Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell was placed at No. 5 in CBS Sports’ Big Ten head coach rankings ahead of the 2024 season.
CBS Sports’ Tom Fornelli placed Fickell behind only Ohio State’s Ryan Day, Oregon’s Dan Lanning, USC Lincoln Riley and Penn State’s James Franklin.
The ranking arrives a day after the Badgers secured a commitment from four-star interior offensive lineman Hardy Watts, the 22nd pledge of UW’s class of 2025. Recruiting doesn’t paint a coach’s entire picture, but there is no denying the correlation between Fickell’s arrival and an uptick in recruiting talent.
Ranked No. 16 in the nation by 247Sports, UW’s 2025 cycle includes six blue-chip players and an average player rating of 88.29. This follows Fickell’s stellar 2024 group a season ago.
Fickell, who joined the Badgers on Nov. 27, 2022, will enter his second full season manning the sidelines in Madison. Following a turbulent start to its 2023 slate, Wisconsin finished the season with back-to-back conference wins to clinch a 7-6 mark and 22nd straight bowl appearance.
As Badger faithful know, Wisconsin will face a collection of the nation’s best in 2024 including Alabama, Oregon, Penn State, USC, Iowa and Nebraska. The Badgers’ schedule is the 24th-toughest in the nation according to ESPN FPI. Fickell will look to showcase the program’s progress against it this fall.
Big Ten coach rankings 2024: Ryan Day recaptures No. 1 spot as Lincoln Riley, Dan Lanning debut in top fivehttps://t.co/t9hClibfER
— Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) July 2, 2024
Here’s what Fornelli had to say about the Wisconsin head coach:
“I’ve no doubt Luke Fickell hoped his first season at Wisconsin would’ve gone better, but changing a program’s entire identity isn’t a quick fix. One 7-6 record does nothing to change my mind about the likelihood of success in the long run. It was only a few years ago that Fickell built a Cincinnati squad strong enough to be the only Group of Five program to play in the four-team College Football Playoff. You don’t do that by accident or with luck. It’s not a matter of if, but when will Fickell get the Badgers to the playoff.”
With experience guiding the Cincinnati Bearcats to the College Football Playoff, Fickell knows a thing or two about winning. In an expended Big Ten conference littered with depth and talent, he will attempt to do the same in Madison.