Luke Fickell insists ‘no handouts’ on the Wisconsin football travel roster
If the travel roster is any indication, the 2024 recruiting class is coming along quite nicely in their first season at Wisconsin.
Wisconsin Badgers head coach Luke Fickell has better things to do with his time than to memorize the football team's travel roster, but it's also not lost on him how many true freshmen are coming with them on road trips.
With the Big Ten limiting the size of travel rosters to 74 players, some Badgers inevitably have to stay back on campus when Wisconsin faces an opponent on the road. As it stands, the official roster on the team's website lists 119 total players, though that number drops to 118 with Chez Mellusi stepping away from the program as he recovers from injuries.
Given the restricted number of spots available for road games, it’s created a competitive environment among those vying for a place on the travel roster, and anyone who gets the chance to travel has undoubtedly earned it.
“There’s no handouts, let's just be honest,” coach Fickell told reporters. “You have to have a role. ... Look, there's a [74] limit on the roster, and if we took 72, I'd be fine if that's what deserved to go.
"I was in a different league [the AAC], and we didn't have a travel limit. That didn't mean we took everybody, but anybody that deserved and earned an opportunity and could play in the game we would take."
With those spots on the travel roster at a premium, it's notable how quickly Wisconsin's 2024 recruiting class is making headway. Of the 22 scholarship players Fickell and his staff signed in that cycle—ranked No. 23 by the 247Sports composite—12 have already earned a spot on the Badgers travel roster for at least one game this season.
That's a substantial contingent of Badgers freshmen who have either earned roles from the jump or have put themselves in a spot to be the next man up in their respective position groups—which is no small feat when you take a step back.