Luke Fickell refutes report that Wisconsin is banning NFL scouts from practice

It’s been a very difficult season on the field for Luke Fickell and the Wisconsin Badgers. Now sitting at 2-5 overall and 0-4 in Big Ten play, the Badgers haven’t scored since October 4th. Amid all of those struggles, there are reports emerging that NFL scouts have been banned from team practices.

One report, in particular, came from Dane Brugler of The Athletic. He wrote while the game was underway, “Fickell has been shutting NFL scouts out of practice so games are the only chance for teams to get eyes on Wisconsin players in person.” It was a post that led to Fickell being asked about his policy after the game, which he was adamant wasn’t the case.

“No,” Luke Fickell said. “We have NFL scouts there almost every single day. I think at one week we kind of said, ‘Look, on Wednesdays, let’s don’t have a slew of guys.’ But, no. I mean, they’re in the building. They’re able to ask. Maybe they can’t watch the whole practice on a Wednesday, I think, but my goodness. We don’t even have much of a restriction. I think there was a week, but other than that, no.”

If Luke Fickell were to ban NFL scouts from Wisconsin’s facilities, it would be one of multiple cases this season of that happening. North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick infamously grabbed headlines for banning New England Patriots scouts from the team’s facilities. He, of course, won six Super Bowls in New England before a tense parting of ways.

“We’ve got other things to worry about,” Fickell said. “I don’t need to get into some Bill Belichick-type of scouting situation. That’s the least of our worries. No. They can ask all questions and visit with too many people at times, but they’re more than welcome.”

Brugler was made aware of Fickell’s response on social media and had one of his own. He explained that his post came from info he’d received from multiple NFL scouts. So, neither side appears to be backing down from its stance on scouting at Wisconsin.

“I’ll just say this – it would be a pretty weird thing for me to randomly make up,” Brugler wrote. “My original post was based on info from multiple scouts. And I’ve heard from several more this morning. It’s real.”

Regardless, Wisconsin and Fickell have a ton of work to do and challenges to overcome in practice. The Badgers have now been shut out two games in a row and are preparing to travel to Eugene to take on Oregon next week.