Wisconsin football coach Luke Fickell knows that the program needs to do a better job of recruiting within the state. During his recruiting cycle with the Badgers failed to successfully recruit any of the top five players in Wisconsin.
But one disappointing recruiting cycle won't stop Luke Fickell from aggressively trying to get the state's best high school players onto the Wisconsin football team.
“I think that’s, to me, the biggest thing is where maybe we didn’t do as good of a job in the state, in particular this year. What I’ve learned from other guys at other places, sometimes they bail then and say, ‘OK, well, our philosophy is going to be: Recruit the places and the areas we know,’” Fickell told the Athletic. “No. Our philosophy is going to be: Recruit our state first and foremost, our 350-mile radius next.
“Even if it is heartbreaking and disappointing in a year, it doesn’t change what we have to continue to do. We’ve got to build better relationships. We’ve got to get on guys earlier. We’ve got to ID them better. But we’ve got to continue to understand that there are good enough football players here that we’ve got to get. We’ve got to figure out the right ones and get them to give us a core nucleus.”
Wisconsin football has the 58th-best recruiting class for 2023, according to rankings by Rivals. The Badgers have no five-star recruits and trail Big Ten teams like Maryland (No. 48) and Northwestern (No. 45) in those rankings.
Fickell takes over for Paul Chryst after a 7-6 season by Wisconsin. It was the Badgers' worst record since 2008.
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