Reason for the "surprise" hire of Luke Fickell: "Reset" "Watershed Moment"
Seventeen months ago Wisconsin hired a new Athletic Director to replace retiring Barry Alvarez. His name is Chris McIntosh (I'm sure some of you already know this). He is a former Wisconsin football player who was All American, and All BIG10. He has a vision for taking the Wisconsin football program in a different direction. This is the reason for the "surprise" firing of Paul Chryst, and now the "surprise" hiring of Luke Fickell. Basically that's it.
More details:
"Reset", "watershed moment": https://www.kenoshanews.com/sports/college/exclusive-chris-mcintosh-comments-on-luke-fickell-hiring-as-wisconsin-football-coach/article_732a72e2-fddf-5428-934e-97265cd33d9c.html
https://theathletic.com/3941906/2022/11/27/who-is-luke-fickell/
And it looks like it's not going to be too big a hit on Wisconsin to pay the buyout:
November 27th, 2022 at 7:27 PM ^
I'm no fan of Wisconsin but the West really needs some teams that don't suck, so it might as well be the badgers.
Either that or Fickell washes out like half the Sure Thing Up and Comers do, and that'll be fun too. So it's kind of a win-win.
November 27th, 2022 at 7:49 PM ^
He seems like more of a ‘tweener than an up and comer. He’s not Brian Kelly, but he’s definitely not green either. It’s not his first HC job.
November 27th, 2022 at 7:55 PM ^
It's pretty rare for an up-and-comer to have his first HC job at a P5 school. I wouldn't paint Fick as your typical up-and-comer, but just because he's had a HC gig before does not disqualify him from that description.
November 27th, 2022 at 8:07 PM ^
Scott Frost won a national championship at UCF. No guarantees when making the leap to the big time. There have been far more strikeouts than home runs. Cincy has produced a lot of quality P5 coaches though. Great track record there. They seem to produce people who are pure evil or assholes, like Mork, Brian Kelly, Tommy Tuberville, and Butch Jones. That is some list of unlikables.
November 27th, 2022 at 8:19 PM ^
He's proven himself on the biggest stage - he didn't look out of place in the playoffs last year, at all. His team was out-Jimmy'd and Joe'd, not out-coached. They had a good game plan, were prepared to play, and played hard. Just not enough talent across the board to hang with the Bama's of the world. He's a good coach.
November 27th, 2022 at 8:20 PM ^
Scott Frost won a national championship at UCF.
November 27th, 2022 at 10:28 PM ^
Cincinnati didn't produce any of those guys.
But they did hire them, which doesn't say a lot for the moral compass of the athletic department.
November 27th, 2022 at 10:17 PM ^
Well he has a CFP appearance same as harbaugh and a national coach of the year same as harbaugh so…
November 27th, 2022 at 10:24 PM ^
And appearances in at least 30 high-grossing comedies in the last 25 years, which Harbaugh can’t touch.
November 27th, 2022 at 11:05 PM ^
Username checks out.
November 28th, 2022 at 9:13 AM ^
I think part of the reason the hire was made is because there will no longer be a B1G West to hide in anymore. If the conference expansion with USC & UCLA goes as planned in 2024, it's going to be a lot more competitive to stay in the top half of the conference and harder to avoid those teams on your schedule without the divisional setup.
November 27th, 2022 at 7:29 PM ^
Ron dayne should be the governor of Wisconsin
November 27th, 2022 at 7:32 PM ^
As a placeholder until JJ Watt retires from the NFL?
November 27th, 2022 at 8:49 PM ^
fucking Ron Dayne. Dude never beat Michigan. Dayne was a fantastic running back but Michigan discovered his achilles heel (kind of literally) by diving through the line of scrimmage and trying to grab his ankles and or interrupt him before he got any momentum. They did it 3 years in a row and we were Wisconsin's nemesis in the Big10.
November 27th, 2022 at 8:53 PM ^
Cool it man. We see how far “electing statewide running back heroes to elected office” is looking
November 27th, 2022 at 9:06 PM ^
I don’t say senate, on purpose for topical reasons
November 27th, 2022 at 7:30 PM ^
The thing that's weird is that everyone was saying Chryst was fired to retain and promote Leonhard. Wonder if he had Fickell in mind at the time and Leonhard was the backup plan or this just sort of serendipitously came to be and was too good to pass up.
November 27th, 2022 at 7:46 PM ^
I’m sure that once Chryst was fired, a bunch of agents representing head coaches called Wisconsin. Seeing that Fickell was interested may have changed their minds about Leonard, as you suggest. Very serendipitously at that!
November 27th, 2022 at 9:07 PM ^
Tuck Comin?
November 27th, 2022 at 8:01 PM ^
So where does Leonard go now?
November 27th, 2022 at 8:24 PM ^
Cinci?
November 27th, 2022 at 8:33 PM ^
Packers
November 27th, 2022 at 9:26 PM ^
I thought they hired him so Ohio State didn’t have a chance to after Fickell they fire Ryan Day for going 45-5 (but 1-2 against Michigan)? 😂
November 27th, 2022 at 10:19 PM ^
Latter
November 27th, 2022 at 7:31 PM ^
That’s fine. There needs to be more respectable school behind the top 3 of M OSU and PSU.
Maybe this means Wisconsin will actually spend money on recruiting and staff as well.
November 27th, 2022 at 8:35 PM ^
Seeing the Top 3 in that order and it actually representing the order with UM on top? Nice.
November 27th, 2022 at 8:44 PM ^
Spartan nation and their horseshit coach feel a lot of DISRESPEKT!!!!
November 27th, 2022 at 7:36 PM ^
Bielema, Rhule, and Fickell will certainly improve the West, thought it would be hard not to, and when Riley and Kelly move over it may finally be a competetive division. Time for Iowa to finally bring a Stoops home, because I doubt Ferentz will ever get the Hawkeyes to the B1G Championship Game again.
November 27th, 2022 at 7:40 PM ^
Keep divisions. Move USC and UCLA to the West, Purdue to the east
November 27th, 2022 at 9:02 PM ^
This is logical, simple and perfect. I assume it's a non-starter then.
November 28th, 2022 at 12:49 AM ^
I agreed with this, but I think Fox is gonna want more big time match ups for them with M, OSU, Penn State to make thier money. Plus it would be nice to get M into LA on a regular basis for recruiting.
November 27th, 2022 at 7:42 PM ^
Sparty on 247 RCMB justifying why Fickell turned them down and took Whisky. Important to note - Sparty nervous with the new coaches at Whisky and Nebraska - as they should be. Tuck a comin’ job just got a lot harder.
November 27th, 2022 at 8:34 PM ^
They should be pissed that Wisconsin got Fickell for only $6M/yr.
November 27th, 2022 at 9:20 PM ^
Divisions end when UCLA and USC arrive.
November 27th, 2022 at 10:30 PM ^
And this week's championship game would be...?
And the worst part is that we would have known that going in and last week would just have been a rehearsal.
I think we're going to regret this.
November 27th, 2022 at 7:47 PM ^
UC the new cradle of coaches. With a little break for the Jones/Tuberville eras.
November 27th, 2022 at 7:52 PM ^
They're a cradle of senators, too. Don't forget Tubs.
November 27th, 2022 at 8:49 PM ^
Not sure they’ll claim him for that.
November 27th, 2022 at 8:05 PM ^
November 27th, 2022 at 8:07 PM ^
Fickell wasn’t against moving on from Cincinnati, he just didn’t want to be a part of the sparty shitshow. Smart man.
November 27th, 2022 at 8:09 PM ^
November 27th, 2022 at 8:19 PM ^
lord, stop. we can read twitter if we’re interested.
November 27th, 2022 at 8:13 PM ^
Time to take a look at Wisconsin’s roster for transfer targets.
November 27th, 2022 at 9:35 PM ^
Thought the RB basically said if they kept Leonhard he was staying and if not he was going. And that Michigan was a possible even likely destination.
November 27th, 2022 at 10:37 PM ^
I heard that as well, but I’m sure they have other players who could help.
November 27th, 2022 at 8:14 PM ^
Wisconsin could go on a multi-year run with this hire. What a great landing spot, big ten west is up for the taking.
November 27th, 2022 at 8:14 PM ^
I always wanted Bobby Boucher to go to LSU.
November 27th, 2022 at 8:18 PM ^
nothing new or interesting here. or maybe there is, but i’m not going to sign up for…let’s see…”the kenosha news” to find out.
November 27th, 2022 at 8:23 PM ^
Well, aren't you special...