Why Luke Fickell feels 'much better' about Wisconsin football after spring practices (2024)

What Luke Fickell is looking at during University of Wisconsin football practices is easy to see.

The Badgers' second-year leader will stand near midfield and shift his focus around different position groups during individual periods, then lock in on a group drill pitting the offensive line, tight ends and backs against the defensive front seven. He most often is seen chatting with linebackers, the position group he coached the longest during his 15 years on the Ohio State sideline.

Exactly what he is looking for is a separate question whose answer goes beyond technique and individual efforts. He's trying to find the team's soul.

He didn't feel like he had a grasp on the 2023 team’s identity until midway through a difficult regular season.

“I thought I did, and then I thought as we performed, I didn't know who we really were,” Fickell said last month.

The Badgers wrapped their spring practices Thursday morning under cloudy skies on the grass field on the north edge of Camp Randall Stadium on a high note. Gavin Lahm ended the team's “kick scrimmage” with a field goal from 50 yards to win it for the red jerseys.

Fickell said he enters the summer phase of Wisconsin's offseason with a better understanding of both his team's makeup and how players handle themselves in tough situations.

“I feel much better about where we are just in leadership and a lot of different things like that,” Fickell said. “A lot more’s to be done and you find out a lot more obviously when September comes, but year two, I think just the nature of knowing the players, the guys, and how they’ve handled adversity and the things that you need to do to try to put them in those situations to see if we’re growing.

“I don’t know that anybody at the end of spring is not going to say they do (know their team), but I really do deep down inside just think the nature of what we’ve got inside that locker room is in a better place than we were last year. I thought we were in a good place last year, but there was a lot of unknowns. At least we’ve found out a lot of those unknowns with some of the adversities we went through this year and it’s going to pay off in the long run for us.”

Fickell named offseason captains when the team reported for winter conditioning, with veterans like linebacker Jake Chaney, running back Chez Mellusi, left tackle Jack Nelson and safety Hunter Wohler tabbed to take the lead in the weight room and workouts. Spring practices provided more time on the field and in meeting rooms for players to find their voices and their styles of encouraging others.

Some examples played out Thursday. The team’s 15th spring practice featured about an hour of a typical session with individual and group work followed by 11-on-11 situations. Players then were split into two teams for the kick scrimmage, which featured a series of punts, kickoffs and field goals. Starters and two-deep players once again are expected to make up the special teams units, but receivers Vinny Anthony and Will Pauling took a few more reps during the kick scrimmage than they were supposed to, per Fickell. While he chuckled at the controversy that caused between the two sides, Fickell said it also pointed to their competitiveness and desire to be on the field regardless of the situation.

“That's kind of what happens,” Fickell said. “Guys that love to play the game, guys that want to compete, you want to have to be that (situation) where you're trying to pull them off the field.”

Wisconsin is a faster team than it was a year ago, particularly in its defensive front, and Fickell believes the top offensive line has taken a big step forward together and played as consistently as any group on the team. Both of those improvements can shore up weaknesses that cost the Badgers last fall.

But the stuff Fickell sought out and tried to amplify this spring — playing with an edge, competitive fire, etc. — are foundations to where he aims to lead the program.

“We know that in order for us to be in a place to play for a championship and to get to that mindset of making a playoff,” he said, “this is what we have to do on a daily basis. We’ve got to push, we’ve got to play, we’ve got to have energy like this. And ultimately we’ve got to continue to raise the level of things that we do. I really feel good about where we are coming to the end of spring.”