Luke Fickell on his first priority for Wisconsin: 'Most important thing was managing the roster'

Luke Fickell had some priorities when coming to Madison, Wisconsin as he took over the Badgers football program. But No. 1 had to be the roster. With the NCAA transfer portal all the rage and completely wild, Fickell said he wanted to keep the core nucleus intact. The Badgers had a down year by their standards, but it looks like the former Cincinnati coach seems something special to build.

“Number one most important thing was managing the roster,” Fickell said on Sirius XM’s ESPNU Radio. “Be here, keep these guys intact. I think that in the short amount of time I’ve been here, and even in the first two or three days, I saw that they have a great nucleus, a really good, strong culture and environment that has been built over a long time. It was not something that was going to crumble with the coaching change or even with a tougher year. 

“Coming in here, that’s the first thing that I noticed, so that still is my number one priority, is how do we keep it intact and maintain the guys that are here because they’ve got a great nucleus.”

The Badgers actually aren’t done with the season yet, but Fickell won’t coach the bowl game, at least not directly. He’s still focused on the behind-the-scenes part of the job.

“And then it’s about building the relationships,” Fickell said. “So all those things go hand in hand. That’s 1A and 1B of keeping them intact, building the relationships. As you guys probably know, it’s a unique situation meaning you’re coaching the bowl game, figuratively speaking, right …You know, I’m kind of off to the side. I’m going through the, you know, what it is that they’ve done and then keep everything intact that they’ve done, the way they practice and the way they’ve gone about their schedules of things. 

“But most importantly, just trying to be there to be around the guys and keep the core nucleus intact and then figure out where it is that we need to go and what we need to do to move forward.”

Fickell went 57-18 in his time at Cincinnati, leading the Bearcats to two conference titles in the AAC and an appearance in last year’s College Football Playoff. Cincinnati was the first Group of Five team to make the final four.

But despite a move to the Big 12 for 2023 and beyond, meaning Power Five football, Fickell received an offer he couldn’t refuse from the Wisconsin administration.

Wisconsin (6-6) takes on Oklahoma State (7-5) Dec. 27 in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl at 10:15 p.m. ET.