Scuzz
1849
That hire should really change the way Wisconsin football has been played for the last several years.
rshetts
1850
An interesting scenario presents itself with the top teams in the playoff rankings. With OSU sitting at #5, if either USC or TCU loses their championship game, OSU could slide into the 4th spot. If Georgia and Michigan win and stay put, then that would like match OSU against Georgia and Michigan against the #3 ( either USC or TCU ). This sets up a potential national championship rematch between Michigan and OSU. Now even if OSU gets in, its doubtful that they would be able to beat Georgia and of course Michigan would have to win their semi final as well, but since the first U of M / OSU game set viewership records, it would be interesting to see the viewership numbers for that matchup in the national championship game. Its not likely to happen but if it does, I am guessing the viewership would be huge.
rshetts
1851
That is a big time grab for Wisconsin. They have had great success over the years with the old school Big Ten 3 yds and a could of dust offensive philosophy but Fickle should completely change their offensive identity. Plus he’s proven to have a very sharp eye for finding talent that wasn’t a 5 star recruit in HS. The Badgers have been in a bit of a rut lately so it will be interesting to see how he modernizes Wisconsin football. Sadly this will probably set the Cinci program back. Amare Snowden a 4 star corner recruit for Cincinnati has already de-committed and I am sure there will be more to follow.
The Fickell news landed here in Bearcat Nation like a ton of bricks. People here are stunned that a guy who professes loudly to only be interested in moving on to a “destination” head coaching job (which in Fick’s case everyone knows is Ohio State) and who turned down Notre Dame, Michigan State and USC at various points in his tenure here, would accept the job at Wisconsin on the literal eve of Cincinnati’s move to the Big12. With all due respect to the University of Wisconsin, the Badgers are not a “dream destination” coaching job unless maybe you grew up in Milwaukee, played your college ball at Wisconsin and have always yearned to return an lead your alma mater to Big10 glory. What the hell?
Even with the jump from Big12 to Big10, this feels like a lateral move for Luke Fickell. Sure, Wisconsin is arguably the team with the most potential in the Big10 West, but with the dominance of the Big10 East you may as well be playing in a Group Of Five conference for all the chance you have of winning a Big10 Championship. Since the split to East and West divisions nearly decade ago, the West has NEVER won a Big10 Conference Championship . In fact, over the history of the East-West Championship matchup the West has been outscored 283-123…that’s dominance on a whole other level.
Fickell’s Cincinnati teams have had an identity of smash-mouth high-octane underdogs that consistently over-perform, and that’s led to both interest in recruits out of high school nationwide and interest from transfers from Power Five programs who felt underappreciated and came to Cincinnati to shine (and they have). I’m not sure he’ll be able to do that at Wisconsin, as the culture just doesn’t seem like a fit for that. Fickell’s two strongest recruiting areas have historically been the Midwest and the South. Midwest should still be fine for recruiting to Wisconsin, but it might be a much tougher sell to recruits from the South. Even if all goes right with recruiting and turning around the on-field performance, you still have Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, etc. to deal with. Is Wisconsin going to be as in love with Luke Fickell as Cincinnati is when he’s had four 9 win seasons and lost badly to Ohio State in the one Big10 Championship appearance they’ve had over that span?
Last but certainly not least in consideration…Wouldn’t it seem like the path to eventually replacing Ryan Day at Ohio State might be easier leading Cincinnati to the top of the Big12 than struggling to even break out of the Big10 West? I suppose the thought process is that if he can lead Wisconsin back to dominance over the Big10 West then even if he loses to Ohio State or Michigan every season Ohio State might see pulling him away from Wisconsin as a win-win, getting a solid head coaching hire while crippling a conference foe at the same time. /shrug
I wish Luke Fickell nothing but success at Wisconsin, even if I don’t understand the motivation behind his decision. I also sincerely hope that Cincinnati casts a wide net for it’s coaching search and doesn’t just fall back on promoting from within (Marcus Freeman would have been a good candidate for this, but Notre Dame figured that out a season too soon). There are a lot of very good coaches and coordinators out there in mid-major and P5 programs that would be a good fit to lead Cincinnati into the Big12. As much as I like and admire the guy, Kerry Combs (current interim coach) is not one of them.
I’m with you in not quite understanding how it will work out for him. A lot of his success was not just from “recruiting the midwest”, but specifically from keeping a lot of Cincinnati-area talent at home. They still lost out to OSU and ND for the very best local talent, but there used to be a pool of SW Ohio players who would scatter to places like Indiana or Marshall or whatever. Any one of those players wouldn’t make a big dent, but collectively they made for a pretty good football team.
Lol, Auburn.
Aside from just the sheer ooze of this hire, Liberty just got blown out at home by checks notes New Mexico State. And that they ended the season on a 3-game losing streak.
Doesn’t he still owe Laremy Tunsil money?
Thank you Auburn for taking Freeze off the board so Cincinnati won’t be tempted to hire him. Now we just need someone to nab P.J. Fleck so we don’t make that mistake either.
Thus far the local rumor mill seem to favor several reasonable if not exactly flashy candidates, including Michigan’s DC Jesse Minter (whose dad Rick is a former Cincinnati HC), Ohio State’s WR coach Brian Hartline, Iowa State HC Matt Campbell, Tennessee OC Alex Golesh, and in what would be an ultimate boss move, Wisconsin DC Jim Leonhard who was considered by many to be Wisconsin’s next HC until they swiped Fickell out of nowhere. It would be kind of fun to watch Leonhard take Cincinnati into success in the Big12 while Fickell rebuilds Wisconsin only to run up against the Big10 East buzzsaw every year. =)
Two much flashier names being tossed around as well. Urban Meyer, which even given his extensive ties to Cincinnati and recruiting prowess in the Midwest, would be a HUGE mistake given the stench of failure and scandal permanently attached to him now. Deion Sanders, who while I think Cincinnati will reach out to, I don’t think would be interested. If he was though…oh man, I might have to go all in on that hire. Primetime is about the only hire we could make that would immediately bring back damn near all of the several recruits and current players who have decommitted or intend to enter the transfer portal, and he’s a near perfect match for the team persona the Bearcats have made for themselves in the years under Fickell. At Jackson State Sanders has surrounded himself with experienced and talented staff, and he would do the same in Cincinnati alongside serious recruiting charisma. It would be a near perfect fit to lead the Bearcats into Big12 play, and probably propel Sanders into an SEC coaching job in 3-4 years. I’m gonna hang onto that dream until Primetime says no. =)
Scuzz
1857
Why would any BIG HC leave their current job for Cincinnati?
No BIG10 head coach would. However it’s possible that a BIG12 head coach like Campbell would see Cincinnati (also now a BIG12 team) as a job with a more fertile recruiting base, additional resources and/or just a more attractive location. No offense to Ames, Iowa, but Cincinnati is a much larger city with more population, more large businesses, professional sports teams, easier access, etc…
ddtibbs
1859
Hartline isn’t going anywhere. He apparently really, really likes what he’s doing and he made enough in the NFL that money isn’t an issue.
Neon Deion played baseball for the Reds. I see it as a perfect fit.
Colorado and Deion are reportedly flirting heavily.
gruntled
1861
Colorado is an absolute crap job. There’s always to attraction of being “the one” to turn around an absolute crap program, but that flirtation was before the UC job opened up, as far as I know.
If Deion does move, it will be fascinating to see if the charisma that elevated a SWAC program will work the same magic at the P5 level.
I’d kind of like to see him take it because it would be fascinating to watch as a neutral party. A key difference being that Jackson State has a host of local and regional recruits to draw from, even being an FCS/HBCU school, while Colorado doesn’t. The name recognition alone might allow him to pull on a national level in a way Colorado hasn’t been able to in the past. Plus, the PAC isn’t exactly a hotbed of top-recruiting schools these days so he wouldn’t need to recruit super well to compete. Deion succeeded at Jackson State in a way I doubt many expected (I was skeptical, I’ll admit), so it will be interesting either way.
That said, I think I’d rather have the Cincy job if offered both.
Pyperkub
1863
I’d like to see him stay and fulfill the promise he made to the school and the recruits, rather than bolting and having all his best players join him.
Dunno if any of you saw the Gameday segment on how bad things were at Jacksonville St when he got there, and how he has begun the multi-year process of fixing it…
A Tampa TV sports reporter says Sanders is planning to announce his decision on Sunday
I’d link the original tweet, but I don’t link tweets any more
Cincinnati is going to screw this up some way, some how. I feel it in my gut. We’re going to lose out to either a non-P5 school or the 12th best school in the Pac12 (no offense to any CU grads).
Scuzz
1866
I could see him going to USF just to tweek his alma mater (was he Florida or Florida State?) into giving him their next coaching hire. I would imagine he would think he recruit well there. CU once was a good football school but that was a long time ago. Cinncinati is probably the best job of the three right now.
Florida State. He was a “student” there when I was working on my Masters, and was enrolled in a friend’s freshman comp class, but he never bothered attending.
Interesting that the Deion stories say Colorado, Cincinnati, USF - but stories about the Cincinnati search don’t mention Deion. Those stories only mention the two internal candidates, Brian Hartline (OSU), Jesse Minter (UM), Curt Cignetti (James Madison) and Alex Golesh (Tenn), with Hartline rumored to be the front-runner.
