Badgers Coach: 'We Know Darn Well We Have The Guys That We Need'

Wisconsin Badgers coach Luke Fickell is bullish on his football team's direction for the 2024 season.

Luke Fickell said he had forgotten how hard the first year can be.

The Wisconsin Badgers ended up 7-6 after their 35-31 loss to the LSU Tigers in the ReliaQuest Bowl on New Year’s Day.

The first time Fickell built a program was when he took over at Cincinnati before the 2017 season after a long stint at Ohio State, where he served as the defensive coordinator and as the team’s interim head coach in 2011.

He built something special with the Bearcats. After a 4-8 start 2017, he and the Bearcats won at least nine games in each of his remaining five seasons, including back-to-back 11-win season in 2018 and 2019, along with back-to-back undefeated regular seasons in 2020 and 2021, the latter of which culminated in the Bearcats reaching the College Football Playoff for the first time.

In one way, Fickell one-upped his debut with the Bearcats by leading the Badgers to three more wins in his first season.

But he acknowledged the difficulty of his first season in Madison, where the team lost three games at one point to take them out of the running for the Big Ten’s West Division title.

But Fickell said he knows this — the Badgers are ready to get back to the top and he has the players to do it.

“We know darn well that we got the guys that we need,” Fickell said after the LSU loss. “We just got to get everybody on the same path. We got to get everybody going the same direction.”

One of those ways, he said, is getting the Badgers where he said they needed to get to when he arrived in Madison last year — finishing.

“Ultimately it comes down finding ways to finish,” Fickell said. “(I) Said that a year ago when I walked in the door here, that was going to be the emphasis. Obviously we didn't do a good enough job. I didn't do a good enough job at making sure us as a program, us as a team can find ways to finish, whatever we needed to do.”

The next step? Continuing to mine talent in the transfer portal and preparing for spring workouts later this year.

So far, the Badgers have lost 11 players to the transfer portal — linebacker Kaden Johnson, offensive lineman Nolan Rucci, quarterback Myles Burkett, wide receivers Chimere Dike and Skyler Bell, center Dylan Barrett, defensive ends Rodas Johnson and Darian Varner, and linebackers Jordan Turner and Jordan Mayer.

But, the Badgers have nearly replenished those losses, with commitments from 10 transfers — linebackers Jaheim Thomas (Arkansas), Leon Lowery (Syracuse), Jahsian Galvin (Northern Iowa), Sebastian Cheeks (North Carolina) and John Pius (William & Mary), along with running back Tawee Walker (Oklahoma), Tyrell Henry (Michigan State), Jackson McGowan (LSU), quarterback Tyler Van Dyke (Miami FL)) and long snapper Cayson Pfeiffer (Cincinnati).