Cindy Alvarez said, “he’s interviewing Luke Fickell.”
When asked by her husband how she knew that, Cindy Alvarez said, “He played last night, that’s how I know he was free today.”
Indeed, Cincinnati beat visiting East Carolina 27-25 on Nov. 11. Fickell interviewed the following morning and UW dropped a 24-10 decision to Iowa later that day in Iowa City.