The staff at 247Sports recently polled its local and national beat writers to put together a complete list of Big Ten season predictions.
Predictions in the piece include Player Of The Year, Offensive Player Of The Year, Defensive Player Of The Year and the standings in both divisions.
The group at 247Sports also put in votes for the Big Ten Coach Of The Year. Their pick: Wisconsin’s Luke Fickell.
“The Badgers’ offense seems primed to make a jump with Big Ten Player of the Year hopeful Allen at running back and SMU transfer Tanner Mordecai at quarterback,” the article reads. “The Badgers hired away arguably the best offensive coordinator in the country, Phil Longo, after smashing records with his Air Raid offense at North Carolina. The Badgers will not look drastically different overnight. After all, why ditch a team’s strengths? The Badgers will still ground-and-pound the football, but Fickell and company will also stretch the field.
Luke Fickell is the preseason @247Sports Big Ten Coach of the Year.https://t.co/jwVsZEoEFo #Badgers
— Evan Flood (@Evan_Flood) July 11, 2023
There will be likely no postseason awards for Fickell without a West Division title. In line with that thinking, the article did pick Wisconsin to win the West with a narrow margin between second-place Iowa.
That said, three of the last five winners of the award (Mel Tucker in 2021, Tom Allen in 2020 and P.J. Fleck in 2019) actually did not end up representing the team’s division in the Big Ten Championship Game. In those cases, the awards were likely given based on a clear difference in performance and what was initially expected.
In Fickell’s case, I return to the comment about the West. Expectations are still sky-high for Wisconsin in 2023 despite all of the changes. Anything worse than 9-3 would be a tremendous disappointment, and I’d assume 11-1 would be needed for Fickell to take home Coach Of The Year honors.