dahlhawk
Well-Known Member
"Your Hawkeye name is Flounder". That's fitting.
Badgers hiring Fickell
- Thread starter spliff45
- Start date
ssckelley
Well-Known Member
Possible but an advantage Wisconsin has over Iowa and Nebraska is they are the only P5 school in a 5.8 million populated state. There are a lot of good football players to recruit from.
Fryowa
Administrator
Coaching hires are 99.9% pure luck. But what hasn't been shown to be lucky is playing musical coaches.
Coaches flop way more often than not, especially moving from G5 to P5, and regardless of their pedigree. Wisconsin went from a known quantity (who was wildly popular with players and a really good recruiter) to an unknown quantity, and by past odds it's a less than 50/50 gamble.
Fickell seems like a good hire. I see why they went that route. He's totally different from what they had. Staying with Leonard woulda kind of had Frost vibes to me. That may have been part of their line of thinking.
I suspect it'll be a 1 step back sort of thing with trying to keep recruits and for him to get started doing his thing. But long term I think he'll be a great fit/hire overall.
I suspect it'll be a 1 step back sort of thing with trying to keep recruits and for him to get started doing his thing. But long term I think he'll be a great fit/hire overall.
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
Very unlikely. Say that the guy catches lightning in a bottle, has them playing like Iowa in the early 2000's or Wisconsin early in Bielema's tenure. Congratulations, you've hired a star fucker who will leave at the first opportunity. Say he sucks, well then he sucks and Wisconsin is hosed. Wisconsin has a program identity based on the kinds of players they can recruit locally and weather conditions where they play and trying to eschew that identity is monumentally stupid.
You think Fickell will go away from a large part of what's made Wisky so good for so long? I don't think he's that dumb. He's been around BIG having been at OSU to that he's not unfamiliar. He may not stay with Leonards style of D or be as totally smashmouth ground and pound but I don't think he'll go all air raid or anything either.
Granted success isn't guaranteed. Even Gary Anderson as weird as his tenure was he did well there. Nothing great but good enough to where it was just odd as hell when he left them high and dry. I can't say you're wrong about Fickell maybe using Wisky as a stepping stone if say he does do well early. My pushback to that would be this. He'd been at Cinci since 2017. I'd think he's had chances to step up several times since then and hasn't. I think unless he does a shit job that he'd be there 6 plus yrs no doubt. I mean his dream job was OSU. He already had it and lost it. I kinda feel like this is it for him but I could be wrong the world can change fast
SwirlinLingerie
Well-Known Member
Here are a couple thoughts on Leonhard. If he decides not to pursue another head job next month (which would probably have to be a step down in stature from Wisconsin), does he choose to remain a DC in the conference? I think he'd be highly coveted.
I haven't followed the latest happening around the conference at the coordinator level.
But Illinois might be looking for a new one. Or what about Northwestern? Or possibly even Ohio State? I'm assuming there isn't a $2 million coordinator yet in the Big Ten, but you gotta figure it's coming soon.
A guy like Leonhard seems like he'd have the potential to create a bidding war in conference.
I haven't followed the latest happening around the conference at the coordinator level.
But Illinois might be looking for a new one. Or what about Northwestern? Or possibly even Ohio State? I'm assuming there isn't a $2 million coordinator yet in the Big Ten, but you gotta figure it's coming soon.
A guy like Leonhard seems like he'd have the potential to create a bidding war in conference.
ssckelley
Well-Known Member
I'm just saying that Wisconsin isn't as fragile as Iowa or Nebraska. Honestly Nebraska wasn't either until they kept spinning coach after coach looking for the next Tom Osborne. But it's going to be tough for Wisconsin to revert back to it's pre Alvarez days as, like I mentioned, they are situated in a very good recruiting base. Heck UW-Whitewater has been a D3 powerhouse feeding off players that the Badgers pass on. I'm not saying it can't happen but it's going to take a lot more than 1 coaching change and a 6-6 season to send them back to the dark ages.
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
Balderdash. Almost every team is as fragile as Iowa or Nebraska. Tennessee, Florida State, Texas, Michigan, USC - we've seen a lot of programs shit the bed in grand fashion. And do so very quickly. How much money have those "elite" programs lit on fire paying buyouts?
Gander Hawk
Well-Known Member
With the exception of some great RBs I never thought Wisconsin's offense was anything to write home about.
Yeah Chryst will have limited suiters I would think due to that style but he's a respected coach in the community I would think. He shouldn't be unemployed any longer then he'd want to be. In fact I'd be curious from the coaching community how what Wisky did to him is being looked at. I'm sure most think he got a raw deal.
ssckelley
Well-Known Member
Those programs are not anywhere near as fragile as Iowa or Nebraska. Heck FSU just won a NC as recent as 2013, USC in 2004, Texas in 2005 and the one thing in common with all of those schools is it didn't take much to bring them back to relevancy since they all remain a big name in college football. I'm not saying it's impossible to bring Wisconsin down, you mentioned Michigan as an example and they had a bad 7 year run with Rich Rod and Hoke but it didn't take much to get them back on top.
Weird, just 2 years ago many people were convinced Jim Harbaugh was going to bail on Michigan for the NFL and now he's got them into the playoffs 2 years in a row.
spliff45
Well-Known Member
Booooo!
HawkGold
Well-Known Member
They are so much better than they were. Not even close
HawkGold
Well-Known Member
Smith did not leave the cupboard bare and was never a fit. He was hired to get back into Chicago which he sort of did
Fleck has improved the goofs.
Carnbell is still not played out. They were quite competing.
Frost...ya
Hoke was kinda like Frost in many ways
DA fuq? Kill did as well as Boat guy without the shtick and tight pants but with med issues.
