Wisconsin hopes Luke Fickell can make a big improvement like he did in his second year at his last job.
Fickell’s experience makes the Badgers think they can do better than their 7-6 record from his first year in Madison, even with a tougher schedule in the bigger Big Ten Conference.
“The first year with a new coaching staff is hard, to get everybody acclimated and for everybody to adopt,” cornerback Ricardo Hallman said. “You have some guys who aren’t all the way in or all the way invested. I think now with the team, we all have that same goal. I just think it’s going to be a lot better.”
Fickell came to Wisconsin with high expectations after having a lot of success at Cincinnati, so his results last year were a bit disappointing. However, Fickell’s past shows that the Badgers might be on the brink of a big improvement.
Cincinnati went 4-8 in Fickell’s first year in 2017 but improved to 11-2 the next year. Fickell led Cincinnati to a 53-10 record from 2018-22, including a College Football Playoff spot in 2021. Wisconsin hopes for a similar turnaround.
“More than anything, we’re just trying to really establish what those standards look like and how we’re going to do things,” Fickell said as Wisconsin started training camp.
“Not that you didn’t say that you were going to do that last year, but I think it’s just a little bit more of an emphasis and a focus on what all those standards look like.”
Fickell mentioned that a key focus is improving team discipline, as Wisconsin was ranked outside the top 50 Bowl Subdivision teams last season for penalties per game.
