Badgers players and insiders react to Luke Fickell getting the HC job
Jim Leonhard was widely assumed to be the next football head coach in Madison, Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Badgers pulled a shocker Sunday morning as reports came out that the program was scrapping that plan. The Badgers are capturing head coach Luke Fickell from the Cincinnati Bearcats.
The move nets the Badgers a head coach with College Football Playoff experience. Cincinnati made the playoff last season as the first-ever non-Power five conference participant. Fickell has a history of recruiting well. That’s something the Badgers will need after losing recruits this season.
However, the move didn’t make everyone in the program happy. Current and former players expressed their frustrations on Twitter. Local media covering the Badgers made a few fair but critical statements about losing Leonhard, and players liked and retweeted those posts. They also added a few of their own, as Leonhard had won over many players this season.
Badgers insiders and players’ hottest takes
Some Badgers players are optimistic about the move. Here were some of the hottest takes by insiders and players after news broke of the hiring.
“To see an opportunity we must be open to all thoughts”
— TJ Bollers (@tj35ballin) November 27, 2022
https://twitter.com/CurtisNeal97/status/1596936204699987968
https://twitter.com/nickherbig_/status/1596915846672441345
Losing jimmy Leonhard will be the worse decision Wisconsin will ever make 🤷🏽♂️ I said what I said
— Eric Burrell (@EricBurrell_) November 27, 2022
A move like this has to be bigger than the next 1-2 years of the program but this feels like a total slap in the face to the players. They were left in the dark and at the end it looks like it won’t be their guy.
— Raul Vazquez (@Raul_vazquez11) November 27, 2022
Not to mention what this is like for JL. #Badgers
This tweet by Vazquez had several likes from current and former players such as Collin Wilder and Nick Herbig.
https://twitter.com/TroyFumagalli/status/1596940926915862528
2 Comments
Say it isn’t so. First Chryst was let go but JL as interim eased the heartbreak. Now JL, team and fans have been shafted. 💔. Let’s try replacing QB and AD instead?? Who is actually behind this madness–someone with deep pockets I guess.
The QB that was highly recruited by Chryst and coached by Chryst was (is ) a bust, probably in the Tony Mandrich level of bust considering his press clippings. That being said, Chryst did not really continue to develop the program and might have just caught lightning in a bottle by having JT23 for 3 years during that 2017- 2019 seasons. His QB development was never very good as HC, and he didn’t have anyone really coming to the team at the position. That being said, they continued the Barry A formula well, but that formula is 30 years old now and it just doesn’t play that well in a pass happy league. The QB is the most important player on the field and we saw how MN’s 3 start frosh with good receivers can torch JL’s vaunted defense with or without Herbig. I love Jim Leonhard, but do we want to worry about winning axe games or play with the OSU’s and Alabama’s of the world for titles? Look at the 2024 Schedule! We play Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State, plus all the Western teams which will include USC and UCLA, if they stay with the East West divisions. We want to be in the playoff and be considered among the elite. Chryst wasn’t getting us there, and We do not know if JL would have, but Fickell has been there and has a great reputation and I would trust the plan. Unless UW goes out and brings in an overpriced graybeard coach like Saban, Meyer or Dabo Sweeney, I cannot see another hire that could blow up the status quo more than this one. Admittedly, the status quo has been a great run, run, with 21 straight bowls and most being decent bowls…4 Rose Bowls (wish we could have won at least one of those – I attended all 4), an Orange, A Cotton and numerous Jan 1 games. This is the first year we crawled into one and if they wind up in Detroit playing a MAC team, they deserve it. At least they’re likely to win based on physicality alone. The program hasn’t gone anywhere since PC arrived and in this new transfer portal/NIL age, I just think that his poor recruiting (allowing Mich State to steal the entire department!!) came to a head and now we need to do whatever we can to simply have the same level athletes on the field as our West Div mates like MN and IL. We were outplayed and outcoached on both of those games this year AT HOME and it was embarrassing. Kelly Sheffield just won a Natty with his team and he could have afforded to rest a bit…he didn’t. He went out and got MSU’s top transfer with 3 years left, a Senior transfer libero from Baylor in case his new frosh from Turkey was a slow developer, and other players picked up in the past and as incredible as those Dana Rettke/Sydney Hilley teams were, this one may be even better…hard to say that a team that lost 4 All American starters including the player of the year could be better this year…time will tell but they are a 1 seed this year after being a 4 last year. I like the hire, I like going outside to try to bring in a new philosophy and I hope that Jim L will stay with the team to be the DC because he is a great DC and needs better players that were not landing here under PC’s recruiting.