Luke Fickell on his upcoming offensive coordinator hire: ‘We want to be more of a pro style’
Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell updated the Badgers’ search for their vacant offensive coordinator position when meeting with the media on Wednesday.
The position opened when the program fired Phil Longo after its 16-13 Week 12 loss to No. 1 Oregon. It has yet to be filled, now almost one full week after the team’s season-ending loss to Minnesota.
Related: Everything Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell said about Badgers’ finalized class of 2025, his vision for the offense
“It’s an ongoing process. I’d like to tell you that ‘in three days we’ll be able to do this thing,'” Fickell said on Wednesday. “But we have to do our due diligence. We can’t hastefully just jump into this. Look, I wanted it done yesterday. I wanted it done a week ago. I wanted to know who it was.”
Wisconsin has seen significant roster movement in the time since Longo’s departure. It landed four-star quarterback Carter Smith to headline its class of 2025, but also saw the high-profile departure of ascending wide receiver Trech Kekahuna.
The current lack of a coordinator did not hurt the program’s class of 2025 recruiting efforts. And Kekahuna may have departed regardless, as he was a tailored fit in Longo’s air raid attack.
But as the winter transfer season continues, Wisconsin will obviously need somebody in place. The hire will likely precede quarterback movement and other scheme-based changes — two critical parts of the team’s upcoming offseason.
Fickell outlined his vision for that hire, hinting at a move away from Longo’s air raid scheme.
“There’s a vision that we have to continue to grow and evolve what we’re doing offensively,” Fickell continued. “The stereotype of saying before we were an air raid, which is whatever that is. It’s just a label. I’ll tell you we want to be more of a pro style. And what does that mean. That doesn’t mean anything more than we want to be multiple. We want to be able to play in 11 personnel, we want to be able to play in 12 personnel. We have 13 personnel. If that’s possible, 21 personnel. We want to be in the shotgun and be able to do the things that we’ve done out of the gun in the passing game, but we also want to see ourselves under center for 6, 8, 10 snaps a game.”
The comments do not narrow down any candidates specifically. But they do signal a philosophy shift from when Fickell took the job two years ago.
“We want to be able to build upon what it is that we’ve done,” Fickell specified. “What we’ve done in the last two years and our ability to spread it out and play the passing game, be out of the gun, is obviously where we build from. But our ability to play under center and get some play-action…That’s the idea, that’s the vision for us going forward.”
His hire will be tasked with turning around a unit that averaged just 22.6 points per game in 2024, down from 23.5 points per game in 2023. The unit will also likely have new faces all over the field. Where the word ‘unknown’ defines the current state of the unit, the word ‘change’ appears to define where it is heading in 2025.
Fickell also closed with a notable addition — he may look to hire a quarterbacks coach in addition to an offensive coordinator.
Those two hires in tandem will define Wisconsin’s offseason, and could define the Fickell era with the program. The Badgers face a gauntlet schedule in 2025. The success of the new coordinator and offensive system will be necessary for Fickell to return the team to bowl eligibility and reestablish its baseline of success.
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