Luke Fickell addresses Wisconsin's firing of Phil Longo

After the announcement came out to end the weekend, Luke Fickell has addressed the staff decision regarding Phil Longo.

Fickell opened his press conference on Monday by discussing Longo’s firing at Wisconsin. He wanted to discuss it not just since it was his first time to receive questions about it but also so that the Badgers can look to their final two games. As for the dismissal, he felt it was the right choice and right time to make it for their program.

“Alright, well, obviously, I’ll start by, you know, talking about and addressing the situation, the change that we’re going through and then hopefully we can move forward on to, you know, a big football game that’s coming up and make sure that we all get ourselves back into, you know, the task that we have at hand,” Fickell began.

“Just so you know, on Sunday, I made a decision to what we needed to do. Then, you know, came in, obviously had a conversation with Phil. And, you know, pretty much decided that we needed to do it now,” explained Fickell. “This is never something I ever, ever envisioned doing or wanted to do and especially doing it when there’s still games to be played in a season. But felt like, for all involved and, most importantly, for our program and the kids in that locker room, what we needed to do right now was to move forward.”

While the decision to him was right, though, Fickell reminded everyone that it wasn’t. A lot went into it will continue to go into it now for the Longos and those still at Wisconsin.

“This is not an easy thing. Obviously, you guys all understand that. This is a very tough decision. It’s even, you know, one of those things that’s incredibly tough on everybody involved. But I think, first and foremost, for Phil and obviously his family too,” Fickell said. “So, out of respect for them, you know, I probably won’t go as deep.”

“You know, that’s not an easy thing. That’s very difficult. That’s a very tough thing,” said Fickell. “It’s, you know, an unusual situation that everybody is going to have to be able to handle and move forward.”

The Badgers have yet to share, and may not, who will be making decisions for their offense over the final two games. Still, as they move on as a team, Fickell does want to credit Longo for his work following a decision that he didn’t expect to make.

“Out of respect for Phil, out of respect for his family? Just want to say that I appreciate what he has done. He did what I asked him to do when he came here to bring a system, you know,” Fickell said. “I think it’s just, at this point in time, that we felt like, I felt like it’s the chance that we’ve got to move forward. So we’re going to do that and we have.”