The timing was right for Luke Fickell this time.
Wisconsin made the surprise hire of the 2022-23 coaching carousel by prying Fickell away from Cincinnati. ESPN.com's Pete Thamel reported the news. Fickell, who was the interim coach at Ohio State in 2011, had been a candidate for other Power 5 jobs in recent seasons.
Fickell turned down the Michigan State job in 2020. He was a candidate for the Notre Dame job, but the Bearcats were in the midst of a College Football Playoff run in 2021. Notre Dame decided not to wait and hired former Cincinnati defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman. With the Bearcats coming off a 9-3 season and not reaching the American Athletic Conference championship game, the timing was right for Fickell.
Wisconsin still is a surprise considering interim coach Jim Leonhard was considered a strong replacement candidate for Paul Chryst, who was fired on Oct. 2 after a 2-3 start. Candidates such as Kansas' Lance Leipold and Baylor's Dave Aranda appeared to be more-logical candidates for the Badgers.
Fickell, however, is a home-run hire for a program that now can evolve - and perhaps take the next step to the College Football Playoff. The Badgers are 82-32 in the CFP era, which is the sixth-best record among Power 5 schools in that stretch. The other five — Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, Georgia and Oklahoma – have monopolized most of those appearances.
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Yet Fickell found a way to build Cincinnati into a program that made the first CFP appearance for a Group of 5 school. The Bearcats were 57-18 since he took over in 2018. Wisconsin is 50-23 in the same stretch. Fickell went 7-5 against Power 5 competition while at Cincinnati, with four of those losses coming to Ohio State, Michigan, Georgia and Alabama.
Fickell – with Midwestern roots combined with a Catholic school background – will be able to elevate Wisconsin's recruiting in those Big Ten states. The Bearcats were close to the Badgers in recruiting in 2022 and have a better class in 2023, according to 247Sports.com.
| YEAR | CINCINNATI | WISCONSIN |
| 2019 | 64 | 30 |
| 2020 | 41 | 27 |
| 2021 | 50 | 16 |
| 2022 | 48 | 41 |
| 2023 | 27 | 62 |
Fickell should help improve the talent development. In the last three NFL Drafts, Cincinnati has produced 14 NFL Draft picks. That is two more than Wisconsin, which is a traditional draft factory in the trenches. Ahmad Gardner and Alec Pierce have made an instant impact in their rookie seasons.
Fickell also helped develop quarterback Desmond Ridder into a two-time AAC Player of the Year and third-round pick. Wisconsin's last quarterback drafted was Russell Wilson, who was taken in the third round in 2012. If Fickell can develop a third-round talent at the position for the Badgers, then they will be right back in the CFP mix.
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This was a shrewd move for Wisconsin athletic director Chris McIntosh. Fickell is a no-nonsense coach who can adhere to the principles that former Wisconsin coach and athletic director Barry Alvarez used to build the program, but Fickell can also take the lessons learned at Cincinnati to build a better version of the Badgers' program.
The timing is perfect – and could create an interesting scenario for the Big Ten West. Nebraska hired Matt Rhule on Saturday. USC and UCLA are joining the conference. Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren could keep the divisional format simply by shipping Purdue to the Big Ten East. It's still not quite as balanced, but Fickell will get Wisconsin back in that 10-win realm pretty quick. If you like what Bret Bielema has done at Illinois, then just wait to see Fickell at Wisconsin.
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We'll finally get to see Fickell against some of those schools where the timing wasn't right.
Fickell played at Ohio State and was an assistant coach from 2002-16 – and stayed after the one-year stint as interim coach in 2011. Those matchups against Ryan Day will be highly anticipated.
Michigan State hired Mel Tucker after Fickell turned down the job. Those will be fun matchups, too.
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Notre Dame? That's not on the schedule until 2026. Both programs should be at their best for that one.
Those are just extra benefits for what Wisconsin hired Fickell for. The Badgers have been the second-most successful program in the Big Ten since 2014, sandwiched between Ohio State and Michigan. Now, the Badgers have a better chance at making it interesting against the Big Two.
It's only a matter of time before Fickell will make that happen, too.
