Greg McElroy foresees parallels between Luke Fickell's first year and 2022 TCU

TCU came out of nowhere to shock the college football world last season, going all the way to the national championship game in Year 1 under Sonny Dykes. ESPN analyst Greg McElroy sees similarities between Wisconsin entering this season and TCU entering last season.

The Badgers have a first-year head coach in Luke Fickell, who has already proven that he can win at an elite level.

Fickell took Cincinnati to the College Football Playoff in 2021, and McElroy wouldn’t be surprised if he takes Wisconsin to the CFP at some point, too, possibly as early as this season.

“I’m so excited about this marriage right now,” McElroy said Tuesday afternoon on SportsCenter. “When you look at what Luke Fickell is bringing to Wisconsin, I think about TCU last year. And there are some parallels where you have a program that’s proud and historic and has won a lot of games. But it got a little stale down the stretch. That’s what I think Luke Fickell is bringing to Wisconsin. A lot of energy. A new offensive identity.”

Fickell brought in former North Carolina offensive coordinator Phil Longo to run the Wisconsin offense.

Longo had a great run at UNC — constantly fielding a dominant running game throughout his time in Chapel Hill. He also helped to develop excellent quarterbacks in Sam Howell and Drake Maye.

Wisconsin did not finish higher than No. 88 nationally in total offense the past three seasons. UNC was in the top 20 in total offense in each of the past three years.

“Phil Longo coming up from North Carolina, where he led the ACC the last four years in rushing, but was also the architect behind Drake Maye’s historic season last year at quarterback,” McElroy said.

It’s not as if Wisconsin has been bad recently. The Badgers haven’t had a losing season since 2001. But McElroy believes Fickell will be able to take the program to another level.

“We all know what Wisconsin’s looked like for the better part of the last two decades. But now with some energy boosted into that offense, I think they could cause a lot of problems in what is a relatively gettable Big Ten schedule,” McElroy said. “I think they’re way under the radar heading into this year.”

The Badgers face Purdue, Rutgers, Iowa, Illinois, Ohio State, Indiana, Northwestern, Nebraska and Minnesota in 2023. The hardest two games on paper are against Ohio State and Nebraska, and both of those games will be played at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison.