Greg McElroy gives Luke Fickell hire an 'A' grade

The coaching carousel in 2023 has come and gone, and one ESPN analyst is taking the time to grade each of the coaching hires on paper. And he’s got Wisconsin‘s hire of Luke Fickell graded as an ‘A,’ passing with flying colors.

ESPN analyst Greg McElroy broke down exactly why he gave the hire of Luke Fickell an ‘A’ on the ESPN College Football channel on YouTube.

“Luke Fickell at Wisconsin is an ‘A,'” McElroy said. “Now I’m not sure many of us anticipated this move going down. I think Cincinnati was poised to move into the Big 12. Things felt pretty good for Cincinnati as they were making that move. They obviously have a proud program, they’ve already been to the playoff.

“But I think Fickell recognized the Big 10 is home and with the world that is coming in College Football, whether it’s the SEC and the Big Ten, if they do continue to kind of distance themselves from the others, you want to be on that train. And I think Fickell recognized that and the opportunity at Wisconsin was just too good to pass up.”

Luke Fickell hire earns ‘A’ grade

One of the other reasons that McElroy graded the Luke Fickell hire an ‘A’ was his decisions on hiring staffers.

He’s hired some elite folks.

“I love the hires he’s made already,” McElroy pointed out. “He’s gone out and got Phil Longo. You know he’s going to do a great job of kind of reinventing this offense. He did a great job of it at North Carolina. Obviously ton of yards, ton of talent, ton of success at North Carolina and Ole Miss previously.

“So you’ve got to think that Luke Fickell is going to completely reinvent the Wisconsin system. Not going to be the Wisconsin we grew up with, but either way I’m very optimistic with the bona fides that Luke Fickell’s already created for himself. And now he gets to do so at a place with a very proud and historically significant tradition.”

All in all, there’s just a lot to like.

“So the Badgers, they get an ‘A’ for their hire,” McElroy said.