Luke Fickell is now the head coach in Madison and will be leading the Wisconsin Badgers football program starting in 2023. He has some work to do to get Wisconsin back to where it was only a few short years ago, contending for Big Ten championships on a regular basis. That's the angle we're going to take here, as we take stock of what Wisconsin has, where it's at and what can be done to improve things.

Here are three moves Luke Fickell needs to make to get Wisconsin football back on track to competing in the Big Ten.

3. NIL

First things first, you've got to modernize Wisconsin. The Varsity Collective is Wisconsin's largest, but it only launched in September. There is a whole lot of catching up to do in that department, and the quicker it's done, the closer the gap stays between the Badgers and other conference rivals such as Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State.

We've seen collectives pop up and explode over very short amounts of time, take for instance the nuclear arms race that occurred between Auburn and Ole Miss' largest collectives over the past few weeks, putting both over $10 million in NIL funding in the blink of an eye. Wisconsin's growth may not need to be so lightning fast, but it needs to be kicked into the highest gear they have.

If Luke Fickell can work with The Varsity Collective to get the right infrastructure in place and then provide him with the funding necessary to build a complete roster, Wisconsin could get good quick. If they can't grow fast enough, they risk being left behind as the Big Ten expands.

2. Portal

One thing Luke Fickell will need to use that NIL money for is the transfer portal. It no longer takes coaches three years to cycle out the previous regime's players and get their own roster in, because it can now be done in a single offseason. Fickell likely doesn't need to make that drastic of a change. The Paul Chryst regime brought in some good players, so there's already a good bit of groundwork done on the roster, but some key positions could use upgrading.

Fickell definitely is experienced in using the portal. His Cincinnati team brought in seven transfers last season, so he'll be able to use that expertise hopefully to good effect in Madison. He has the opportunity to build a winner from Day 1, and you'd have to think he should be able to do so if he can find the right guys.

1. Staff

This is potentially the hardest part of changing scenery as a coach. Obviously your staff at your previous stop all won't come with you, and there's some that, when making the Group of Five to Power Five jump, wouldn't make the grade anyways. It's a delicate balance, but there's definitely at least one move that can be made to score some easy PR and keep a good coach around for the future.

Keep Jim Leonhard. It's that simple really. He may not have kept the job he was interim for, but he's beloved by Wisconsin fans and is a good coach. He'll certainly leave to be a head coach somewhere fairly soon, but at the very least in this transitionary year, he should be able to help provide Luke Fickell with some help building a stable foundation for future successes.

With NIL support, a strong portal class and a good staff, Luke Fickell should have no problem winning loads of games at Wisconsin.