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MADISON, Wis. — Luke Fickell sat in his office Thursday morning fully aware he had reached a point, seven months into his tenure as Wisconsin’s football coach, at which perception seemingly became disconnected from reality as it pertained to in-state recruiting.
One day earlier, Waunakee tight end Rob Booker called to inform Wisconsin’s coaches he was decommitting and flipping to UCLA. Four days earlier, Mukwonago offensive lineman Nathan Roy, the top-ranked player in the state, committed to rival Minnesota without putting Wisconsin in his top three.
Those decisions came on the heels of Waukesha Catholic Memorial offensive lineman Donovan Harbour, his running back teammate Corey Smith and Hartland Arrowhead offensive lineman Garrett Sexton all committing to Penn State. It meant that the top five players from Wisconsin are all committed elsewhere, something that hasn’t happened in the online recruiting rankings era and is an especially notable development given the importance placed on building a wall around the state over the years.
Per NCAA rules, Fickell can’t talk about specific recruits before they sign. But he had plenty to say in a wide-ranging interview with The Athletic about his staff’s approach to in-state recruiting, what could be done better and his assessment of where things stand with the 2024 recruiting class and beyond.
First, he wanted to make this clear: Just because recruiting in Wisconsin in his initial year didn’t yield the desired results doesn’t mean he and his staff are going to stop pursuing top talent.
“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 said. “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.”
That’s Fickell taking accountability for the frustration some Badgers fans feel. But context also matters.
As The Athletic previously reported, Wisconsin’s new coaching staff did not move forward with scholarship offers for Harbour and Smith because of how they fit in the program, though neither player would have been an easy recruiting win even if the Badgers had made an offer. Sexton was not a Plan A recruit because the staff wanted to see how the 6-foot-8, 245-pound junior filled out. Wisconsin eventually offered, and he picked Penn State two days later after he already had listed his finalists.
Booker acknowledged in an interview with The Athletic that part of his reason for moving away from Wisconsin was because the Badgers already had a talented tight end committed in the class in Grant Stec, who is one of the best at his position in the country. Booker said Wisconsin’s in-state recruiting efforts were “incredible.” Roy was the player from that group whom the Badgers coveted, but he was a West Coast kid who didn’t move to Wisconsin until right before his sophomore year and didn’t have the in-state ties other commits had. Roy chose a program in which he developed a better relationship with the offensive line coach, who extended a scholarship offer three months before Fickell and his staff even arrived.
Wisconsin has two in-state 2024 players committed with offensive tackle Derek Jensen and linebacker Landon Gauthier.
“There’s going to be 18 to 22 high school kids,” Fickell said of his recruiting classes. “So how many of them each year are going to be from the state? I think that it’s always going to be about finding the right ones. And within your state, the right ones are far more important than what Rivals ranks as the best ones. … The greatest thing we can do for ourselves and for the kids is to recruit the hell out of the right ones. You’ve got to understand — we can’t be completely sidetracked by what somebody else thinks.”
Fickell’s plan for in-state talent
Multiple in-state coaches have praised how hard Fickell and his staff have recruited area high schools and tried to develop relationships. Roy’s high school coach said they have “exceeded what was done previously.”
Fickell said he has tasked four of his assistant coaches with recruiting the state of Wisconsin, dividing their responsibilities by specific areas. All of the coaches recruit in the Madison area, and they have also made pushes into cities such as Milwaukee and Green Bay.
“What happens in recruiting a lot of times is you don’t want to show up at a place just when they have a player,” Fickell said. “You might do that outside of your primary areas. But for us, it’s being able to divide it up and to have four guys that are always going to be there no matter whether they’ve got a great player or not.”
Fickell told reporters in January before an alumni event in Milwaukee that he “probably didn’t get that exact mix” he initially mapped out to blend the new with the old because none of his 10 full-time assistants had ties to the state, as several coaches at Wisconsin did previously. Fickell was asked whether that made a difference in recruiting the state in his first full cycle.
“I think we’re trying to assess that,” he said. “I think it makes us a little bit slower because we’re learning. I think we’re developing relationships with the coaches. So by nature, we’re a little bit slower maybe to offer the guys because we don’t have the history. But that’s always been my history within our state.
“Those are the ones you can’t miss on. It’s pretty easy for a guy to go 1,000 miles away and then all of a sudden, nothing ever happens from them. Within the program, they don’t even bat an eye at it. The thing that’s happening in college football today, the kid goes 600, 700, 1,000 miles away, if he’s not what they want in the first year, year and a half, as you see, these rosters, they’re cutting, they’re getting rid of guys because it’s no sweat off their back anymore. Where a guy in-state, you’ve got a hell of a lot more invested in. You understand there’s a bet of development and you’re not going to lose them ever.”
Fickell doesn’t want to succumb to the notion that he should offer someone simply because they are from the state but said there are enough legitimately talented players in a given year to help Wisconsin win a championship. According to the 247Sports database, Fickell averaged 10 1/2 commitments from the state of Ohio per recruiting class at Cincinnati from 2017 to 2022. But that state also has far more FBS-level talent, which is spread around multiple in-state programs, unlike Wisconsin.
Fickell said he heard encouraging feedback from coaches and felt good about the relationships he and his staffers have developed. However, he also wondered whether coaches still have as much influence over their players when new factors are at play, like potential NIL deals.
“I don’t want college football to go toward the AAU basketball route,” Fickell said. “But I’m kind of curious as to how much the high school coach is going to continue to be not just involved but an influence on helping. It doesn’t mean you stop building the relationship with the high school coach.”
The 350-mile radius
Fickell noted when he was hired at Wisconsin that he would focus on a 300-mile radius in recruiting for “the core and the crux” of the program, just as he did with great success while at Cincinnati. He eventually extended that Badgers radius to within 350 miles of campus.
But this recruiting cycle has been eye-opening for Fickell. Of the 14 publicly committed prospects in Wisconsin’s 2024 class, only four fall into that 350-mile radius: Jensen, Gauthier, Stec and wide receiver Kyan Berry-Johnson.
Wisconsin has three committed prospects from Pennsylvania in a class for the first time since 2002 thanks to the recruiting efforts of safeties coach Colin Hitschler, a Philadelphia native. The Badgers also have commits from New York and New Jersey, with seven East Coast players who have taken official visits still on the board. Offensive line coach Jack Bicknell Jr., a New Jersey native with recruiting ties to the New England area, also has been instrumental.
“I was surprised to see as much of the interest and the connection to the East Coast,” Fickell said. “That was not the plan. Those guys have done a great job. So that’s the part I’m learning is where can we be strong? And then over time, are those guys really panning out? That’s where it takes a little bit of time to see that.”
Fickell said those results could require he and his staff to reconsider the ratio of players that extend beyond the radius, but he wants to be careful not to branch into areas that won’t be fruitful. Wisconsin has had success in Ohio, where Fickell and his staff have strong recruiting ties, as well as Florida and New Jersey.
“I think it’s going to have to be a balance,” Fickell said. “At Cincinnati, we’d say we wanted 75 percent of our kids from the 300-mile radius. We may have to adjust a little bit of that. It may be more like 50-50. I think the thing that I didn’t realize was how powerful the logo, the brand is.”
Pleased with class
For as much as recent discussions about Wisconsin’s recruiting efforts have focused on what hasn’t happened, Fickell feels confident in what has happened. The Badgers are in the process of putting together a class that addresses most, if not all, of Fickell’s positional areas of need.
Wisconsin has one in-state offensive line commit but three from outside the state, including four-star offensive tackle Kevin Heywood from Pennsylvania. The Badgers have added a top tight end with Stec and quarterback with Mabrey Mettauer. They have changed the way they build their defensive backs with longer players.
Fickell said he doesn’t want to look at recruiting rankings but acknowledges that if someone is keeping score, he wants to win. Although the staff creates its own evaluations, Wisconsin has a top-20 recruiting class at this stage, with the potential to be even better.
Fickell said the positions most important to shore up were running back and defensive line. Wisconsin has a commitment from three-star running back Gideon Ituka, but the Badgers also appear to be in excellent positions for four-star running backs Darrion Dupree and Dilin Jones. Several defensive linemen remain on the board. Four-star cornerback Omillio Agard and three-star edge Anelu Lafaele are strongly considering Wisconsin as well.
“Whether we think we didn’t get some of the in-state guys, we’re in a really good position,” Fickell said. “I tend to dwell upon the ones you don’t get. But you’ve got four offensive linemen and some really good ones still out there that would be icing on the cake. You’ve got the tight end. But all the other positions, you hit where you want.”
On official visits
Where Fickell measures progress most is with how Wisconsin performs on official visits. So far, the success rate has been outstanding. Seven players who were uncommitted on their official visits are currently committed to Wisconsin. Fifteen players who took official visits remain uncommitted, including Dupree, Jones, Agard and Lafaele. Three players have taken official visits and committed elsewhere.
“Those are the ones that you’re like, ‘OK, we didn’t do a good enough job, and why did we not do a good enough job?’” Fickell said. “We’ve got to make sure that we are hitting at a very high rate of official visits. Because that’s where you’re saying, obviously, you wanted this guy enough to get his whole family here. You’ve got to do a better job at closing and sealing the deal.”
One area Fickell continues to monitor is when it’s best to set up an official visit for a prospect. Wisconsin had 17 players on campus the first week of official visits in June and just four players for the third week.
Fickell wondered whether it would be wise for some prospects to take their official visits to Wisconsin later in the month. He said some players might be caught up in Wisconsin early and commit before re-evaluating after seeing more schools. Cornerback Vernon Woodward, for example, committed to Wisconsin and flipped to Illinois after a visit there.
“If a kid’s committed and he’s going to visit other places, we don’t really consider him committed,” Fickell said. “As a program, you know when there are times you’ve got to kind of move on.”
It’s all part of the feeling-out process for Fickell and his staff in establishing what he expects to be a successful recruiting model at Wisconsin.
