Who is Luke Fickell, the Badgers’ new head coach?

MADISON, Wis. — Luke Fickell has officially been introduced as the 31st head coach of Wisconsin Football and the team’s third of 2022, but who is he?

“You know that cool older uncle at the Fourth of July? That’s Luke Fickell; he’s a normal, down-to-earth guy” said Chad Brendel, the owner of BearcatJournal.com who covered Fickel for six seasons at Cincinnati. “He’s also the most competitive human being I’ve ever met.”

Fickell, a father of six, played and coached for Ohio State, even serving as the interim head coach between Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer.

The only coach to take a Group of Five team to the College Football Playoff is touted for his recruiting, but, Brendel said, while Fickell got big recruits, his calling card is developing talent. Eight of his nine NFL draftees were three-star recruits.

“That’s really what you’ll find out about Luke Fickell, he can… recruit the higher-end kids, but his bread and butter is taking the guys in the middle of the recruiting rankings, and taking them and turning them into the best players on the roster, he’s really got an eye for that,” Brendel said. 

Fickell himself made similar comments to reporters during a news conference at Camp Randall Monday evening, saying he doesn’t want to be a transfer team and prefers to develop talent himself.

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The other word that comes up when talking about Fickell? Tough.

“(He) got in at Ohio State and I believe set a record with 50 consecutive starts for the Buckeyes, and the 50th start was the Rose Bowl, at the end of 1996 — and he played that game with a torn pectoral muscle, so this guy is football and toughness through and through,” said Steve Helwagen, who has covered the Buckeyes since 1988. 

As for his coaching style?

“So he’s going to want to line up and be an offensive and defensive line driven program, he’s going to want to run the ball, now, he’ll air it out, they pushed the ball down the field at Cincinnati,” Brendel said.

Fickell, a close friend of Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel, has been a winner since day one.

“At a very young age, he’s, just his second or third year as a collegiate head coach, he’s on the staff at Ohio State in 2002 when they win the National Championship game,” Helwagen said.

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