When Paul Chryst was relieved of his duties in October, an air of uncertainity surrounded the Wisconsin football program. Many were hopeful that Jim Leonhard, one of UW’s prodigal sons, would be given the keys to the program full-time.
Any doubt of Wisconsin’s future was removed when it was announced that Luke Fickell would take over the head coaching duties. Deion Sanders may have been a more public hiring, but I have no doubt that Fickell’s move to Wisconsin will be more impactful.
Fickell has Big Ten experience, having been a coordinator and even interim head coach at Ohio State. He knows the recruiting landscape. This year’s incoming transfer class was rated as the 15th-best in the nation.
He took perennial doormat Cincinatti to the college football playoffs, the first non-power 5 team to do so. In a four year stretch at Cincinatti, his teams went 44-7. That includes two wins over UCLA, beating Notre Dame and Indiana, and a three point loss to a Georgia team that just won back-to-back national championships.
His offenses are dynamic and explosive. In the six seasons under his watchful eye, Cincinatti’s offenses averaged 31.5 PPG.
In a move that was widely heralded as a homerun hire, Fickell was able to lure Phil Longo from North Carolina to become his offensive coordinator. I wrote a piece about the brillance of this hire and have no doubt that these two great offensive minds will have synergistic effects on a Wisconsin offense that had become stagnant over the past couple of seasons.
While there may be some growing pains in learning a new and more complicated offensive system, the end result should be a offense who has the firepower to stay with any defensive team, not only in the Big Ten, but the entire nation. I have no doubt that Wisconsin should be in the college football playoffs within the next three seasons.