Writer takes shot at Luke Fickell: ‘Only won at Cincinnati due to elite assistants’

No one would argue that Luke Fickell hasn't lived up to expectations at Wisconsin, not even Fickell himself. In fact, his latest press conference at Big Ten Media Days, Fickell said, "Last year was not the standard, that's not the expectation, and not the reason I was brought here." And there are many pointing to a variety of reasons why he's struggling with the Badgers, but one college football writer says it's because an elite group of assistants propped up his success at Cincinnati.

The point originally came from a social media comment by "College Football Watcher" but was platformed by Joel Scheve over at CincyOnTheProwl.com.

Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame coaches are getting credit for Cincinnati run — not Fickell, writer claims

The coaching tree under Luke Fickell is certainly impressive, and I don't think Fickell would even argue that his assistants helped him succeed at Cincinnati. Marcus Freeman would go on to become the head coach at Notre Dame and bring a pool of the best coaches from Cincinnati with him. Now Freeman is having success while Fickell is struggling. Scheve claims that this group of Notre Dame assistants propped up his success.

Marcus Freeman was the defensive coordinator under Luke Fickell at Cincinnati from 2017-2020, and was hired at Notre Dame about two years before Fickell left for Wisconsin. He brought Mike Brown, Gino Guidugli, Mike Denbrock, Brian Mason, Al Washington, and Max Bullough, all of whom went with Freeman.

It might be easy to say that Notre Dame and Wisconsin are different, and there may be more to that than there is to the claims against Fickell vs. Freeman. However, Scheve would say not so fast:

"Why is it that Freeman has had so much more success than Fickell since leaving Cincinnati? It is obvious that Notre Dame has better resources than Wisconsin, but not by far. Wisconsin is a hotter destination for recruits and transfers than Cincinnati, yet he is recruiting the same kind of talent he was at Cincinnati and not having good results."

Joel Scheve

There is certainly a case to be made here, and it's easy to speculate that Fickell may have thought his scheme and style would be enough to translate into success at Wisconsin. Now, he is moving away from both of those. He's finally adding really strong assistants, similar to his approach at Cincinnati, with a background in development and a more balanced attack on offense.

Fickell still has a chance to turn it around, and his pedigree is still impressive, but it does appear that he's learning about his time at Cincinnati and the reality that top-tier assistants do produce success. This year will be a big test for Fickell.