Luke Fickell Weekly Press Conference || Wisconsin Football || November 18, 2024

[@ryan23791]

Who is calling the plays is overrated???? WTF. I get that its the talent, scheme and playing calling together, but play calling was a big factor in the ineptness of this offense.

[@chrissaalfeld7855]

What does it matter who calls plays? Is this guy serious?

[@akeffo]

If this is the new mentality then Wisconsin football is toast. Here comes 5-7.

[@adamotto8513]

I hate to say it but he sounds like a guy without a plan. Defensive, short on any meaningful details, and full of platitudes that mean nothing. Fingers crossed I'm wrong.

[@brandonknobel6765]

Man this press conference really lowered the confidence i have in Fickell. He did not handle this well

[@LOCK45UP]

Luke happily accepted the duties associated with head coach of the university of Wisconsin football team AFTER Big Mac was authorized to pay Fickell $7.5 million dollars a year! Fickell is…. The state of Ohio. Just as Jimmy Leonard and Paul Chryst are WISCONSIN. Humility, honesty, integrity and transparency and the ability to piece together a great program can be accomplished if you’re willing to be ‘REAL’ (authentic). Ol Luke is learning the hard way that recruiting and the transfer portal means twice the work that Ohio State faces each year. He looks agitated, frustrated and exhausted. It’s not going to get any easier with loses at Nebraska and at home vs. the rodents. The one thing people have forgotten was that Wisconsin was NOT considered a full rebuild job. Fickels hiring was supposed to lead to instant contention. Over the last two years? It certainly appears that disfunction within is what Fickell has brought from Cincinnati. Buckle in… unless Fickell resigns. He’s going nowhere fast. Unfortunately that means Wisconsin football too.

[@michaelmotl2167]

Paying a guy 1.7 million to leave? but who calls the plays does not matter..WOW....too bad for the boosters and UW fans who pay this guy!

[@LatestFlameLFR]

What do you expect him to say? “Yeah, Phil sucked, I’m sorry FANatics. Here’s my short list of replacement candidates, don’t tell anyone. Yes this impacts recruiting. Yes, playcalling was the issue, etc” Get real. I’d rather have Luke deflect than to throw someone under the bus and focus on Nebraska than Minnesota. No-one is available now anyway so the OC discussion is moot. We ALL saw it wasn’t working, we don’t need Luke to reiterate it wasn’t working.

[@tfive1681]

I agree. At the same time there was no need to be annoyed by obvious questions reporters were going to ask. Fickell seems like a good guy and will likely regret how he came across.

[@kottyking]

This is the only reasonable comment here lmao

[@smudgecapone9836]

Yikes. This is on the AD. Seems like Fick is a bit lost. This press conference is a red flag. He’s learning the hard way what is needed to win in the Big Ten.

[@MikeChristopherson-c7v]

Please ask why Yac hasn’t had a carry in months!!!

[@Bucky63]

OC by committee. Really?

[@charlottebats2893]

When you fire a coordinator you usually have his replacement in place. Matt Rhule did when he demoted Satterfield. Very weird and strange he doesn’t have any one and his answers of “ why does it matter” and it’s overated? Or he called plays in high school???? Smh

[@michaelhartzel5855]

Well, who is calling? The offense of plays is not important… Then why did you fire the guy?… Obviously, it’s very important and it’s important for the confidence of the team. This kind of wishy-washy reminds me of how wishy-washy the Wisconsin offense is on running the routes hitting their lanes and hitting the holes on offense… The badgers only run at three-quarter speed because, there’s no leadership no clear direction… And wishy-washy head coaching

[@parkerdutcher58]

You know I believe maybe Barry has had a say in some of this . Because he had an interview before the Oregon game and was asked if he knew the identity of Wisconsin he said no . He said when he took over the program he held mini camps to see what they could always recruit in Wisconsin and it was big farm boy linemen . Coach here just mentioned building on what works in Wisconsin so I'm guessing it's going to be a call back but need a mobile accurate QB

[@d1cegam1ngandsports38]

Honestly all Wisconsin needed was a good QB and to pass the ball and get creative a little more. Really didn't need a complete overhaul. Jim Leonhard got screwed

[@richparsons3971]

He fires the OC (and I'm not criticizing that) and then is asked who is going to be calling offensive plays and he says "what does it matter?" Are you serious? If it doesn't matter, why the hell is the OC canned? News flash for Fickell: it matters. Offensive Coordinators are important. If they weren't Longo will still have a job. What a pile of b.s. from Fickell. Easy question to answer and he comes up with that garbage? Sheezus...

[@charlottebats2893]

Exactly. Very odd answer. Smh

[@indiandaeng]

Back up QB, best RB quits the team, fired OC. Coach needs a break, played Oregon tough. I like this Coach.

[@garybrendemuehl1771]

You fired the guy calling plays, but it doesn't matter who is calling plays? Not much growth in the first two years.

[@CoryCurry_815]

He got to a bowl game in year 1.

[@CoryCurry_815]

Without any of HIS players!

[@stephenbayer8969]

@@CoryCurry_815 but that’s the mark of a great coach, winning with what you have

[@CoryCurry_815]

@@stephenbayer8969 people wanted Fick to come in here and win right away. The cupboards were so bare. He's done ok with what he's has so far and I'm ok with it. If we don't see any changes in the next two years with those 24-25 classes showing promise in 26 then it's time to move on.

[@stephenbayer8969]

@@CoryCurry_815 and what I’m saying is there are coaches out there that can win with bare cupboards. Fick ain’t one of them

[@d1cegam1ngandsports38]

I'm shocked longo didn't work out. That being said this team is extremely talented. Just need a new QB and better fit OC

[@XxThunderstixX]

Not the best look fick… seemed very defensive about certain questions or would dodge the obvious answer just to avoid looking bad

[@timothydrieslein6753]

I agree. I like Fickell but this was a really poor press conference. Not difficult questions, doesn’t matter who is calling the plays? Seriously!?!?

[@petercahill3859]

So I guess we are moving forward Said Paul Chrystal.

[@mattsikich9319]

Such an arrogant press conference. Luke is coming across as defensive and combative. Paul Chryst was bad at pressers, but he was at least genuine. Luke is a used car salesman.

[@cdraper7277]

I see a coach that may be in over his head. It is important to have a single play caller. That way, you know who should take the heat or the blame. I learned that Longo was the quarterback coach as well and we have been seeing Locke regressing with his play. Maybe he lost faith in the OC.

[@johnwshermanhistorian]

Does Pepsi pay for the bottle to be positioned like that? Commercialization is making sports increasingly difficult to enjoy.

[@ryan23791]

These answers are really sketchy and defensive. He could just as easily politely decline to get into specifics but he brought an attitude to this press conference. You just fired an OC that you hired less than two years ago with two games left in the season. Deal with the scrutiny.

[@liammccarthy9388]

It wasn't the best but let's remember Nick Saban the greatest cfb coach of all time would also often get defensive and angry with the media and reporters. Fick is no doubt irritated. I don't think he was saying he literally doesn't think play calling is important, I believe he means it doesn't matter if people outside of the team know who is calling the plays especially for an interim situation, and also that the preparation before the game should be good enough that a play call here or there shouldn't matter so much, which I tend to agree with. I think he believes the preparation and in turn the execution of those plays hasn't been good enough. The play calling hasn't really been the main problem. There's a lot more that goes into the offense than play calling, if your team can't properly execute those plays then it doesn't matter what plays you call. We should be dominant enough that in most games the play calling shouldn't win or lose you the game. Someone asked about who is calling the plays since there is little play calling experience on the team and truthfully that was a silly question. There are people with experience but the OC was also just fired so obviously there isn't just another OC sitting on the staff waiting. It was a dumb question.

[@ryan23791]

@@liammccarthy9388 Questioning who will be calling the offensive plays is not a dumb question. He gave a dumb answer. He just fired that guy that calls the plays. He said it was overrated, smugly mentioned how he called offensive plays for youth football out of college and more stupid things. All he had to say is that he's evaluating it even if he knows and doesn't want to say.

[@liammccarthy9388]

@@ryan23791 I agree it was smug but he is right. If we can't even correctly run the calls that we have been calling then there is a deeper problem here. I assume he thinks he's dealing with people that don't really know what they're talking about. When he talked about the direction he wants the program to go he wants them to be able to succeed no matter the play caller. If your RB is getting stuffed every first down then you have much deeper problems than the play selection. Guys either aren't properly blocking and/or they are confused and not properly prepared. Fans in general harp on play calling like "why no deep shots wtf??!!". Fans in general don't know what they're talking about and I can see that being really frustrating. We tend to be like "we gotta get a guy in there who's creative! switch up the calls!"--that's just the wrong way to look at hiring someone. I'm not saying we shouldn't' strive for more creativity but if you can't do the simple stuff extremely well there's no reason to be talking about creativity and trick plays. If your O-line pushes people around and you get 6 yards per carry like who cares about creative play calling, you're dominating and that's what we should be striving for.

[@tfive1681]

@@liammccarthy9388Do you not see any problems with comparing Fickell with Nick Saban? At least win a few championships before you act like everyone else is a dummy.

[@liammccarthy9388]

@@tfive1681 i’m not saying he’s nick saban but simply being a little defensive with the media isn’t cause to lose our shit

[@eryanjanz3767]

This was an absolute trainwreck of a press conference. Very hard to watch. I mean, Captain Queeg had more composure. If I were a rival coach who was recruiting the same player as Wisconsin, I'd suggest the recruit watch this PC. I'm just shocked that the guy who seemed so confident a mere two years ago has degenerated into this. After viewing, how can a fan have any confidence?

[@richparsons3971]

"Why does that matter?". Are you kidding? This is one of the worst big time college football press conferences I've ever seen. Pure bullshit by Fickell.

[@cur244]

So many coaching changes with LF first staff. That's concerning.

[@jayurban8282]

It doesn’t matter, the big-10 refs will make some obscure call or miss an obvious call or several, whatever it takes for Wisconsin to beat Nebraska.

[@deanstorm9404]

My take is he didn’t have enough confidence in Longo to call the right plays or plays he thought they should run.

[@johndimond2491]

surprised nobody asked how Hunter Wohler is

[@jamesemery9917]

No comment.

[@davidmiller1534]

Starting to see this guy for the weasel he is. My guess is he's gone after 2025.

[@jessicaashton9161]

#maybemabrey

[@gregmelby5216]

Fire the freaking quarterback

[@bigcheeze8768]

Im wondering if anybody in here has ever coached football at any level cause if you haven't, then i really dont think you have any room to talk.

[@WillR-Cincy]

We should have given Mabrey MORE SNAPS EARLIER in the Season so NOW No one is ready? BAD MANAGEMENT

[@bradklippel777]

I’m thinking he’s got a plan. He’s just waiting to reach out to people he’s interested in.

[@samgarven8917]

Also it really doesn’t matter who’s calling the plays that was a dumb question right now we’re tryna win out the season and get a spot in a bowl game

[@kenzeier2943]

1st 4 minutes weren’t very interesting so bye…