Luke Fickell's second chance

The Wisconsin Badgers are moving on from Phil Longo and his Air Raid offense. What's next for Wisconsin on offense?

When Wisconsin hired Luke Fickell and handed him a big contract, they appeared to have executed a major coup. Fickell was wildly successful with Cincinnati, going 57-18 over six seasons with what would have been four consecutive 10-win seasons but for the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign. He was a great recruiter and his teams played smart, cutting edge defense and physical offense. Then he made his Wisconsin offensive coordinator hire…Raid bro (Air Raid coach) Phil Longo.

As I joked at the time…

…getting an Air Raid coach who’d coached in the South and bringing him into Wisconsin, the land of white boys and cold weather, didn’t seem like the greatest idea.

But Fickell has fired Longo after a second consecutive season of bad offense (65th in FEI in 2023, 59th in 2024). Since I never believed in the direction they were going, what might seem like a quick hook to another strikes me as a sign of true competence from Fickell. This was a course correct that needed to happen sooner than later.

So what’s next?