Luke Fickell on true freshmen hitting a wall: 'I think that's the nature of it'

Spring practice is the first time that early enrollees are able to work with their teams. It’s great experience for those freshmen, but as Wisconsin Badgers head coach Luke Fickell explained, it’s part of the nature of it to see them hit a wall.

Fickell was happy with the growth he saw from those young players during camp, even though they did hit a wall along the way because of how they worked once they got to that point.

“We saw a growth and we’ve seen them hit a wall,” Luke Fickell said. “I think that’s the nature of it, but I think that 11 of those guys were brand new. Seven or eight guys that were new to the program that I think are almost still like young guys. Some guys maybe haven’t been in a situation or place where they’ve practiced quite like this or at this level or for 15 practices. So, whether they were a true freshman or John Puis who is a fifth-year guy, I think the newness to all of this, they’ve done a really good job.”

Wisconsin had the 22nd-ranked class in the 2024 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Ranking. That class included 22 incoming freshmen, eight of whom were four-star recruits, and while not all of them were on campus for spring practice, plenty were.

“But the nature of the people around them, what’s given us the opportunity and given them the opportunity to grow, but I have seen that there’s a wall that gets hit and us as coaches and us as a program, got to make sure that we’re pushing those guys through the wall, and it’s a little bit easier to see in the young guys and the freshmen, but I don’t know if there was a freshman guy other than maybe one that missed a practice,” Fickell said.

“I think in the long run, that’s pretty special to know that like there’s some peer pressure to understand like in order to play this game, you got to work at this game and it’s one thing for the coaches to say that, but the peer pressure inside that locker room to come out here every day and practice is what gives us a chance to continue to grow.”

Luke Fickell reveals the key to Cincinnati-like jump in Year 2 at Wisconsin

At Cincinnati, Luke Fickell quickly rebuilt the program with a massive jump in year two. Now, he’s explained what the key to a similar leap at Wisconsin is going to be.

“I would love to say you’re gonna have that kind of transition. But, things got to kind of fall in line. And, for us there, they really did. We had some key players, whether they were great players as young guys or they were great culture guys, they were great guys that helped us build the things that we wanted to be able to do on a daily basis. There’s a lot of things that have to go on as you develop and work, and kind of formulate some cultural changes that you have to have a lot of buy-in. There’s there’s some specific things that happened in that Year 1 to Year 2 in Cincinnati that gave us that opportunity,” Fickell said.

“Embracing the things that are different, I think are what what’s difficult, and it’s more difficult on the older guys. We kind of had an older team. We kind of had to have those older guys that had to have great years and had to buy in and I think when some of the adversity hit that’s where we ran into some issues. It’s not that it was bad before. It’s just when things are different — how you practice, the expectations you might have — It’s not easy on those guys.”