Luke Fickell shares importance of having players who understand Wisconsin history

Now at the end of his first season as the head coach at Wisconsin, Luke Fickell took the time to reflect on the importance of players understanding the program’s history.

In particular, Fickell emphasized the value of knowing it in a frustrating season that didn’t go as well as they hoped.

“I do, and I told you I’m a traditionalist,” Luke Fickell said. “I embraced the traditions when I walked in the door.”

One of the key things that Luke Fickell pointed out was the need for longtime Wisconsin players to emphasize the traditions to newer players to the program.

“You can say you don’t know them, but Tanner Mordecai doesn’t know them. Jason Maitre doesn’t know them. That’s why it took the Tanor Bortolini‘s and the Braelon Allen‘s, the guys who grew up around it, the guys who lived it whether it’s three, four seasons. CJ Goetz has lived it for the sixth year in a row now,” Fickell said.

“To see not just how they prepare but the energy they played with, then I’d say the celebration, the relief, the joy afterwards, holding that ax, yeah, I thought I knew it. I thought I respected it, but I do have a far greater — hell of a lot more now.”

Wisconsin finished the regular season at 7-5 and will play LSU in the ReliaQuest Bowl.

Luke Fickell addresses challenges of bowl prep amid opt outs

As Wisconsin gets ready for the ReliaQuest Bowl against LSU, Luke Fickell broke down the challenge of preparing amid players opting out.

“I think the reality is that where bowl games are today, I think is usually a pretty good glimpse of what the future looks like. You’re not sure. I mean every team’s a little bit different, right. And there will be some conversations that we have to have and try to find out in the next week, I would say, who we’re going to have. I think the matchup, I think the opportunity to go to Tampa, gives us a greater excitement. And I think that I would hope and believe that the landscape of what we’ve done here and what Wisconsin has been, that we will have a majority of our team,” Fickell said.

“But again, it’s a new age, it’s a new time, but we’ve got to find out. I think that like I’ve been talking with Hunter Wohler a little bit about… we’ll find out who’s with us to continue to move forward, and that’s who we’ll go with.”