Lucas: Fickell eager to help Badgers grow and evolve

BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer

MADISON, Wis. – As an Ohio State player, a sturdy nose guard that started a then school-record 50 straight games, Luke Fickell had a perception of Wisconsin football from the trenches. During some intense battles with the Badgers in the mid-'90s, he came to respect the culture under Barry Alvarez.

"I kind of mentioned to some people that I used to not like Coach Alvarez because obviously he was a competitor, and they were tough," Fickell admitted. "When I got into coaching and the two times I got to meet him, I realized, 'I know why I don't like him ... because we're very similar.'

"My opinion as a player was that every game that we had with them was a tough, physical game. So, I've always had the utmost respect because to me that's a big deal (to play that way). Then, as a coach (at Ohio State), it didn't change. That's why I think it's so unique coming in here now.

"I told our guys that last night (Sunday). The environment and the culture I know of this place has been phenomenal – from what I've seen from the outside looking in – regardless of who's been the head coach. It's embedded to me in what it means to be here no matter who's leading it (the program).

"My objective is not to change that. My objective is to try and find ways to grow it and enhance it … I wouldn't expect it to be much of any different or change in those ways of it being the tough, hard-nosed kind of guys that have made this place special."

Luke Fickell, 49, is now the leader of the Wisconsin program. Sunday was a day of messaging. He met with his Cincinnati players in the morning to tell them he was taking the UW job. And then he met that night with the Badgers players that he's inheriting from Paul Chryst and Jim Leonhard.

One of those UC players was his son, Landon Fickell, a sophomore offensive lineman.

"I think that's where he belongs … I told him that," he related. "It was kind of the same message I said to the kids when I walked in here (Camp Randall Stadium). You chose this place for a reason. It's bigger than any coach – it's just like where I just left – and why I encouraged my son to stay.

"New people coming in are going to help you grow in different ways."

Asked about the reaction and vibe that he got from the players during his UW team meeting, Fickell acknowledged, "It's hard. It's tough. You could see and feel the emotions on their faces and in their bodies. Obviously, it's a tough time after a season when things don't go well at the end.

"Maybe they had some expectations on what things were going to look like this week and in the future (as far as the naming of a head coach and all the speculation focusing on Leonhard) and it all kind of gets turned upside down to them. I'm very empathetic.

"I told those guys that just five or six hours ago, I was standing in front of a completely different group of guys (in Cincinnati), all feeling very similar ways, and it was the most difficult thing that I had to do walking out of there. And it was a very difficult thing standing in front of them now."

Fickell reiterated to them that they chose to play football and get an education at Wisconsin for the right reasons and "the most important thing is that you're in the right place with the right type of people." And he reassured them, "I promise that we'll only enhance that and help you grow in that."

Fickell also met with Leonhard for about an hour on Sunday night.

"I look forward to spending some more time with him on Wednesday," Fickell said. "I'm really open-minded. Being in a unique situation (as Ohio State's interim head coach in 2011) that was probably very similar to Jim's position, I really understand a lot of the things he could be going through.

"I told him, 'I want to do what's best for you. I want to do what's best for the program. I want to do what's best for these kids. I don't know if we know exactly what that is. Where's your heart and your mind? I'm sure you need to take a little time here (to think about things).

"'Let's continue to talk and get to know each other better and see where it goes.'"

Fickell re-emphasized that he's "very open" to exploring every avenue with Leonhard. "I respect the hell out of Jim," he said. "I don't know him well. But I know him from afar. I know some of the guys who were on our (UC) staff have visited with him and they know him a little bit. Better than I did.

"Nobody has said anything beyond having the most respect for him. I know how he feels about this place. I think he will be able to give me a great indication of what he thinks is the best thing for him as well as the program and the team."

Family is important to Leonhard and his wife Katie. As it is to Fickell and his wife Amy. Both are Ohio State grads. They met on the Columbus campus as sophomores and married in 2000. They have six children, five boys (Landon is the oldest), including two sets of twins, and one girl.

"I've been very fortunate to not have to move a whole lot with my kids in this profession and that's by choice," Fickell said. "We kind of chose that if we have the opportunity (to coach elsewhere), we want to stick together and do what's best for the family, and not what's best for my career.

"This (Wisconsin) was a unique opportunity at a great time. For me, and our family, to go to a place where I didn't think my kids could thrive was not something that I was going to be willing to venture into and or get out of my comfort zone for.

"Knowing a little bit more about Madison and the community and the area, it's not only a great opportunity for me to continue to grow my career and make an impact on a different group of guys and program but also for my kids and family to be able to thrive and grow in what it is that they're doing.

"I wouldn't have done this if it wasn't a great fit."

What resonated the most with Fickell in his discussions with UW Director of Athletics Chris McIntosh?

"There's a lot of things to be honest," said Fickell, who went on to reference the fluid nature of college athletics these days. "It was his openness to say, 'We understand that the way we've always done things – just like the way you've always done things – has continued to evolve and change.'"

McIntosh pledged, "We're willing and wanting to continue to grow with what this is going to look like for college football and college athletics in particular." Responded Fickell, "To me that's what I wanted to hear. If you're not growing, you're dying. If you're not going up, you're going down.

"I know for me it was a big deal to step outside of my comfort zone. I've been pretty comfortable where I was – where I was with my family and things like that. Visiting with Chris showed me that this is a partnership where we're both willing to get outside of our comfort zones.

"We're both willing to find ways to continue to grow and evolve in this ever-changing college athletic world in the ways to make our kids better in all that they do, not just on the football field."

Fickell has been influenced by his coaching mentors – from Lee Owens to John Cooper to Mark Dantonio to Jim Tressell to Urban Meyer to one of his former Ohio State teammates Mike Vrabel. Although he has a defensive background, as player and coach, he definitely values offense.

"I view offensive football as, 'It's the way of the world,'" Fickell said. "You have to be able to move the football. You have to be able to create things. We've got to figure out what's best for us and where we can grow to be successful. Staying the same is not what gives you a chance to be better.

"But I'm not one of those guys who just walks in and blows it up and says, 'This is what we're doing.' We need to evaluate what it is that we do. We know that we've got to be able to do it better. But there's got to be a connection from all three phases of the game.

"Most importantly, you've got to create a system that you believe in and that you can allow your guys to grow into. We need to evaluate how they've done things. From afar, I know what has been really successful here. But I also know there has to be an evolution to growing on both sides of the football."

Fickell is not a fan of the transfer portal. "I do not like the portal, I do not agree with the portal," he said. "Obviously, where I was before, we used it strategically. But we were not a portal group. What we have done was recruit and develop. That's my vision. Bring in high school kids and develop them.

"I know we're a little behind in this year's (recruiting) class which makes it a little difficult just because of the change and timing of everything. But this place has a foundation built on development. You can make some hasteful decisions when you start going a different route with the portal."

Fickell's name has come up repeatedly for job openings around the country. At a time when USC was looking to replace Clay Helton, and Fickell was on the media's short list, Fickell's mom, Sharon, spoke to the Los Angeles Times about one of her son's greatest strengths.

"Good wrestlers have tunnel vision," she was quoted as saying. "They can block out everything around them and just see what's in front of them. That's how he is. He sees himself on a mission and I don't think he'll leave it until he's done with what he has set out to do."

Fickell was not a good high school wrestler. He was a great one. At Columbus (Ohio) DeSales, he was an unbeaten, three-time state champ. He pinned most opponents. His uncle was a prep wrestling coach and Fickell was training on the Dan Gable arm-bar series and single-let takedowns at a young age.

"I wanted to be a four-time state champion and wrestle in the Olympics," said Fickell, who was motivated by a DeSales wrestler, the late Mark Zimmer, the first to win four state titles. He went on to compete at Wisconsin in 1980 as a freshman (8^th in nationals) before transferring to Oklahoma.

"Mark Zimmer was probably my first idol," Fickell said. "The guy I wanted to be."

There was another guy that Fickell wanted to beat more than anybody. Fickell failed to qualify for the state tournament as a freshman – thus losing his chance to match Zimmer – because of a loss in a wrestleback to Kevin Wiley from Perrysburg High. That defeat is still unsettling to him to this day.

"I had never known the guy's name – that was the only thing I never computed – the guy's name," he said upon being informed that it was Wiley who beat him. "I'd drive by Perrysburg on I-75 when I would go recruiting and I said to myself that I would never go in there."

Fickell shared a story. It seems he agreed to give a speech to some high school all-star football players. All good. Except when he learned that it was at Perrysburg High, he demanded one thing, "I can do it if it's outside, but I won't go inside that school.' It's still very motivating to me (that loss) …"

Such is his competitiveness. But what about his tunnel vision?

"I would attribute a lot of the things of who I am and how I go about attacking, whether it's life in general or in this profession, is … I don't want to say narrow-minded … but it is tunnel vision. I don't get into the periphery of a lot of things. There's a plan in place, there's a mission ahead."

It's what he learned on the wrestling mat. Much to the amusement of his wife and kids.

"Sometimes my own family makes fun of me because I don't know what's going on in the outside world, like politics," he conceded. "People will say, 'Do you know what just happened in our country?' I'll say, 'No, I've got 120 kids, 18 to 22-years old, and my attention and focus is on them.'

"I'm more concerned about how they're handling the stresses and the ups and downs – whether it's the pressures of football or the pressures of academics. Call it tunnel vision. Or call it just being focused on the things that you believe are most important to you in taking care of your kids."

Getting Cincinnati to a Final Four was part of his plan, his mission. It's no different at Wisconsin. Can he do it here? Can he get the Badgers to the playoffs? "For sure, you can," he said. "If you didn't think you could, I don't think it would have been something I would have been as excited about doing."

Nor would he have been so willing to get out of that comfort zone.

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Lucas: Fickell eager to help Badgers grow and evolve

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