What we learned about Wisconsin football from Luke Fickell on the Jim Rome Show
Luke Fickell joined the Jim Rome Show and laid out some of the major changes that Wisconsin football has made ahead of the 2025 season.
If you want to know where the University of Wisconsin football program stands today, don’t look at any preseason polls. Don’t look at returning production or projected Las Vegas win totals. Look at the questions head coach Luke Fickell is asking—and the answers he’s finding.
Because there’s a shift happening in Madison, and it’s not loud. It’s not flashy. But it’s deliberate. Calculated. And if you were listening closely to Fickell’s recent sit-down with Jim Rome, it’s become abundantly clear what the foundation of Year 3 for the Badgers is really about.
This is a program that’s not just trying to catch up—it’s trying to grow up. Build an older roster. Get tougher in the trenches. And close the talent gap that way.
“We still got a ways to go,” Fickell said. “I think one of the big things we look at in our program is—the last two years we’ve played with 70% of our guys in their first two years. And as we see college football, and the Big Ten in particular, you’re seeing so many more teams be older.
"I mean, 70% or so of the guys playing in this league are in their fourth and fifth year,” he continued. “And we recognize how much older teams are getting, which is why the teams are so much better. We’ve got to continue to get older."
That’s not coachspeak. That’s honesty. That’s a head coach zooming out and recognizing the clear reality of where the sport is headed. Because in today’s game, youth doesn’t win. Depth doesn’t develop on a hope and a handshake anymore. And your margin for error isn’t shaped by potential—it’s defined by experience and proof that you can produce on the field.
That’s why Fickell’s staff brought in 16 new faces from the transfer portal in January—mostly fourth- and fifth-year guys with size and experience. Especially on the defensive line, where they knew they had to get bigger, older, and far more equipped to handle football in the Big Ten.
And that might be the real theme here: everything Wisconsin’s doing right now is about building a tougher, older, more sustainable team. Fickell’s not tearing it all down—but he is reshaping the foundation.
That includes a much-needed change in the Badgers offensive identity.
Enter Jeff Grimes. Not as a throwback to old-school Wisconsin football but as a modern blueprint to restore balance, with physicality still front and center.
“It was something that we really had to kind of do here, and for a lot of different reasons. You know, we need to be about the offensive line. We need to be about having balance—throwing and running," Fickell said. “I didn’t say we need to be the old school Wisconsin, but we needed to get back to the physicality of making sure the guys up front [are the priority].
“It doesn’t mean that being in an air raid system you can’t do that, but I think the air raid systems or some of those spread systems that are all predicated on the quarterback—I would tell you that it’s really, really difficult in those systems to outperform average quarterback play. And I want to be in a system that's more like an NFL system, where the quarterback is still the most important thing in what you do offensively, but you understand that there’s more to it than just the QB.
"If the quarterback is having a tougher day—he was 12-for-28—but still won 24 to 17 because they have balance," Fickell continued. "Because they can rely upon not just the run game, the big guys up front, but also some play-action stuff that can take some of the pressure off of just the quarterback. And that balance is what Jeff Grimes brings. And I think it’ll be what is a big, big difference maker for us.”
And that’s the crux of it.
Wisconsin football, in 2025, is no longer trying to out scheme you with tempo or finesse. They're not talented enough to do that. It’s trying to outlast you. With an offense built on balance. A system built to withstand a bad day from your quarterback and still find a way to win.
That’s what Grimes brings. That’s the new (old) Wisconsin DNA.
And while we’re on quarterbacks, let’s talk Maryland transfer Billy Edwards Jr.
After watching Tyler Van Dyke and Braedyn Locke battle it out for the QB1 spot during spring and into fall camp, Fickell and his staff are approaching things differently this year. The Badgers aren’t entering the summer with a quarterback competition. There’s no debate this time.
“This year, walking in the door, it was like, ‘Hey Billy, you’re our guy,’” Fickell explained. “‘Start your leadership right now. You’ve got to embrace everybody. They’ve got to follow you.’”
That clarity matters. Not just for confidence, but for chemistry. For two straight years, Wisconsin’s starting quarterback hasn’t been able to keep a clean bill of health. In 2023, it was Tanner Mordecai (broken hand). In 2024, it was Van Dyke (torn ACL)—gone after Week 4.
That forced the Badgers to turn to Locke—a backup who, at that point, was exactly that. The guys behind him weren’t ready, and the offense was handcuffed because of it. But this time, it’s built differently.
“Well, I feel great about Billy," Fickell said. "I think Billy walking in here, playing in this league, but also being through what he has been through—he’s a leader since the day he walked in the door. He’s done a phenomenal job of that—and then building some guys behind it. If you look at us the last two years, our starting quarterback has missed the majority of the season.
“In year one with Tanner, he missed six games. Last year, we lost our quarterback in game three, and that room has been very, very thin for us. Moving forward, we feel really good—not just about Billy, but some other depth within that room that aren’t just rookie freshmen.”
There’s a subtle shift in tone. Less scrambling. More direction. They’ve committed to building Grimes' offensive system around a veteran transfer with Big Ten experience, and they’ve got more options developing behind him—this time under a full-time quarterbacks coach in Kenny Guiton. It’s not all solved, but there’s a much clearer path forward.
That’s what this whole conversation with Rome revealed: a program growing into itself. One that knows who it is, what it values, and how it plans to compete in this new era of college football. It took a failed experiment with Phil Longo to get here, and the jury’s still out on Mike Tressel. But entering Year 3, it finally feels like they’re ready to take ownership—because for the first time, Fickell seems to know what he wants this Wisconsin Badgers team to be now and hopefully in the future.
Even when it comes to navigating the transfer portal or managing college players, Fickell doesn’t sound like a coach frustrated by the system. He sounds like a coach who’s embraced it without letting it change who he is. That’s all you can do.
“If you build a relationship and guys understand you’re honest with them… I don’t feel like guys are different,” he said. “The guys that you want to be a part of your program—those guys want tough. They want hard. They want to be coached. They want to have a demand on them.”
That matters. Because the DNA of this program is still about effort. Still about toughness. Still about embracing hard. But that’s not all Wisconsin is anymore. It’s also about location. Culture. Identity.
“You bring a guy from the East Coast or the West Coast,” Fickell said, “and then you come to a place that’s the capital city [Madison]… it’s safe, it’s clean, there’s water on both sides of campus, and there’s still a real college experience here.”
That’s not just a recruiting pitch. That’s the full picture of what they’re selling.
Because when you put it all together—an older roster, a more balanced offensive system, improved quarterback play, and a clearer cultural identity—you start to see the outlines of a program that’s trying to build something sustainable. Not just scrape together a few more wins. And that foundation matters in a Big Ten that’s only getting deeper and more competitive. Right now, there are cracks that need to be fixed in a hurry to right the ship.
Let's call a spade a spade: Fickell wasn’t brought to Madison to go .500. He was hired to help Wisconsin compete for championships, and right now, he’s 12–13 through two seasons. With a brutal schedule ahead and minimal on-field progress to hang your hat on, the seat isn’t hot just yet—but if this year doesn’t bring change, Year 4 could feel a lot different.
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