Phil Longo 1-on-1: Why he couldn't pass up the chance to work with Luke Fickell and how Wisconsin's Air Raid attack will still be 'smash-mouth'

Phil Longo had turned down Luke Fickell’s advances once before, but the Air Raid zen master promised himself he wouldn’t do it again if he ever got the chance to work with one of the Top 10 coaches in America. 

Last December, North Carolina’s offensive coordinator was starring at an upcoming 2023 season coaching future lottery NFL Draft pick Drake Maye for a second-straight fall when he got a call from Fickell, who had just made the splashy decision to leave Cincinnati for Wisconsin.

Fickell had long pursued Longo, who had a deep track record of developing quarterbacks and producing high-octane offenses at all sorts of stops. Longo was Fickell’s hand-picked choice to bring the Badgers’ offense into the 21st Century.

“It was a no-brainer decision,” Longo told On3 on why he teamed up with Fickell this time around. 

“The way (Fickell) wants to run a program. The way he deals with players. Philosophically, it’s all very much in line with the way that I would do it. And so that was one thing that attracted me to (think) when this Wisconsin opportunity came up, I couldn’t pass this up.”

Back in 2017, Fickell approached Longo about becoming Cincy’s OC, but Longo told him, ‘Thanks but no thanks.’ The timing wasn’t quite right. Longo opted to spend two chaotic years in the SEC at Ole Miss, serving as the OC on Hugh Freeze’s last staff and then retaining the same position during Matt Luke’s lone transition season. The Rebels averaged over 500 yards of offense, but the wins weren’t there, which left Longo questioning his prior decision. 

“I don’t regret being able to take the position with (Ole Miss). My family had a blast,” Long added.

“But I said, if I have an opportunity to work with (Luke Fickell) in the future, I’m gonna jump on the opportunity to do it.” 

And that’s exactly what Phi Longo did this offseason. 

“I want to win,” he said. 

“I want to go somewhere where I feel like we can sustain winning at a very high level. And Luke has proven he can do that. And Luke is extremely progressive. He’s cutting-edge defensively. I think the way he runs a program is as good as anybody. … To me, it was just a really good union at a really good time.” 

The ‘Dairy Raid’ is coming to Madison, Wisconsin

Ever since the days of Barry Alvarez — we’re talking the last 30+ years — Wisconsin has been one of the most stable programs in the country. It had a foundational identity built on toughness, defense and a downhill rushing offense.

The Badgers would line up in 12 and 22-personnel and ram the football down teams’ throats. They had a mauling offensive linemen and big workhorse tailbacks, and the ground-and-pound attack worked to great success. But over the years, there became a ceiling on the program’s potential with its unwillingness to ever deviate from a growlingly archaic run-first scheme. 

To compete for championships, Fickell, whose background mirrors a lot of Wisconsin’s core tenants, recognized that Wisconsin needed a philosophical shift, so he ditched the program’s pro-style system for Longo’s go-go, Air Raid offense.  

In four years at North Carolina, Longo’s offenses finished in the Top 30 nationally in scoring and yards per play. The Tar Heels ranked in the Top 25 in passing in three of four seasons. 

Perhaps most notably, Longo’s up-tempo offense was great at producing explosive plays. The Tar Heels led the nation in plays over 20 yards in 2020, and they were Top 10 nationally in 2022, 2021 and 2019. 

Wisconsin’s average finish in explosiveness the last four seasons? 96th nationally. The Badgers also ranked dead last among all Power 5 teams in tempo in 2022. 

“The old regime chose to go about in a certain way. They had their philosophy and it’s worked here. Can’t blame them for taking that route, but we just have a different philosophical approach than what they did before,” Phil Longo said. 

“We’re gonna move our receivers around more and we’re gonna throw more routes and want to do more with them in the passing game. And it’s just a difference in philosophy. That’s all it is. … They players love it. I kind of liken it to setting animals free, letting them out of the cage a little bit.

“Guys want to play football, you just have to put them in positions where whatever they have been given athletically they can be successful.”

Traditionally, basic Air Raid offenses — think Longo’s mentor Mike Leach — are allergic to running the football, but the Book of Longo reads differently. How Wisconsin operates its offense will look dramatically stark this fall — think primarily 11-personnel and 95% shotgun formations — but the run game results will still be there, only likely with even better results. 

“Playing smash-mouth football in the run game sounds great to me,” Longo said.

“That’s what we want. We’re going to use what we have.”

Longo points to his resume as always “letting talent dictate what we emphasize offensively,” and that’s exactly what he plans to do this fall at Wisconsin with star tailback Braelon Allen.

“Perfect example: Jared Johnson was an option quarterback. He could throw the ball but he was also a great runner. So he threw for 32 (touchdowns) and ran for 1,000 because it was something he was good at,” Longo said.  

“The quarterback (Jeremiah Briscoe) that replaced him at Sam Houston State through for 5,200 and didn’t run for anything and set the touchdown record with 57. Same exact offense, nothing changed except the emphasis.”

The Badgers return all five starting offensive linemen, while Allen is one of the best tailbacks in the country (1,242 yards and 11 touchdowns) who has been productive despite facing constant eight and nine-man boxes. Wisconsin also has a steady No. 2 option in Chez Mellusi.

Longo’s offense is all about chasing grass, utilizing the entire field and creating as much space as possible, so both Allen and Mellusi should have way more room to rumble in Longo’s wide-open system in 2023. 

At UNC, Longo produced three 1,000-yard rushers (Ty Chandler in 2021, Michael Carter and Javonte Williams in 2020) and the Tar Heels led the ACC in rushing two times. 

“We’re gonna run to grass that way we throw the grass,” Longo said. 

Longo’s high-powered attack isn’t solely predicated on chucking the ball around, but Wisconsin is going to do that a lot more now, too, which is why Fickell and Longo attacked the transfer portal for multiple quarterbacks and wideouts this offseason.

QB development, notably lacking at Wisconsin in recent years, is one of Longo’s greatest strengths, and so the Badgers brought in three new arms to revamp the room. SMU’s Tanner Mordecai, who has 72 passing touchdowns the last two seasons, will be Longo’s trigger-man at QB in 2023, and the Badgers also added four potential instant impact receivers from the transfer portal to a group that Longo believes was way short of bodies. 

“The misnomer when we got here was that (Wisconsin) didn’t have a lot of talent wide receiver. And then we get here and we do,” Longo said.

“I told the receivers that are here: ‘We didn’t bring four receivers in here to replace them. We brought four receivers in here, so that we have enough to actually run the offense. They had add seven or eight on scholarship. Every program I know carries 11, and I’d like to have 12 just because we throw it a little bit more.”

A spring transition

Years ago at Sam Houston State, Phil Longo inherited Willie Fritz’s triple-option roster, and he still produced a dynamo Air Raid attack in Year 1, so while the Badgers had to work out some kinks in a new scheme this spring, the learning curve wasn’t as drastic as some might believe. 

Mordecai, as well as all four wideouts, hailed from varied Air Raid schemes, which made the program’s offensive transition a bit smoother. There was still an adjustment to the offense’s breakneck tempo, especially for the returning receivers, but by the end of spring, Longo liked the progress he saw from the entire unit. 

Badgers fans got a glimpse of Longo’s offense during a rainy spring scrimmage in late April, and while the results looked concerning on the surface — Mordecai threw three interceptions on his first three drives — the lone practice was not indicative of the previous 14 days working in a new scheme.   

“You install the offense in the first four days,” Longo explained. 

“Practices 5-8, you’re really trying to learn and figure out what you actually have athletically in your room. Now, the second half of the spring is trying to put it all together. And the hope is by the end of spring ball we’re playing football at a pace and a tempo not going fast just to go fast, but fast and be efficient. We want to still be able to execute. We don’t ever want to go tempo at the expense of being able to execute the play. And that means we got to play instinctively, we have to play with some continuity. 

“And that definitely started to happen the second half of the spring and I think we’re in a really, really good place right now. This summer development here is going to go a long way toward dictating how successful we are in the fall.

It may take some time getting used to — for Wisconsin faithful and Big Ten defenses alike — but Phil Longo can’t hide his enthusiasm in joining forces with Luke Fickell and bringing the Air Raid to Madison. 

“If you can’t tell from my voice I’m super excited about getting to the fall season,” he said in closing. 

“To think we got what’s going on on both sides of the ball going on right now together, I’m looking forward to the beginning of the season as much as any of our fans are.”