Luke Fickell shares excitement for new staff members at Wisconsin

Going into his second season as the head coach of the Wisconsin Badgers, Luke Fickell is looking forward to taking a step forward as a program. That’s a step forward that’s going to come with several new members of the team.

As spring practice got underway, Fickell shared his excitement for new members of the staff at Wisconsin and explained how he’s working to get them ready for practice.

“I think the last two and a half weeks where we did what we call OTAs,” Luke Fickell said. “Do a mock up of these things has made them less anxiety to get out here to know what to expect. But, I think that all of us were kind of really excited for year two and whether there’s some new faces in there, whether they’re players or coaches, the uniqueness is kind of how you fit this thing all together.”

One of the biggest name additions to Wisconsin’s staff is former USC defensive coordinator Alex Grinch. He’s joining the Badgers as a safeties coach and as a co-defensive coordinator.

Along with Alex Grinch, Luke Fickell also added E.J. Whitlow to the Badgers’ staff. He’ll be the team’s defensive line coach and was previously at Air Force. Then, as the offensive line coach, AJ Blazek joined the staff in January. He’s a former All-Big Ten offensive lineman who coached Vanderbilt last season. After that, Kenny Guyton also joined the staff as the wide receivers coach after working at Arkansas.

At one point in the off-season, Luke Fickell also hinted that former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel could help the Badgers during the spring. This, likely, would have been because of Fickell and Vrabel’s Ohio State connection, where they coached and played together. However, Vrabel has since taken a consultant role with the Cleveland Browns.

“So, these days you’ve got to go through, not just as players, but as coaches, you’ve got to go back up and hammer things out and when we watch the film, and then we learn a lot more about ourselves, and each other,” Fickell said.

2023 was Luke Fickell’s first season as the head coach at Wisconsin. He previously led the Cincinnati Bearcats program for six seasons while Cincinnati was in the AAC. During that time, he had a 57-18 record, two conference titles, four Top-25 finishes, and a trip to the College Football Playoff. In his first full season with Wisconsin, Fickell went 7-6.

Wisconsin and Fickell will begin the 2024 season with a home game against Western Michigan.