Alabama will test how much of a home run hire Luke Fickell has been so far at Wisconsin

Luke Fickell has coached only 15 football games with the Wisconsin Badgers and won (slightly) more than his share of them. This is week 3 of year 2, so it might not be fair for us even to wonder if this combination is operating as proficiently as everyone involved imagined at the start.

After a middling first year, though, and after pedestrian performances in victories against Western Michigan and South Dakota on the season’s first two weekends, it does feel very much like this week’s Big Noon meeting against No. 4 Alabama is more of a big obstacle for the Badgers than a big opportunity.

“This is where you get tested,” Fickell told Badgers fans on his weekly radio show. “You never really know where you are until you get tested.”

That is the optimistic view, the competitors’ view. It’s what a football coach ought to say – and ought to believe. In college football as practiced in 2024, though, most would prefer the greatest tests to come through conference play, where they are mandatory rather than voluntary.

MORE: Against the spread picks for Week 3 Top 25 games

Realistically, Alabama seems much better positioned for this occasion even in their third week under new coach Kalen DeBoer. He’s had less time to build Alabama, but he walked into a circumstance where not much more was required than deciding where to plant flowers and whether new window coverings were prudent.

Wisconsin hasn’t played a top-10 non-league opponent at Camp Randall Stadium in 35 years. We can’t yet be certain how significant this edition of the Crimson Tide will be, but they did plaster FBS opponents Western Kentucky and USF by a combined 105-16. They did start the season with a veteran quarterback, Jalen Milroe, and three total players who are consensus projections as top-100 picks in the 2025 NFL Draft. Wisconsin has none. For now, anyway.

That’s what these next four months are all about, in a sense. Few college football teams win the biggest games without exceptional players. Fickell’s extraordinary 2021 Cincinnati team, which reached the College Football Playoff even though they were competing in the American Athletic Conference at the time, featured five players selected in the top 100, including No. 4 overall pick Sauce Gardner.

“I think a lot of programs are battling the same thing Luke Fickell’s battling, which coaches who are in year two or year three,” Fox Sports college football analyst Brady Quinn told The Sporting News. “And that’s, to me at least, how do they build this foundation of what they want their team to be … but at the same time you’re trying to fix your roster so you can compete right away, so you can exceed expectations.

“With the transfer portal and with NIL and all these other extenuating factors, it’s difficult to do and always be right when you bring those players in. Because you don’t really have as much of an opportunity to see how these guys adapt to the scheme, to see what these guys are as players, because of the limited practices you have in the spring, then you come back in training camp, there’s no preseason, and then you go into real, live games.”

MORE: How to watch every Week 3 college football game

The Wisconsin job Fickell accepted in November 2022 has changed perceptibly since. From the time the Big Ten rearranged its divisions in 2014, Wisconsin had the luxury of residing in the West while Penn State, Michigan and Ohio State were sequestered in the East. In 10 seasons, the Badgers met those teams a total of just 10 times – and lost eight. In the expanded conference, with USC, UCLA, Washington and Oregon in place for 2024, Wisconsin’s protected rivalries are with Iowa and Minnesota, but they’ll still play this season against the Trojans, Nittany Lions and Ducks, all currently ranked among the nation’s top dozen teams.

The Badgers were 7-6 in Fickell’s first season. This was not at all problematic. The program did not endure a coaching change because they’re fun. They cost money. They require an exceptional amount of work. And they frequently fail. It was done because those in charged deemed Wisconsin football to no longer resemble Wisconsin football.

And it’s possible the sluggish start to this season is the product of another transition at quarterback. Last year’s starter, Tanner Mordecai, was brought in from SMU and threw for 2,066 yards in 10 starts, with his season interrupted by a hand injury that cost him three games. Even at that, he threw for fewer than 200 yards in six games – three of them before the Iowa game in which he was hurt.

(Getty Images)

To replace him, Wisconsin attracted Tyler Van Dyke from the Miami Hurricanes, who started 11 games for a 7-6 Hurricanes team last season. He completed 65.8 percent of his passes for the Canes, but also threw nearly as many interceptions (12) as touchdowns (19). With Miami now looking fearsome behind their own transfer QB, Cam Ward, and with ex-Ohio State Buckeye Kyle McCord delighting Syracuse fans, it’s germane to wonder whether the Badgers did as well as they could in finding someone to run their attack.

MORE: Projecting the College Football Playoff ahead of Week 3

Quinn contends Van Dyke has the ability to make the Badgers offense work and win in the Big Ten Conference. “I don’t think there’s any doubt about it,” Quinn said. “When he’s got a clean pocket, he can be very accurate. He can make all the throws; he can do all the things that are asked of him. I think he’s a little better athlete than people probably give him credit … He can still take off sometimes and run and pick up some stuff with his legs.”

Although the offense in the first two wins was uninspiring, Quinn wonders if offensive coordinator Phil Longo held back some concepts the way most NFL teams would during exhibition season, keeping the attack as bland as possible so the opposition for a real game – or, in the case of Alabama coming to town, a real big game – can’t get a sneak preview and determine how to cope.

During Wisconsin's mostly glorious recent history – what could be termed the Barry Alvarez Era, from 1990 on – there wasn’t as much concern about deception. The Badgers’ superior offensive linemen would push defenders where they wished, and exceptional backs from Anthony Thompson to Jonathan Taylor would run for yards and touchdowns.

It is getting increasingly difficult to win like that, and certainly if the goals are national.

“I understand people for the first couple of weeks are wanting to see more offensive production,” Quinn said. “That’s the side of the ball that Luke Fickell was brought in to alter and change. There’s nothing wrong with the Wisconsin defense. It’s always been one of the best in college football. It’s the offense that probably needed to be updated to adapt to today’s world of college football, what wins.”

One of the perils of excelling in any sport is that those who help build success become attractive candidates for appealing jobs in other organizations. The defensive coordinator in Fickell’s early years at Cincinnati, Marcus Freeman, now is the head coach at Notre Dame. Perhaps more specific to this discussion, Brian Mason – the director of recruiting who helped spot such underrated gems as cornerback Coby Bryant (a three-year veteran with the Seahawks) -- has become the special teams coordinator with the Colts. Chad Bowden, who succeeded Mason and helped bring in transfer running back Jerome Ford (now starting for the Browns), is Notre Dame football’s general manager.

Fickell sought a similar dynamic with those running recruiting at Wisconsin: young, energetic, creative, indefatigable. Director of recruiting Pat Lambert, who played for Cincinnati from 2008-12, did the same job for two years with the Bearcats before following Fickell to Madison. Max Stienecker became the youngest player personnel director in college football history when he was hired at age 22 in February 2023.

It’s hard to tell if they have the eye for talent that helped Fickell elevate Cincinnati from the wreckage left behind by Tommy Tuberville to a national power. They’ve hardly had any time to show us. The question, though, is whether anyone anymore gets that grace.