Luke Fickell talks unique approach when recruiting QB Tyler Van Dyke

Tyler Van Dyke is the second straight transfer quarterback for Wisconsin after Tanner Mordecai in 2023.

Luke Fickell thinks it’s a unique situation for his football team going into 2024. The recruiting process is certainly different when you know you’re only bringing in a guy for one or two years.

It’s almost like Van Dyke went through a job interview rather than a recruiting process. Or perhaps, it was a little bit of both, according to Fickell.

“I do think it’s unique that you have a really short amount of time to try to make sure you’re feeling like it’s the right one,” Fickell said on Big Ten Network. “What’s his arm strength, you can watch all these games … but do you really know the right one … Our matrix when trying to take a one year or two year guy even when we were at Cincinnati, it had a lot to do with what’s your history with them? What do you really know about and do you really know the family? Have you been in that home? With these quarterbacks, you don’t have that opportunity.”

Fickell wants to recruit and develop a quarterback at the college level from the ground up. But in the age of the portal, especially with a guy like Van Dyke, it’s different.

“So it’s kind of been outside of our comfort zone,” Fickell said. “Studying, understanding who they are, but then really when you get them having to be able to ask some really tough questions. Really almost like you’re interviewing a coach, even though you’re recruiting them to say, ‘Okay, tell me about your failures, tell me why and are you mature enough to be able to move past that?’ You got eight months to get an entire locker room to follow you.”

But overall, Fickell was very pleased about Van Dyke’s transition from Miami to Wisconsin for his final college football season.

Over the course of five years, Van Dyke has 7,469 yards, 54 touchdowns, 23 interceptions and a 63.7% completion percentage.

As a member of the Class of 2020, Van Dyke was a four-star recruit out of Glastonbury (Conn.) Suffield Academy, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He was the No. 2 overall prospect in the state, the No. 19 quarterback in the class and the No. 263 overall prospect in the class.