Wisconsin is 'ahead' of where other teams would be with first-year coach

Luke Fickell is entering his first season as the head coach at Wisconsin. It’s a good situation and the Badgers appear to be ahead of the curve among teams with a first-year head coach.

During an episode of The Hard Count, On3’s JD PicKell explained why Wisconsin is in such a good situation.

“It is no secret how I feel about Wisconsin,” PicKell said. “I have made my feelings about the Wisconsin Badgers very, very clear. I love Wisconsin, I love Luke Fickell. And they are, I think, a little bit ahead of where a team would be in year one under a new head coach.”

“Because Luke Fickell said I’m not just gonna watch the bowl game. I’m gonna go ahead and coach the bowl game, I’m gonna go get involved with this team, I’m gonna start coaching this team, and so to me, I’m saying the process he’s putting in place, his way of doing things is starting to infiltrate this team. That is a little bit ahead of schedule in my mind.”

Wisconsin hired Fickell shortly following the 2022 regular season. He made the decision to jump right into coaching the Badgers, leading them to a Guaranteed Rate Bowl win.

“And when I look at this team, they have everything they need to win football games. They won a bowl game last year. They have a chance to make some real noise in the Big Ten this year because they have a solid identity on defense, and Wisconsin teams just always will. Luke Fickell coached football teams always will. They have good personnel.”

One big change that Luke Fickell is making at Wisconsin is on the offensive side of the ball. The offense, through transfers and a new approach to style, should be completely different from what we’ve seen in the past.

“The offense has a chance to be two things. One, explosive. Phil Longo scored over 30 points a game last year with North Carolina. Tanner Mordecai is one of, I think, the best kept secrets across college football, much less the Big Ten. Put up over 70 touchdown passes during his time at SMU. Got a lot of players through the portal at the wide receiver position. And they have a chance to be balanced. Braelon Allen, now, that is a grown man running the football. That is a whole lot of USDA-approved sirloin beef coming downhill at you,” PicKell said.

“So, the balance they have in the pass game and the tough physical identity that they’ll have in the run game with Braelon Allen, they’re gonna be balanced. Balanced football teams do a lot of good things in November because then you’re able to be versatile and play any style of football, whether you’re forced to just have a ground-and-pound type of attack or whether it’s hey, you better stack the box [and] we’re gonna throw the football, you can keep defenses off balance.”

Luke Fickell was a highly sought-after coaching candidate. He’s proven that he can win anywhere. Now, he has as good a chance as anyone to thrive while at Wisconsin.

“So, tough defense, balanced explosive offense, and they have an organization that has the right leader, going back to Luke Fickell. He’s been to the College Football Playoff, he’s won at the highest level, he knows what it takes to get this team to where it has to go, where it needs to go, where they expect to go at Wisconsin. You have a proven leader in Luke Fickell. It’s not just, okay we hired this guy, from you know FCS West and he’s gonna figure it out. No, Luke Fickell has won and has coached at big time programs. He got Cincinnati to the Playoff, like this is not something we’re just trying out for the first time for Wisconsin. We know where this thing is going based on his track record,” PicKell said.

“Now, he’s got to do it at Wisconsin, but if you look at how they’re positioned in the Big Ten West, and no knock on the Big Ten West, but like who are we just saying is gonna beat Wisconsin outright? Who is a team who is going to be standing in Wisconsin’s way that we just think is going to be overmatched for them on that side of the Big Ten? Now, can they win the Big Ten? That’s kind of where the next conversation starts, but I really like the way Wisconsin sits from a personnel standpoint, from a philosophy standpoint, and just how they’re positioned in the Big Ten as a whole. So, Wisconsin, the boom factor is very, very high for our friends in Madison.”

Luke Fickell thinks he could beat Mike Vrabel in a wrestling match

Luke Fickell was an All-American wrestler in high school. Because of that, he’s confident that he could take his former Ohio State teammate and head coach of the Tennessee Titans, Mike Vrabel.

“Oh, yeah. There’s no doubt,” Fickell said.

“Whoever gets the upper-hand one day, they’re going to be back the next. Those things kind of go and don’t ever end. So, we figured it out by about the fourth year of college that, ‘Hey, let’s just be on the same side and not worry about hunting someone down for the next month, year or however long it’s going to take.’”