Facing a pivotal Year 3, Luke Fickell hopes ‘Grimey’ offensive makeover can finally jumpstart Badgers tenure

Madison, Wisconsin – During an official visit which included the tour of the Wisconsin installations and the meeting with the coaches, the Billy Edwards calendar allowed three hours of free time before a good dinner where the confidence of the brain of the badgers could offer the big land.

Rather than exploring State Street or relaxing in your room to catch your breath during an already swirling recruitment process, the Quarterrière of Maryland Transfer chose to watch a film with the newly hired offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes. The two have become so absorbed by the band that the hours passed, and both presented themselves late for dinner.

Before a critical year 3, the head coach Luke Fickell especially on this shared kinship between his new quarter-rear and his attacking coordinator to help the Wisconsin to get back on the right track after a disappointing 2024 season which ended with the badgers to miss a bowl game for the first time since 2001. The offensive has classified n ° 101 on a national level by match, n ° 99 Yards per match and n ° 114 in the third conversations in the third advance.

No one expected these difficulties when the Wisconsin hired Fickell far from Cincinnati in 2022. He built a group of five cincinnati plants, winning 11 or more games in three seasons and leading the bearcates to the playoffs of university football in 2021.

The rental was widely praised. CBS Sports gave him his only “A +” cycle gradewhich also included the Arizona State hiring Kenny Dillingham and the Nebraska hiring Matt Rhule. As CBS Sports wrote at the time, it was “a home rental for a badgers program that needed a spark”.

And yet, after two seasons, Fickell has a 13-13 sheet and already restarts the program. He dismissed the offensive coordinator Phil Longo, whose aerial style offensive has never clicked in Madison, in favor of a heavier approach to the ground. Asked about the pressure before this season, Fickell knows what is at stake.

“I felt it in the first year, I felt it in 2nd year, believe me, I don’t sleep well when we don’t play well,” Fickell told CBS Sports. “I do not sleep well when I do not have the impression that we grow and that we are better. And, unfortunately, there are times when it is a russian mountain, and it is not good enough in this league. We are 5-2 with very big games in front of us and an opportunity to do something big, and we did the opposite direction.

“So there is no pressure on myself, whether it is what fans are waiting for, what the program is waiting for. I live it every day.”

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Offensive makeover Griri

Marcus Sedberry deserves the initial credit for connecting Fickell and Grimes.

After Fickell dismissed Longo and wanted a philosophical change in attack, he examined the options with Sedberry, deputy sports director of Wisconsin and CEO. As Fickell listed the features he wanted in his next coordinator, Sedberry had a suggestion: Did you think of Jeff Grimes?

The two had worked together in Baylor, and Sedberry believed that Fickell and Grimes were well used. Fickell did not know much about Grimes but trusted its managing director and planned a call. Grimes says he was initially not interested.

“When I was contacted for the first time, I said to myself” yeah, I don’t know. I don’t think so “,” said Grimes at CBS Sports. “I was happy and I was not looking for another job.”

Grimes had just finished only one season in Kansas which did not succeed in expectations but which offered hope. The Jayhawks lost five games by a score and returned the quarter-Arrière leaving Jalon Daniels for 2025.

But the more Fickell and Grimes were talking, the more they understood what Sedberry saw. A turning point came when Fickell brought all the offensive staff to Grimes’ home. The conversation focused less on X and the operating system and more on leadership and philosophy.

The most important question of Fickell for Grimes was simple.

“Do you believe that this game continues to evolve, and if we do not evolve with it, then we will become obsolete?” Fickell asked.

Grimes accepted with all my heart and an agreement quickly concluded. He loved the idea of ​​coaching in Big Ten and reviving a more physical offense – something that Wisconsin was known for a long time under coaches like Bret Bielema and Barry Alvarez.

“I think it’s a place that won a lot of games for a long time playing a physical football brand and based on their grown -ups,” said Grimes. “And so the more we talk, the more I think we both realized that it was just the right adjustment.”

Upper

This is the last stop of a winding trip for the old Utep offensive tackle. His curriculum vitae includes high points, such as the victory of a national championship in Auburn and a double finalist in the Broyles Prize. He was also spoiled by losses, especially by being pulled in Baylor two years after a 12-2 season and a victory by Sugar Bowl.

This experience gave Grimes Perspective before this 2025 Pivot season.

“I was fired, I was hired, I was hot, I was cold,” said Wisconsin OC. “So, I don’t pay any attention to that. It’s a big year for us, but every year is a great year. Pressure on university football is now raised, but no one is putting pressure on the coaches that we ourselves.”

Grimes says that the nature of the roller coaster of training humiliated him and reminded him of what really matters – namely his family and his faith. In previous judgments, he let the press go to his head. Sport requires such complete immersion that it is easy to consume by outside noise.

But after going from one of the best assistants in the country to the unemployed in two years, he knew he needed more.

“If your identity is entirely made up of what you do on the field, then you will collapse,” he said. “You will put up the ups and downs of the waves that come in this wild game.”

The good guy under the center

Edwards had several options after entering the transfer portal.

Michigan saw it as a potential bridge towards the overall recruit n ° 1 Bryce Underwood. Going back to his country of origin to play for Virginia was also attractive.

It was a difficult decision, but the conversations with Fickell and Grimes finally sealed her. At Wisconsin, he knew he would enter as a starter and would not have to look over his shoulder. Badgers loved his tenacity and his desire to embrace difficult moments. The 6-foot quarter-back 4 inches and 219 pounds rushed to seven affected in 2023 while the murderous safeguard of Taulia Tagovailoa.

Maryland did not have a winning season with Edwards as a starter, but it remained committed and intense. He helped lead the terraaps to the n ° 17 passage offensive nationally and launched for a summit of 373 yards in a victory on the USC.

“It’s just a real pro,” said Grimes. “He is preparing for each training as if he was preparing for a game. The time he puts in it, the will and the eagerness on his part to be ahead of the game with all the games that will be on the script and called that day. He has a great presence about him. I think he is a guy in which the others see confidence and will follow when they enter the rope.”

A new school with a new coordinator is delivered with challenges, but Edwards wanted to get out of his comfort zone and grow. He adopted the structure and intentionality of Fickell practices and is emerged from the spring optimist.

“We are capable of anything,” said Edwards. “We have seen how the diagram works, we have seen how our players correspond to the program and what we can do offensively.”

When you go to a state where football counts, you can feel passion everywhere. From the Great Dane of Madison to the biggest ass in the world in Edgerton – where this writer had custard – people want to talk about badgers and packers. This is what makes Camp Randall one of the best environments in the country.

But when these teams do not play, passionate fans bases can turn. The Ohio State Ryan Day hired private security after receiving death threats following a defeat against Michigan. Illinois coach Bret Bielema said he could often say what fans feel about him depending on the interactions of the service station.

Fickell did not experience this in Madison. Despite a losing season, the fans have supported – so much so that it bothers him almost.

“When someone is nice, I wonder why he is because I am more upset about myself,” he admitted. “And maybe even some of them are, but I understand what expectations and we live in every day.”

However, he is grateful for how the community has adopted his family. He is committed to reverse things and help the Wisconsin to assert in a new Big Ten look which now includes USC and Oregon.

Fickell thinks that his 2024 team was not tall or quite difficult. He described the big tens of “the league of the adult man” and made the size and the strength a high level priority of the season, especially on the defensive line. The Wisconsin added four defensive line players and three rushers on board. The transfer of Kentucky Edge Tyreese Fearby and the line player of the USC Parker Petersen were both classified among the first 15 in their positions and the Top 100 in the general classification of the 247sports classification.

With a quarter physical like Edwards and a renewed accent in the trenches, Fickell feels good about the location of things.

It will not be easy. The schedule includes Alabama, Ohio State, Oregon, Michigan, Indiana, Iowa and Illinois.

But that’s what Fickell has registered. And now it is time to deliver the hope that his hiring inspired in November 2022.