Why Luke Fickell is keeping a close eye on Wisconsin football players

Jul 27, 2023 Updated 1 hr ago
INDIANAPOLIS — Luke Fickell wasn’t sounding any alarms, but he sees an area for improvement in his program when it comes to player discipline.
The University of Wisconsin football coach has had three players in legal matters this summer, though just two remain with the team.
Safety Kamo’i Latu, who transferred to UW last summer, settled a civil lawsuit stemming from a sexual assault allegation during his years in high school. Wide receiver Markus Allen was arrested at the Mifflin Street Block Party for possessing a firearm while intoxicated. He entered a pretrial deferment program then left the Badgers for the transfer portal. Linebacker Jordan Turner was arrested for operating a vehicle while intoxicated, which resulted in a suspension from athletic director Chris McIntosh, and cited for driving 117 mph on Interstate 39/90 in an attempt to make it to practice on time.
Fickell, speaking at Big Ten football media days on Thursday, said he’s continuing to evaluate how the program handles these matters.
“In your first year, you’re always trying to see, ‘OK, where are our shortcomings,’” Fickell said. “So when these things come up, obviously we’re gonna try to reassess and see what that is. Through the offseason, I know for me myself, we’ve got to do a better job of making sure we all understand the parameters, the things, the expectations (of the program).
“But it’s also a great reminder to everybody within the program that this stuff is very fragile and nothing is guaranteed to you if you don’t do things the right way. And that’s a hard lesson to learn, but that’s why we study history too, right? So we’re not condemned to repeat it.”
Turner was one of the team’s starting inside linebackers last season. Fickell said he will have to earn his roles again after his missteps, but there’s no additional punishment.
“Obviously, there's residual effects when you miss things,” Fickell said. “You gotta earn some respect and trust back and get back to where he was in terms of his position and things like that.”
Summer additions to be in mix immediately
Fickell and his staff added a pair of players after spring practices ended, and he sees both being options for substantial playing time this fall.
Atticus Bertrams, an Australian punter, joined UW in late May and is a contender to be the starter. He signed with Southern Cal in the 2022 recruiting class, but suffered a back injury that halted his move to the United States. He trained at Prokick Australia, a program from which Fickell has plucked punters from during his stint at Cincinnati.
“They’re gonna give us some opportunities,” Fickell said. “Nyzier’s going to create great competition for us, create that depth that we talked about of being able to play, on defense in particular, play 22 (players). And then Atticus is a guy that we got to see what he's got. He's going to be thrown right into the fire with an opportunity to go compete to be the starter on day one. He's a little bit older and mature guy.
“We’ve had (a punter) from the same school and these guys are mature beyond their years, but there's still some things about the game that they don't quite understand yet, so it’ll be interesting.”
UW ‘pretty clean’ injury-wise
The Badgers are set to open training camp at UW-Platteville on Wednesday, and Fickell’s expecting most of his roster to be available.
“I think and I hope that we're gonna be pretty clean as we get rolling,” Fickell said.
However, there are few key exceptions. Junior center Jake Renfro, the likely starter at the position, will have the volume of his workload monitored closely after his broken ankle this spring required surgery. Redshirt freshman wide receiver Chris Brooks will be limited to start camp after breaking his ankle in the spring, but Fickell said the hope is to be able to ramp him up at some point in August.
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Outside linebacker Aaron Witt — a Winona, Minn., native whose career has been derailed by injuries — isn’t expected to participate in camp.
“He's going to be there, he's going to continue to rehab,” Fickell said of Witt. “We've kind … said, ‘Let's don't rush things. This guy's got one opportunity on some things that … let's see how it goes.’ So I would imagine he's gonna be a longer-term guy that we're not going to push to try to get in there.”