Virginia provided the blueprint that Wisconsin could follow with Luke Fickell

It has taken a minute, but the rest of the college football world has taken notice of what is going on in Charlottesville. The Virginia Cavaliers are 7-1 on the season and 4-0 in ACC play. They are the No. 15 team in the nation entering the first weekend of November. While they did suffer an early-season loss at ACC foe North Carolina State, that was not actually a conference game. It was only by four points...

Elliott was a well-thought-of offensive coordinator at his alma mater of Clemson for years on Dabo Swinney's staff. While his first three years at UVA were largely a struggle fest, how he went about handling unspeakable tragedy at the end of year one allowed him to curry favor with the right people with University of Virginia ties. The man is all-in on the Hoos, and college football is so better off for it.

As for a team like Wisconsin, maybe Luke Fickell and the Badgers could learn a thing or two from him?

Why the Virginia Cavaliers have been able to turn things around so quickly

Grace Raynor of The Athletic did a great deep dive into what has made Virginia such a force this year.

"Virginia was able to sign Morris, in large part, because it became a legitimate player in the NIL space for the first time, with Elliott and athletic director Carla Williams able to convince a historically cautious donor group to take the plunge into this era of the sport."

She continued by writing that while Chandler Morris was a high-profile transfer, he was one of many.

"Morris was the Cavs' most high-profile addition, but they signed 32 transfers overall, including seven on the offensive line."

Raynor then shared this quote from Elliott himself on what it means to have the boosters buying in.

"The truth about where we are in college football right now is that if you don't invest, you can't compete. I'm just grateful that [donors] believed enough even when they may not have been able to see it. But they believed enough to say, 'all right, we're gonna go ahead and jump in,' and I think now you're starting to see what the possibility is."

Raynor's colleague at The Athletic in Chris Vannini shared the following excerpt on his post over on X.

This methodology has worked out well for Virginia, but will it work out for a team such as Wisconsin?

Wisconsin Badgers have the perfect blueprint in front of them for 2026

Look. For as critical as everyone with any vested ties to the Wisconsin program has been about Luke Fickell, the Badgers owe it to themselves to at least give the Virginia plan some consideration. Rather than spending a boat load to buy Fickell out, maybe he just needs a new treasure chest of weapons? To be quite frank, Wisconsin football needs it more than him. This is not about retaining Fickell here.

Against all odds, Fickell has the vote of confidence from athletic director Chris McIntosh. Wisconsin legendary coach and former athletic director Barry Alvarez has gone to bat for both of his appointed men. Truth be told, university president Jennifer Mnookin could not care less about the state of this football program. She is all about academics. But guess what? So is Virginia! You really can have it all.

Truth be told, if this booster-backed investment plan can work at Virginia, it could conceivably work at Wisconsin. The Badgers do have a better football history. It could also work at a place like Kentucky. While the Wildcats are not steeped in great football tradition, Mark Stoops has been a mainstay in Lexington for over a decade. He is a great defensive mind who has the respect of many of his peers.

Where this all could come unraveled is Fickell being at the helm of this. He has not won like Stoops has, nor has he really curried favor like Elliott has been able to do. Elliott also saw each of his teams improve under his watch, even if they were not quite getting to bowl games. For Wisconsin, this plan of paying a bunch of money could jump start this program in the way that it needs, but be dubious...

Regardless, the Virginia plan is working, and it can be sold as way to fix Wisconsin to its big boosters.