Wisconsin Football 2022- The Jim Leonhard Show ends, the Luke Fickell era begins

[Jim French Stepstool]

12 hours ago, DuWayne Steurer said:

I have to wonder who'll wear the headset for the bowl game. I can't imagine it'll be Engram. He's only been with the program for a year. Do they let Leonhard finish out the season? JL has to be out tossing his resume around I'd imagine, seeing where he might be able to land a HC/DC job in the next several days, and that's going to take a lot of his bowl prep time away, IMO. 

I thought I read somewhere that Cincy named an assistant to coach them in their bowl, so that means Fickell won't be there. A handful of years ago, there was a school (don't remember who) whose coach left before their bowl, they hired someone from outside the program & he was at their bowl game, not actually coaching but near the sidelines observing. I'd love to see Fickell do that. As to who coaches the team that day--I can't imagine it would be Leonhard but It's not out of the question. Maybe Bobby April?

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

18 hours ago, DuWayne Steurer said:

I have to wonder who'll wear the headset for the bowl game. I can't imagine it'll be Engram. He's only been with the program for a year. Do they let Leonhard finish out the season? JL has to be out tossing his resume around I'd imagine, seeing where he might be able to land a HC/DC job in the next several days, and that's going to take a lot of his bowl prep time away, IMO. 

In the past in this sort of situation (2012 and 2014) they turned to Alvarez. He's certainly getting up there at 75 years old now, but it wouldn't surprise me to see the codger dusted off as a figurehead of sorts for one interim game. 

[patrickgpe]

6 hours ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

 

I would love for Leonhard to stay. I would be absolutely shocked if he did.

unless its simply blind loyalty to the university, he is gone. If you get picked over as the top guy when you are the interim, you have to leave. Its the way things work in business and sports. I would imagine he won't be coaching the bowl game neither. 

[stoutdude04]

On 11/28/2022 at 1:39 AM, Jim French Stepstool said:

I thought I read somewhere that Cincy named an assistant to coach them in their bowl, so that means Fickell won't be there. A handful of years ago, there was a school (don't remember who) whose coach left before their bowl, they hired someone from outside the program & he was at their bowl game, not actually coaching but near the sidelines observing. I'd love to see Fickell do that. As to who coaches the team that day--I can't imagine it would be Leonhard but It's not out of the question. Maybe Bobby April?

I just read that Fickell is going to already be joining the team and doing some on field coaching at practice.  

[stoutdude04]

On 11/28/2022 at 8:09 AM, patrickgpe said:

unless its simply blind loyalty to the university, he is gone. If you get picked over as the top guy when you are the interim, you have to leave. Its the way things work in business and sports. I would imagine he won't be coaching the bowl game neither. 

I would imagine he is gone as well.  However, Fickell has apparently had conversations with Leonard about staying on.  Though, that could just be professionalism from JL.

[JosephC]

On 11/7/2022 at 5:27 PM, LouisEly said:

It's 2022.  If you don't think that the University of Wisconsin has policies and procedures that need to be followed to ensure that under-represented minorities have the opportunity to apply for positions...

Leonhard is their guy.  I can assure you of that.  But the athletic department needs to operate within the frameworks of the university.  And the WR decommitting has little to nothing to do with the head coaching situation (they just got a commit for the class of 2024 and will be getting another commit for 2023 today or tomorrow) and everything to do with being offered by Oregon and Texa$ A&M.

Bump

[adambr2]

https://badgernotes.com/football-articles/twitter-reacts-to-jim-leonhard-returning-as-wisconsin-badgers-dc/

Leonhard returning as DC.

[MadThinker88]

40 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

https://badgernotes.com/football-articles/twitter-reacts-to-jim-leonhard-returning-as-wisconsin-badgers-dc/

Leonhard returning as DC.

Sounds like when Luke Fickel took over for a season last second from Jim Tressel and then stayed on for a handful of years as DC at tOSU under Urban Meyer...

[nate82]

 

[HarryDoyle]

Looks like Wisconsin will play Oklahoma State in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl in Phoenix.

 

[yourout]

9 minutes ago, HarryDoyle said:

Looks like Wisconsin will play Oklahoma State in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl in Phoenix.

 

Not bad all things considered.

A nice way to start the new regime

[homer]

Mertz enters the portal. 

[yourout]

I guess I don't understand kids hitting the portal when they still have a chance to play in a bowl game and gain more exposure.

[RedStickBrew]

13 minutes ago, homer said:

Mertz enters the portal. 

Probably best for him.  He has arm talent, but needs work on accuracy and fundamentals.

Also saw that Luke Fickell has offered a coaching position to Jim Leonhard, but JL needs time to figure out his next move as I suspected was the case.

[SomewhereInTime]

Thank you sweet Jesus, it's a new day in Madison!  Could not be more thrilled with the Mertz news.  This program is on the way up

[SomewhereInTime]

19 minutes ago, yourout said:

I guess I don't understand kids hitting the portal when they still have a chance to play in a bowl game and gain more exposure.

One of the biggest issues with bowl games is they don't take place during the season.  It's complete nonsense to have a month or longer break between games.  If a coach moves to a new school they have to go now, you can't really wait, you've got to work on recruiting and getting your staff hired.  As a player when the transfer portal opens you need to enter immediately, if they wait too long there may not be as many opportunities available.

In today's world, the only postseason games that really matter are CFP games, we've seen the shift starting about 3 or 4 years ago, NFL prospects aren't waiting around even for major bowl games, neither are coaches on the way out, certainly not transfers.  That's also the biggest reason the playoff needs to expand as soon as possible.

[LouisEly]

2 hours ago, yourout said:

I guess I don't understand kids hitting the portal when they still have a chance to play in a bowl game and gain more exposure.

The portal opens up tomorrow for non-grad-transfers. If there are particular places that he wants to go (and don't kid yourself, there is major tampering going on and has been with all of UW's players since Chryst was fired so he may have a couple of destinations already in mind) he doesn't want that school to commit to another player while he goes and plays in a meaningless bowl game.  Better to ensure you get to go where you want to go.

This is likely going to mean a step back in QB play next year barring a transfer in.  Burkett going 4-5 against New Mexico State (and poorly underthrowing Engram on the one long pass) is nothing to get excited about.

[yourout]

2 hours ago, LouisEly said:

The portal opens up tomorrow for non-grad-transfers. If there are particular places that he wants to go (and don't kid yourself, there is major tampering going on and has been with all of UW's players since Chryst was fired so he may have a couple of destinations already in mind) he doesn't want that school to commit to another player while he goes and plays in a meaningless bowl game.  Better to ensure you get to go where you want to go.

This is likely going to mean a step back in QB play next year barring a transfer in.  Burkett going 4-5 against New Mexico State (and poorly underthrowing Engram on the one long pass) is nothing to get excited about.

Good points.

Lower level bowls are turning into spring training games for next year.

[bjkrautk]

6 hours ago, homer said:

Mertz enters the portal. 

He certainly has experience throwing the ball to other teams…

[JosephC]

Rivals posted a transfer portal ranking and Mertz is #29, 5th among quarterbacks.  Logan Brown is ranked #8, which is really surprising as he wasn't very impressive at all.  Brown is going to Kansas, maybe he'll prove to be Big 12 worthy.  Markus Allen is #95, he's going to Minnesota (ugh!).  Well, maybe nothing to worry about as Skyler Bell had no problem blowing past him on the Wisconsin depth chart.  Deacon Hill is #143.

Safety Titus Toler has now entered the transfer portal.

As far as high school recruits, they are onto a couple of defensive tackles, which is a big need after Roderick Pierce decommitted.  Outside of those guys, it is shockingly quiet on the high school front, although it's a pretty good bet that somewhere between 3 to 5 of the Cincinnati decommits come to Wisconsin. 

When counting incoming high schoolers, the Badgers only have 3 scholarship QBs on the roster (and one is Chase Wolf, who shouldn't even count).  So I could definitely see them going for a transfer QB hard to bring the number to 4, and they should be recruiting 2 QBs in the next cycle as well.  I'd still argue that one of Chryst's biggest mistakes was not recruiting a QB in the class after Mertz as Wolf was one of the QBs on the roster (and it was obvious he was not Big 10 material by then) and Danny Vanden Boom was also on the QB depth chart (also obvious he was not Big 10 material).   Only 5 RBs, and that includes Acker as a FB, so they likely need to go after 2 guys there.  After having 2 WR decommit, they are down to just 7 WRs which is a horrible number, and with Dike, Bell, Lewis and Engram all back, it would be better to go for high schoolers here (and it seems like there are none currently interested).  This has been a problem area and could continue to be so. 

Jon McNamara at Rivals has removed Herbig from his distribution chart.  Don't know if that is a mistake or if there is some unfortunate news coming.  Hopefully, if there was, maybe Leonhard's return will fix it.

[yourout]

12 hours ago, bjkrautk said:

He certainly has experience throwing the ball to other teams…

Well he's gotten two head coaches fired let's see if he can get the number three which would likely be an NCAA record.

[LouisEly]

It's been rumored that Herbig is going pro.  He was one of the players who came to Fickell's press conference; highly unlikely that he transfers anywhere, it's either pros or back to UW but likely the former.  Wolf walked with the seniors on Senior Day, so it is likely that he isn't back.

[LouisEly]

On 11/18/2022 at 4:35 PM, LouisEly said:

Malik Elzy (Chicago), Chance Fitzgerald, Dakota Patterson, and Trey Spivey are all high 3-star WRs who they've offered and have had contact with but haven't committed to anyone yet

Elzy has set an official visit with UW.  He had previously committed to and then decommitted from Cincinnati.

[Samurai Bucky]

1 hour ago, LouisEly said:

Elzy has set an official visit with UW.  He had previously committed to and then decommitted from Cincinnati.

Justin "JT" Taylor is also coming this weekend.  Tressel went to visit him on Friday.

 

 

[DR28]

On 12/3/2022 at 8:26 PM, adambr2 said:

https://badgernotes.com/football-articles/twitter-reacts-to-jim-leonhard-returning-as-wisconsin-badgers-dc/

Leonhard returning as DC.

I read this report wasnt accurate... Leonhard hasnt made decision if staying or not.