Luke Fickell reveals what success will look like in Year 1 at Wisconsin

Expectations are high for Luke Fickell at Wisconsin. After leading Cincinnati to the College Football Playoff as a member of the AAC, there is a lot of long-term excitement for what Wisconsin could become under his leadership.

Before that long-term success can occur, though, the Badgers need to start year one under Fickell. It’s one they’d like to find success in. However, for the time being, Fickell has decided to stay relatively vague about his definition of a successful first season.

“Playing our best ball at the end of the year,” Luke Fickell said. “I know that’s pretty vague and that’s a way of not answering the question in a lot of ways, but it is.”

In his first year at Cincinnati, Fickell went just 4-8. However, the Bearcats finished relatively strong as they built for the rest of his run at Cincinnati.

On top of that, Luke Fickell also knows that if Wisconsin is playing its best at the end of the season, the opportunity to win the Big Ten West and play for a conference championship will be in their grasp.

“If we’re consistent. If we continue to grow and we’re playing our best ball at the end of the year, I think we’ll have everything in front of us. We’ll have an opportunity in those last three or four weeks to put ourselves to play for a championship, and that’s what it comes down to.”

Wisconsin ends the season with a run of Big Ten West opponents, including a couple key competitors for the Big Ten West, like Nebraska and Minnesota. Wins in those games with a team playing at a high level could lead to a surprise championship for Luke Fickell and the Badgers.

“But if we don’t grow. I mean, you know where you are in week one and where you are in week eight, if we’re in any similar areas, in week one to week eight, then we won’t be playing our best ball at the end of the year. And, if you’re not, it’s really hard to be successful and look at a season as being successful. So, does that mean you kind of rub off or don’t worry about as much the first three or four games? No, that’s not the case,” Fickell said.

“But we know there’s a progression to this. There’s a process to it and I don’t want our guys, just like our coaches, to feel like week one is where you’ve got to win it. Luke, no, there’s a process to it, to doing the things we need to do to get better, to figuring out what it is that we have, and still evolving what we’ve got.”

Ultimately, it’s most important for Luke Fickell to see the team become united and play as one throughout the season.

“So, big for me is how we do things together. You know, that’s what I’ve always looked back at Wisconsin and recognized it. Whenever I played them, whether as a player or preparing for them as a coach, you knew what you were gonna get was one. And, to me more than anything with newness, everybody’s got their own personal goals but how do we do things together? Do we have a complimentary offense and defense and special teams and ability for us to keep that locker room really strong and do everything together?”

Luke Fickell admitted Week 1 will say a lot about Wisconsin

Despite it being important for Wisconsin to get better as the season goes on, Luke Fickell did admit that Week 1 will say a lot about the Badgers.

“There are some things you can’t prepare for. I mean just the nature of how everybody is on game day? There’s some I’m still curious about. That’s the great thing with being with a bunch of the guys, have coached with them, been in those situations. You’ve got a better idea of how they are on game day. But there’s no, really, preparation,” Fickell said.

“We have a mock game on Friday, we had some big scrimmages that were very competitive. We had a spring game where you try to make it as competitive as you possibly can. But it’s different,” Fickell said. “I think that you’ve got an idea and you go into this. You’ve got a plan, you’ve talked out a million things. I’m sure they’re sick of talking through all the different situations and how we will handle things. That’s the uniqueness of college football – not having any of those, so to speak, preseason games or scrimmages where you can legitimately work through some of those situations with a new staff. I think we’re in a good place but Saturday will tell a lot too.”