Why Luke Fickell decided to leave Cincinnati nowįickell guided Cincinnati to an undefeated regular season, an AAC championship and a spot in the College Football Playoff last season. Wisconsin has lost two of the past three games to Iowa after winning four in a row, three of five games to Minnesota after winning 14 in a row and two of four to Illinois after winning nine in a row. Wisconsin has lost five consecutive games to Penn State.īut the Badgers also have slipped behind teams they had grown accustomed to beating. USC immediately became a national title contender in Lincoln Riley’s first season in charge. Ohio State and Michigan have won the past five league titles, with Michigan the favorite to win in consecutive seasons when it plays Purdue on Saturday. Competing for championships will be more challenging than ever. Wisconsin is venturing into a new Big Ten world after next season when UCLA and USC join the league and divisions may be eliminated. McIntosh said Fickell agreed to a seven-year contract that begins at $7.5 million and averages $7.8 million - a significant step up from Chryst’s annual salary of $5.5 million. With Fickell at the helm, the message is clear: This is a program that has every intention of competing for championships, and McIntosh will give him every avenue to achieve that goal. It is a bold, unexpected move by McIntosh but one that highlights how much expectations have changed. Luke Fickell led Cincinnati to four Top 25 finishes in a row. It became evident that Luke and his experience and his belief system and his approach and his process, which was proven and does align with what we believe here, was the way that I thought we should go and was the way that I felt best positioned our program for long-term success.” “We have the same expectations, championship-level expectations. But as the process went along and we got more comfortable with what opportunities may exist in terms of leadership for the program and as Luke and I spent more time together and got to understand each other more and got to build the beginning of a relationship, it became clear that we see the world in a very similar way and we see the potential in a program like ours in a very similar way. “Just because of the process and the timing, I had the ability to watch Jimmy on a day-to-day basis and obviously had a great base of knowledge on who he was and what he stood for. Jim’s ability to step into the program after an incredibly difficult transition and inspire this team to play with passion and with heart the way they did throughout the season was incredible, and we owe him for that. There’s been a lot spoken about wins and losses. “Stepped into a circumstance that was incredibly difficult and over-delivered. “Obviously, Jimmy first and foremost did an incredible job with the program,” McIntosh said. But the feeling after the dust settled was that two things can be true: 1) Leonhard didn’t do anything to lose the job and has the talent and charisma to be a fine head coach and 2) Fickell gives Wisconsin a chance to reach a higher ceiling because of his track record of success - which carried major weight with McIntosh - and will be one of the most significant head-coaching pickups of the college football carousel. The hiring of Fickell, which became official Sunday, was bittersweet for a portion of Badgers fans and a large contingent of players, given what Leonhard has come to mean to Wisconsin as a former player and an assistant coach. McIntosh went with Fickell and his seven years of head-coaching experience instead. He finished 4-3 during that stretch, helped the Badgers qualify for a bowl game, generated overwhelming support from his players and hoped it would be enough to show McIntosh why he deserved to continue to lead the program. Leonhard spent the past eight weeks doing everything in his power to resurrect a reeling Wisconsin team in the aftermath of Paul Chryst’s midseason firing. Yet for as much as the focus was about looking ahead, one couldn’t help but notice who wasn’t there: Jim Leonhard, Wisconsin’s defensive coordinator who served as the interim coach the past seven games before being passed over for the full-time job in favor of Fickell.
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