Luke Fickell pinpoints what lured him to Wisconsin

Last week, Wisconsin pulled off the early stunner of the coaching carousel by hiring Luke Fickell away from Cincinnati. It was a huge splash for the Badgers, hiring one of the hottest commodities on the coaching market.

For Fickell to leave Cincinnati, he said two things were important to him: timing and relationships. Wisconsin had both.

“To be honest with you, from afar, I’ve always had a great fondness for the program, the culture and things like that,” Fickell said during his introductory press conference. “Timing has a lot to do with it, I think. The changing world of what college is and, to me, what Wisconsin is willing to continue to do. We’ve all got to understand and recognize what changes for these young men and are you willing to take those steps to give them the opportunity to play for championships?

“Maybe the final straw is the relationship. I think the relationship that I’m going to have with [athletic director Chris McIntosh] and finding ways to develop and move this program forward, he knows what it’s about. He knows what it’s been. I think that’s a unique situation for me. I’ve never had that, and I’m excited for that. Whether that’s the final straw, that’s one of them. It’s a big deal to me.”

Luke Fickell: Our family had a plan for an eventual coaching move

Since taking Cincinnati to the College Football Playoff last year, Fickell’s name has come up for numerous Power 5 head coaching opportunities. But he wanted to take his time to find the right one, which seemed like a small list of schools.

The area was also an important factor. In Madison, Fickell said he found a place his family would enjoy — and that helped seal the deal.

“We have certain things that we want for our family,” Fickell said. “We all get blinded by our profession and our job. When things come up and you don’t have a plan, they get distracted. The good fortunes that we’ve had in the few years to have some success on the field has made us, in the offseason, get together and sit down and say before things ever get hot, let’s kind of have a plan in place that way you’re not grasping at straws every time you have a win and somebody’s interested in you.

“For us, it had a lot to do with areas we felt like our family could thrive, could live, could stay for a long time and go to school and really enjoy all the things about the community because I could live in a shoebox, I could stay here in the facility 18, 19 hours a day and be around 18-22 year olds. I’m not sure that’s the healthiest thing in the world, but that’s not the same for them. That’s a big part of my life and what’s going to help me be who I need to be.”