All the Jim Leonhard talk reminds me of how everyone talked about Fickell: "He's going to change everything."
I'm afraid I saw Fickell as a solid choice. His track record at Cincinnati was based on amazing recruiting, and community communications. He did a great job. I overlooked the "home town" feel of the situation. Here's the chronology to think about and how it related to his success with the Bearcats.
Luke was a defensive stalwart as a player for Ohio State University in his playing days. I believe he played about 50 games for them. He was respected as a person and player. Overlooked was the fact he was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. He had OSU written all over him the day he was delivered at the hospital. Not only did he play football but he was a 3-time state champion in wrestling, making his name one of perseverance. Incidentally, he had the longest games played streak in OSU history during his playing days in football.
Following his playing days, Fickell was an OSU assistant coach for 15 years and served under two highly successful coaches. Jim Tressel and Urban Meyers. Both won National Championships, and Fickell was part of it.
When Fickell left to take over the Cincinnati program he was already part of the fabric of college football in the entire area and having been a key member of the OSU recruiting program, he maintained those personal connections into areas and schools where dynamic football players destined for the college ranks. He tapped into that experience and connections that he'd built essentially over a 24-year period of time from the day he started high school. He was the "hometown boy" when it came to dropping in on families to recruit their sons. He was legend. His first year at Cincinnati wasn't good, but it was during that first year that he started accumulating the players that he'd been recruiting already for OSU and since so many young athletes become attached to the coaches that recruited them, they flipped to Cincy and he began a fantastic string of wins making it into the playoffs for the Natty.
The Badger hierarchy saw success. Quick and efficient. Fans, including myself saw the same thing. We just didn't take the time to look at "why" Fickell succeeded in Cincy. What I've stated above answers that question. We saw someone who could come in, slap a label on it and work magic. I'd be willing to guess that even Luke thought it would be that easy for him because it was back in Ohio.
When he moved to Madison, he came in kind of arrogant, talking about culture change. That seems to be a big issue everywhere today. Change the culture. Well, the culture he built in Cincy was the culture he lived with at OSU, and it worked because it was the regional culture. He, along with all of us, failed to realize that saying that you were going to change the culture in Madison meant abandoning the automatic recruiting inroads you had by suggesting that all those coaches and active alumni members were really out of touch with reality and needed to step aside and he'd "show them how it's done." He alienated people faster than anyone could believe. He started telling the NIL people "How he wanted it done," and guess what? It backfired. You don't tell people even in a nice way that they don't know what they're doing, when they've worked their tails off to do a good job. Recruiting was a big issue. Chryst did not use the recruiting money wisely even though it wasn't nearly as high a budget as the better Big 10 schools had to use. Still, they won with guys like Jim Leonhard as an assistant because they held onto that "hometown kids" regional mentality and brought them in to stock the shelves. We didn't see that worked, which was dumb.
If you want the program back, return to the roots of what was the 20+ years success they had where the Badgers built a regional recruiting giant that worked better than most people thought. When Saeed Khalif left Wisconsin for Michigan State after heading our recruiting, it was a major blow. He wasn't replaced. He was just so good at his job that Chryst couldn't see it and blew it. That's when the end began.
You want to be a winner again? Get Jim Leonhard back in Madison and let him bring in a bunch of ex-Badgers who know the game and can coach it. Guys like Joe Thomas for the Offensive line comes to mind. Also Melvin Gordon. QB coach, someone like Darrel Bevel, or Scott Tolzien, and possibly down the road, Russ Wilson. Imagine Don Beebe coaching your WRs. He could put together a cast of offensive coaches that would make that offense hum and the farm boys would be back plowing holes through defensive lines like they always did in the past.
On defense, rest assured Jimmy knows the guys who have the right connections to make that side of the ball work built in the image of how he sees defenses need to be run.
This would be a winning program. It would be a fairly quick rebuild, and the NIL money and outside support in community and regional business involvement would be huge.
Make sure you also have coaches on staff who can open doors in places like Florida, Georgia, and Alabama as well as in the East coast like we've had to get those RBs out of New Jersey in the past. We need those additional players, and properly applied NIL can help swing the deal, along with the right coaching to get these kids to the next level.
Wisconsin could become someone who has the same potential as Indiana with the right personnel. It's there, just get the right people to tap that well of resources, and the oil money will flow into Madison to make it happen.
My philosophy is pretty simple.
GET BACK TO YOUR ROOTS AND BUILD ON IT BY IMPROVING YOUR METHODS OF BRINGING IN THE REGIONAL PLAYERS AND REACH OUT CONSTANTLY IN TOP PLAYER AREAS TO GET THE ADDITIONAL TALENT NEEDED.
