Luke Fickell knew what he was getting into when he took over as head coach of the Wisconsin Badgers.
But he didn’t realize how much he would fall in love with the city of Madison.
His time with the program has helped developed a greater appreciation for the place they call home and the advantages it provides for his players and coaches.
Fickell explained what makes Madison different during an interview with The Jim Rome Show last week.
“People assume they’re going to come to a midwestern town and it’s going to be the same as Madison, as Iowa City, as Lincoln, Nebraska, as all the different ones that they would assume are very similar,” he said. “Then you come to a place that’s the capitol city, obviously it’s in the midsts of the city, and yet the city is unique in the sense that it’s not so big. It’s really safe. It’s really clean. You happen to have two bodies of water that are right on both edges of campus. It provides everything.”
“Being through what he has been through, he’s a leader since the day he walked in the door.”@CoachFick on transfer QB Billy Edwards, Jr. @BadgerFootball pic.twitter.com/qzxeFEPi2H
— Jim Rome (@jimrome) June 10, 2025
Every city has its unique features, but Fickell is right to accentuate the lakes that create the isthmus that downtown Madison sits on and the vibrant community it contains.
He’s sees the area as a strong tool for recruiting players and retaining them, once they see how Madison stands out from the other schools they might visit.
“What I didn’t know walking in here was how great that was for our recruiting, for our program and for our guys, but also for our families,” Fickell told Jim Rome. “This is something a lot different than most college towns that are in the Big Ten and the SEC, and I think we’ve got to continue to build upon that. We can get guys here. They recognize how different the college experience can be.”
He thinks that even in the big business that college football has become, the time that players spend on campus away from football is still a key factor and something his staff can leverage as an advantage in recruiting.
Once players get to Madison and experience it for themselves, it makes it easier to attract even more recruits to join them.
No wonder it consistently ranks as one of the best college towns in the country.
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