Wisconsin Football Unclear on Job Description of Badgers Coach

What exactly does Jack Bicknell Jr. do for the Wisconsin Badgers staff after being reassigned to his new role as Executive Director for Football Relations? Luke Fickell is still trying to figure it out. 

“I don’t know a whole lot,” Fickell told reporters. “It’s not much of a role right now. We’ll see as we move forward if there’s actually something that we can do that’s a little bit more beneficial as a whole, but from afar, sometimes that’s a little bit harder to do. Trying to figure it out.”

Fickell made the tough decision to move on from Bicknell, who followed offensive coordinator Phil Longo over from North Carolina after one season. An uneven performance from the offensive line led Wisconsin football to go another direction — hiring Vanderbilt’s AJ Blazek as his replacement.

“It had a lot to do with the energy and the, you know, the passion to just to be an offensive line coach,” Fickell told reporters. “I thought that was important.”

Since 1993, Bicknell has been an offensive line coach in the college and NFL ranks. Most recently, he’s worked at Ole Miss, Auburn, and Louisville before joining the Badgers. Despite not fulfilling that role on the coaching staff in 2024, it’s worth noting that Bicknell will still receive his full salary, which was reportedly $650,000 when he signed the two-year pact.

So, for anyone who thinks the Wisconsin football team needs to pony up more money to retain assistant coaches, I ask that you at least recognize the Badgers are essentially paying two people north of $600k to produce a satisfactory offensive line. That’s not exactly chump change, especially considering the uncertainty surrounding how Bicknell’s role will be utilized moving forward.