Dillon Graff is far and away the most inciteful person out there commenting on Badger football. Anyway, since last year, I've become convinced that Fickell simply cannot successfully coach Big Ten football. He had a losing record at Ohio State for heaven's sake. Place him in a conference with a lot of easy marks and he's fine. Of immediate concern, however, if they don't handily beat Maryland at home next week while showing tremendous improvement on both sides of the ball (particularly in that horrible offensive line), we're staring at a not too pleasant remainder of the season.
All my Fickell supporters kept saying “wait till he gets his guys here.” Well these are his guys now and what we see on the field is not encouraging. We ripped Chryst for recruiting but I think he brought in better players than we’re getting now, including many now playing on Sunday.
I think in theory your point is fair. It’s always easier to look back at Paul Chryst’s tenure with the benefit of hindsight and point to all the success stories that came through development, recruiting, and ultimately ended up playing on Sundays. That’s the luxury of a full body of work across several classes. He also had some decent talent already on hand when he took over. Not saying the cupboards were empty for Luke Fickell, but the talent level clearly wasn’t anything to write home about.
With Fickell, we’re still early enough in his tenure that we haven’t seen a complete class recruited, retained, and developed all the way through. If things keep trending the way they are, maybe we won’t, who knows. But it’s also worth noting that the landscape has changed dramatically since Chryst’s peak years. The transfer portal has become the chaotic version we see now, NIL has evolved rapidly, and it’s harder than ever to not just recruit, but retain and develop guys once you get them. If a player is good enough, you might not even hold onto them long enough to send them to the league yourself.
None of this is to give Fickell a pass because you have to adapt, and you have to find solutions in the current climate. But the reality is that not all things are equal anymore, and right now, there hasn’t been much to suggest that this program is headed in the right direction under his watch.
You all are enamored of Grimes and his system but you don’t hold him responsible at all the way you do with Fickell and the absolute hatred targeted at Longo. Yet this OL coach with the “everything starts with running the football” is literally the major failure through three games. You think Amari Lattimer wants to get chewed up and spit out in this system? I’m still all in on Grimes (and Fickell) but it’s going to take a year. Let these young OL get pounded and they’re going to come back better, stronger and meaner next year. Then we will run downhill. But for now we have to watch Fickell’s first recruiting class get schooled.
With Jeff Grimes, I’m willing to give him a pass right now, and that has everything to do with the fact that he’s working with a backup quarterback and a patchwork o-line. With this young and constantly shuffled group up front, I don’t think we’re seeing the full scope of what his offense is capable of. That said, I’ve been impressed with his ability to scheme up yardage in certain spots, and at least I feel like I can see the vision. I never really felt that way with Phil Longo, and that’s why I’m more inclined to give Grimes some grace.
Obviously, nobody’s pretending he’s got it all figured out. I gave this unit a D- in my report card, and that’s the group he’s directly responsible for, so the criticism is on record. But I agree with you, the offensive line is the glaring issue right now. If these guys get battle-tested this season against a brutal schedule, the hope is they come back next year better, stronger, and more experienced.
Dillon Graff is far and away the most inciteful person out there commenting on Badger football. Anyway, since last year, I've become convinced that Fickell simply cannot successfully coach Big Ten football. He had a losing record at Ohio State for heaven's sake. Place him in a conference with a lot of easy marks and he's fine. Of immediate concern, however, if they don't handily beat Maryland at home next week while showing tremendous improvement on both sides of the ball (particularly in that horrible offensive line), we're staring at a not too pleasant remainder of the season.
All my Fickell supporters kept saying “wait till he gets his guys here.” Well these are his guys now and what we see on the field is not encouraging. We ripped Chryst for recruiting but I think he brought in better players than we’re getting now, including many now playing on Sunday.
I think in theory your point is fair. It’s always easier to look back at Paul Chryst’s tenure with the benefit of hindsight and point to all the success stories that came through development, recruiting, and ultimately ended up playing on Sundays. That’s the luxury of a full body of work across several classes. He also had some decent talent already on hand when he took over. Not saying the cupboards were empty for Luke Fickell, but the talent level clearly wasn’t anything to write home about.
With Fickell, we’re still early enough in his tenure that we haven’t seen a complete class recruited, retained, and developed all the way through. If things keep trending the way they are, maybe we won’t, who knows. But it’s also worth noting that the landscape has changed dramatically since Chryst’s peak years. The transfer portal has become the chaotic version we see now, NIL has evolved rapidly, and it’s harder than ever to not just recruit, but retain and develop guys once you get them. If a player is good enough, you might not even hold onto them long enough to send them to the league yourself.
None of this is to give Fickell a pass because you have to adapt, and you have to find solutions in the current climate. But the reality is that not all things are equal anymore, and right now, there hasn’t been much to suggest that this program is headed in the right direction under his watch.
You all are enamored of Grimes and his system but you don’t hold him responsible at all the way you do with Fickell and the absolute hatred targeted at Longo. Yet this OL coach with the “everything starts with running the football” is literally the major failure through three games. You think Amari Lattimer wants to get chewed up and spit out in this system? I’m still all in on Grimes (and Fickell) but it’s going to take a year. Let these young OL get pounded and they’re going to come back better, stronger and meaner next year. Then we will run downhill. But for now we have to watch Fickell’s first recruiting class get schooled.
With Jeff Grimes, I’m willing to give him a pass right now, and that has everything to do with the fact that he’s working with a backup quarterback and a patchwork o-line. With this young and constantly shuffled group up front, I don’t think we’re seeing the full scope of what his offense is capable of. That said, I’ve been impressed with his ability to scheme up yardage in certain spots, and at least I feel like I can see the vision. I never really felt that way with Phil Longo, and that’s why I’m more inclined to give Grimes some grace.
Obviously, nobody’s pretending he’s got it all figured out. I gave this unit a D- in my report card, and that’s the group he’s directly responsible for, so the criticism is on record. But I agree with you, the offensive line is the glaring issue right now. If these guys get battle-tested this season against a brutal schedule, the hope is they come back next year better, stronger, and more experienced.
That’s where growth has to show up.