PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. — New Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell will continue to be present around the Badgers during Tuesday night’s Guaranteed Rate Bowl at Chase Field in downtown Phoenix, but not as a man in charge, he said Monday.
Fickell plans to be on the sidelines, wearing a headset and coaching where he can help, but he will continue to let interim head coach Jim Leonhard handle his duties against Oklahoma State.
“I’m training in a way that really allows these guys to handle things the way they’ve handled them,” Fickell said during the Badgers’ media day. “And they were great. They were really ripe for it. Jim was great.
“I’m a guy who’s maybe a little bit more of a figurehead and we’re going to communicate with these guys on situational things but we haven’t changed anything – the way we train, how they go about a Tuesday practice, a Wednesday practice , a Thursday practice, a Friday practice, how they’re going to do the game day.”
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Fickell said his communication during Tuesday night’s game will be “quite different” than what is normally done during a game. He’ll help relay Leonhard’s plan to the team while trying to keep “everything as similar as possible.”
“I think that’s the only chance to be successful,” said Fickell.
Fickell, seconded from Cincinnati on Nov. 27, made a strategic decision not to take the reins from Leonhard when he came on board, but he wanted to find a way to be with his new team.
It was a balance he had to find.
“I didn’t want to be the guy who was on the Zoom call while the game was on and while the guys on your program and team are sweating and working their butts off and things like that,” Fickell said. “And really, just with the new age of college football, and how can you really take care of your program, your team and your boys when you’re not around them? … I mean, if you’re talking to someone else these days, you’re not talking to them, and I don’t think there’s a way to keep what you’re doing intact unless you’re constantly around them and communicating with you.
Fickell has left it to the current staff to handle basically everything. He said he was asked who would be Tuesday night’s starting quarterback but refused to answer.
“How arrogant would you have to be to walk in in three weeks and think you know better about what’s going on on the program, what these guys have been doing, whether it’s a five-year stint with Chase Wolf or even a year Period acts Myles [Burkett]to make that decision,” he said.
Fickell was at bowl practice, a whistle in tow, senior safety John Torchio said, but had an administrative role rather than any sort of coaching job.
Having him on the touchline on Tuesday will “obviously be different,” Torchio said.
“This is our third head coach of the year,” he said. “I don’t know how many times that’s happened in college football.
“You just have to live with it. That’s how the season has been so far.”
Fickell’s future players enjoyed having him around to get to know Fickell the person and Fickell the coach.
“It’s cool to just have him with you,” said sophomore running back Braelon Allen. “Just so he’s here with us and just builds a relationship with him to see what his coaching style is like, although he’s not really involved too much with the running backs or offense, just sort of more of a defensive guy.
“But just having him around, being able to build a relationship and a connection, was cool. I look forward to him taking it all and making it his show.”
It wasn’t easy being in training, but not really training, Fickell said.
He’s been taking plenty of notes over the past few weeks but added it could be helpful to see how another manager is treating his side.
“Every practice session was pretty tough,” he said, laughing. “During training it was hard to just bite your lip a little bit and just keep moving and then it’s hard too because you don’t do it [know the] Slang. I know the defense, but I don’t know the defense. So it’s challenging in that regard because you don’t want to spend too much time studying and learning everything because obviously some things are going to change here in a couple of weeks.
“So, all those things together, it was awkward.”