Luke Fickell reflects on Year One at Wisconsin, lessons learned

There are rough spots a head coach must endure in year one of taking over a program. When Luke Fickell took over at Wisconsin, he endured his fair share of growing pains along the way.

During a recent interview on the Jim Rome Show, the Badgers head coach reflected on Year One leading the program. He also revealed how much better off Wisconsin is right now, highlighting what is driving the improvement.

“I think we’re a lot better off; they understand where the expectation looks like,” Fickell said. “I don’t mean just winning and losing. Everybody in every program has the same expectation about winning. But just understanding what the daily grind looks like, what the expectation looks like, even what’s in front of you looks like; whether it’s camp or the summer offseason. I think, to me, you can tell them all those things, but until they’ve actually been through it and recognized the differences from what they had done and what they are doing now, I think it’s hard.”

“There’s a lot of things that spin in their head. And then you ultimately have some of that adversity come on top where you know you got to play a football game; you got to pick yourself up after losing a football game. And all those things really kind of made it the most difficult and challenging time in year one. Then truly knowing how to communicate best, because a lot of these guys you inherited. They’re great kids, but when you don’t know truly enough about them, you tend to have those rougher periods. I think that’s what we had.”

According to Fickell, his challenge in year one stemmed from his new players not understanding his expectations. Winning is the goal whenever the A-Team steps on the field. However, how it is executed typically depends on the vision of the head coach—something that appeared to be a little off for Wisconsin in 2023.

Wisconsin finished its first year under Fickell with a 7-6 overall record and 5-4 in the conference. The Badgers started off the season strong, going 4-1 in their first five games, only losing on the road to Washington State in their second game of the season. But after that, Fickell’s Badgers would struggle a bit, losing three of their next four games, which included a 6-15 loss to home loss in the program’s ‘Stripe Out’ game against Iowa and a 20-14 head-scratcher loss on the road against Indiana.

This season, the Wisconsin players should have a stronger understanding of what their head coaches’ expectations are, which should lead to more success on the field. If Fickell has done a good job this offseason outlining what he wants from his Badgers’ Wisconsin could be in the running for the revamped Big Ten title in 2024.