Luke Fickell is already a top-five coach in the Big Ten

CBS Sports still likes Fickell after an underwhelming first season in Madison.

Oct 14, 2023; Madison, Wisconsin, USA; Wisconsin Badgers head coach Luke Fickell prior to the game against the Iowa Hawkeyes at Camp Randall Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports / Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

In his first year with Wisconsin, Luke Fickell had his fewest wins as a head coach since his first year at Cincinnati. CBS Sports still thinks he is a top-five coach in the Big Ten.

College Football Big Ten Head Coach Power Rankings per @CBSSports‼️https://t.co/PayNBf2bQe pic.twitter.com/3fDJkb2sJY

— On3 (@On3sports) July 12, 2024

He trails only Ohio State's Ryan Day, Oregon's Dan Lanning, USC's Lincoln Riley and Penn State's James Franklin on the list. But, he is notably ahead of more veteran Big Ten coaches like Kirk Ferentz from Iowa, Brett Bielema from Illinois and P.J. Fleck from Minnesota.

In six seasons at Cincinnati, Fickell compiled a 57-18 record, winning 76% of his games. His 7-6 season last year was a big drop off from five straight seasons with nine or more wins with the Bearcats.

Fickell was praised for doing more with less at Cincinnati, leading his team all of the way to a College Football Playoff birth in 2021, despite recruiting at a level outside of the top-40 programs in the country. He even developed NFL players like Sauce Gardner, Desmond Ridder, Ivan Pace Jr. and Alec Pierce. With an objectively deeper talent pool at Wisconsin, he is now expected to take this program to another level.

Under Paul Chryst and Bielema, Wisconsin was a program that did more with less, but Fickell and his staff are currently on pace for the best recruiting class in program history, which raises the overall expectations of the program.

Relationship Between Recruiting and Winning in College Football 🏆 (2014-2023) pic.twitter.com/Jf6lz9qqbZ

— College Football Report (@CFBRep) July 6, 2024

Ferentz, Bielema and Fleck have all won at least 50 games in the Big Ten, and seem to have made a career of consistently winning 7 to 9 games at programs that deem those win totals as successful seasons.

After the Big Ten added four teams to the conference, 2024 will be an even bigger season for Fickell and the Badgers. With the transfer portal and NIL, coaches are showing that you don't need as much time to rebuild a program as you once did, and they will need to continue to show progress in to maintain their place among the Big Ten's elite.