Anonymous Big Ten coach reaffirms faith in Luke Fickell at Wisconsin

Luke Fickell hasn’t gone as expected yet at 12-13 overall through two seasons at Wisconsin. There’s still a belief around the conference in what he can be there, though, especially now that the Badger offense has been re-worked.

Athlon Sports’ preview magazine shared quotes from anonymous coaches around the Big Ten. The ones regarding Wisconsin still had trust in Fickell being the right coach for their program but continued to blame their offensive approach as to why he hasn’t worked out to this point in Madison.

“Fickell is the guy, but the offensive issues have overshadowed the overall plan so much that it’s easy to see why some folks might lose faith,” one said. “I think they just overreached on trying to modernize the program schematically.”

Again, the criticism from the league was about their offensive production. They’ve averaged just 23.1 points and 365.8 yards per game, with the unit taking a slight step back from year one to year two, although losing their starting quarterback in their third game of the year, down to 22.6 points and 350.3 yards last season. That led to the firing of OC Phil Longo in November before the end of the season and the hiring of OC Jeff Grimes, which should give an offense to the Badgers that they’re more used to according to these coaches from across the conference.

“Nothing about the offense made sense here,” they said. “(Phil) Longo moving on benefits everyone involved, and if they bounce back and become more of a modern version of that classic Wisconsin power run offense, you’ll wonder why they ever made the move in the first place.”

“(Jeff) Grimes is a great hire, and they flipped the entire offense except for the backs,” said another. “They need to go back to Wisconsin football this season, and they’ve got a young backfield that can do it.”

Wisconsin is “talented in some spots” but “still very young”, says another anonymous coach, going into year three for Fickell. Still, if for no other reason than they think they’ll be able to put a few more points on the board, the Badgers will look to have their best record of this tenure so far come kickoff.