How hiring Luke Fickell put Wisconsin football on a new path

Editor's note: BadgerExtra will count down the 10 biggest Badgers sports stories from the University of Wisconsin's academic year that ended in May. Stories will appear Tuesdays and Thursdays on BadgerExtra. This is No. 3. Despite the University of Wisconsin football team ending the 2022 regular season with a humbling home loss to rival Minnesota, it appeared almost certain that interim coach Jim Leonhard would land the top job at his alma mater — at least to those on the outside looking in. Just a day later the Badgers would enter a new era when news broke that UW was targeting a program outsider — Cincinnati football coach Luke Fickell — to help usher the team through a more thorough overhaul. UW athletic director Chris McIntosh chose to pass over Leonhard, despite the defensive coordinator and former Badgers standout helping guide UW to a 4-3 record after replacing his coaching mentor, Paul Chryst, just five games into the season. Later that day, former UW athletic director Barry Alvarez confirmed the job was going to Fickell, pending approval from the Board of Regents. A look back at the day Wisconsin football hired Luke Fickell The Board of Regents approved the hire that same day, Nov. 27, 2022, and a news conference was was held the following day in Madison, where Fickell laid out his plan as the 31st coach in Badgers football history at Camp Randall Stadium. Fickell had been the coach at Cincinnati since 2017 and made history with the Bearcats by becoming the first Group of Five program to make the College Football Playoff. As a player, Fickell started 50 consecutive games at nose guard at Ohio State from 1993-96 and began his coaching career with the Buckeyes as a graduate assistant. Leonhard said before Fickell was hired that he had sat down with McIntosh the previous week to discuss the job and looked forward to a chance to develop a group of players who had shown support for Leonhard during his stint as the interim coach. Luke Fickell - First game coaching UW, Guaranteed Rate Bowl Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell celebrates after a touchdown during the Badgers' win over Oklahoma State in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl on Dec. 27, 2022, in Phoenix. RICK SCUTERI, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES Fickell made a quick transition from Cincinnati to UW, getting his first chance to coach the Badgers from the sidelines while acting as "kind of a figurehead" during their Guaranteed Rate Bowl win over Oklahoma State on Dec. 27, 2022, in Phoenix. Leonhard and offensive coordinator Bobby Engram ran both sides of the ball during the bowl game, with the three coaches collaborating in an attempt to put the Badgers in the best position to win. UW's coaching staff has since undergone an overhaul under Fickell, with Leonhard still weighing his options outside of the program and Engram heading back to the NFL ranks as wide receivers coach for the Washington Commanders. Polzin: Life in the fast lane suits Wisconsin football's Phil Longo Badgers fans can expect UW's approach to differ this upcoming season, especially on offense where coordinator Phil Longo is installing his Air Raid scheme in hopes of developing a more aggressive attack. On defense, Fickell brought Mike Tressel and Colin Hitschler along with him from Cincinnati, where their Bearcats have run a 3-3-5 defense, with three defensive linemen, three linebackers and five defensive backs on the field. Tressel will spend the upcoming season as defensive coordinator/linebackers coach, while Hitschler will be co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach. Why it was important McIntosh's intention to shake up the football program was evident when he executed the first midseason firing in UW football history by ousting Chryst on Oct. 2, 2022. By bringing in an outside coach despite players’ insistence that Leonhard was the right man for the job, McIntosh confirmed he felt it was time to make a fresh start. Chris McIntosh, Luke Fickell - presser Fickell built an impressive résumé that proved too enticing for McIntosh to pass up. A Columbus, Ohio, native, Fickell got his start in coaching when he returned to Ohio State as a graduate assistant in 1999. Going on to serve in various roles with the Buckeyes from 2002 to 2016, Fickell was a part of two national championship teams as an assistant — the 2002 BCS national champions as special teams coordinator and the 2014 College Football Playoff champions as co-defensive coordinator/linebackers coach. Leaving Columbus for Cincinnati in December 2016, Fickell led the Bearcats to five seasons of at least nine wins in six years. The American Athletic Conference program had back-to-back 11-win campaigns in 2018 and 2019 after starting 4-8 in 2017. 5 things to know about Wisconsin football's next coach, Luke Fickell Fickell then guided the Bearcats to a 13-1 season and a historic CFP berth in 2021 before falling to Alabama in the national semifinals played at the Cotton Bowl. It was the first time since the CFP's inception in 2014 that a Group of Five program made the four-team playoff. Fickell is Cincinnati football's all-time wins leader with a 57-18 mark and AAC titles in 2020 and 2021. Elevating the program helped Cincinnati secure a spot in the Big 12 beginning in 2023. What they were saying McIntosh said he gave “strong consideration — very strong consideration” to Leonhard, but ultimately he couldn't pass up the chance to land one of the most-coveted coaches in the country, especially when they share the same vision for what the Badgers should be and can become. “It became clear that we see the world in a very similar way and we see the potential in a program like ours in a very similar way,” McIntosh said when Fickell was introduced on Nov. 28, 2022. “And we have the same expectations — championship-level expectations. And it became evident that Luke and his experience, his belief system, his approach, his process, which was proven and does align with what we believe here, was the way that I thought we should go. It was the way that I felt best positioned our program for long-term success.” Luke Fickell - UW spring practice Before his introductory news conference, Fickell spent between four and five hours meeting with players earlier in the day, sharing his vision for the program and hearing their concerns, something he said helped confirm he had made the right decision by taking the job. “I realized why this place is so special, why they’ve had incredible success,” Fickell said. “I saw a bunch of guys tell me what their heart really felt, what they thought about this place, how they felt about their teammates, what they felt about the locker room and what success was to them. I had the greatest relief when those guys walked out of (the meeting) knowing that I'm in the right place with the right group of guys.” Despite that sense of relief, Fickell acknowledged he had his work cut out to build deep ties at UW and said he asked the players to take a leap of faith with him. “You’ve just got to be yourself, you’ve got to be authentic, you’ve got to be real,” Fickell said. “The unique thing that I think I got is I was in the position and I had a great relationship with probably a lot of guys just like Jim has. I think that what we do understand is that while kids are emotional, young men are emotional, they also are resilient. “I got the utmost respect for however things continue to move forward … whatever is best for (the players), they'll do. And I know that building a relationship is a big deal. It's not trying to overtake somebody else's relationship, which I'm not trying to do. Even that relationship with Jim or whoever it is, it's been here. Those are all things that make it difficult.” BadgerExtra columnist Jim Polzin caught up with Green Bay Packers tight end Josiah Deguara a few days later to get his take on what it was like to play for Fickell at Cincinnati. Polzin: The book on Wisconsin football's new coach from an NFL player “His big thing is together everyone achieves more,” Deguara said of Fickell’s T.E.A.M. motto. “That’s kind of his thing. You’ll probably hear a lot about it with him going to Wisconsin. That’s the biggest thing: together everyone achieves more. You’ve got to love each other to grow with each other. He’s a great leader and we all grew to love him and we knew that everything he said, he meant it.” Polzin connected with McIntosh the day after Fickell was welcomed to Madison and the athletic director dismissed any concerns about the difficulty of a coach making the leap from the American Athletic Conference to the Big Ten. “The ascension of coaches from that conference (AAC) to, say, Power Five conferences is one aspect of it. It’s not an aspect of it that I was particularly concerned with,” McIntosh told Polzin. Polzin: Odds stacked against Wisconsin football's Luke Fickell “What was a priority for me was — and I touched on it (Monday night) — was more of what are the character traits, what are the personality traits of the coach that we were considering?” Those same personality traits will also come in handy in the Badgers' recruiting efforts as Fickell makes the move from Ohio to Wisconsin. Instead of focusing on the differences though, he's described a similarity between his previous program and UW. “I think for me, the uniqueness of being here is just like we were at the University of Cincinnati,” Fickell said during his introductory news conference. “A 300-mile radius, you can do the core and crux of your program, and that's what I love about this opportunity. Within a 300-mile radius that will be the core of what it is that we do.”