Michael Cohen
College Football and College Basketball Writer
As Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell reflected on the mixed results from his debut season — a campaign that included the most losses by any first-year Wisconsin coach (six) since 1990, an offense that averaged its fewest points per game (23.5) since 2004 and a defense that ended with its lowest national ranking (39th) in nearly two decades — the area he was most eager to address entering Year 2 was leadership.
From Jan. 1 onward, according to Fickell, the Badgers made it their priority “to attack every aspect of the leadership within our program,” beginning with Fickell himself and trickling down to assistant coaches, staffers and players as the culture in Madison continues to evolve amid a new regime.
“Another one of those things that’s going to be put to the test,” Fickell said at Big Ten Media Days earlier this summer. “I know this: It starts with me. Obviously, the leadership starts right there. But it also permeates throughout our entire program.”
The resilience that Fickell saw as his players clawed their way out of a three-game losing streak late last season to earn a berth in the ReliaQuest Bowl laid the foundation for an offseason rooted in personal accountability. Wisconsin returned 10 starters from the 2023 squad that finished 7-6 overall (5-4 in the Big Ten) and fortified the roster with a transfer class and high school recruiting class that were both ranked 23rd nationally by 247Sports. It means that expectations for the current season, which began with labored victories over Western Michigan and South Dakota, are significantly higher for a program whose previous head coach, Paul Chryst, was fired despite averaging 9.7 wins per year outside the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign. And Saturday’s non-conference, headline-grabbing showdown against No. 4 Alabama (12 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports App) will offer the sternest test yet of the Badgers’ perceived improvements in leadership as Wisconsin seeks its first win over a top-five opponent since upending No. 5 LSU at Lambeau Field in 2016.
“This is a great opportunity,” Fickell said in a news conference earlier this week. “And I think our guys are extremely excited. As we went into fall camp, these were the things that were in front of us, and we knew that. This is kind of the start — not that the first two games weren’t the start of the season — but we knew this was going to be the opportunity and the point in time when we really, really get to see where we are and who we are. So that challenge is in front of us, and I think we’re really excited about it.”
Central in that assessment will be the performance of quarterback Tyler Van Dyke, a 6-foot-4, 225-pound transfer from Miami whose two-game introduction to the Wisconsin faithful has largely mirrored the inconsistency he displayed across three seasons as the Hurricanes’ starter. Van Dyke completed 21 of 36 passes (58.3%) for 192 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions during a 28-14 win over Western Michigan in which his accuracy left plenty to be desired. And last Saturday against South Dakota, whom the Badgers defeated 27-13, Van Dyke completed 17 of 27 passes (63%) for 214 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
Prior to his arrival in Madison, Van Dyke was a four-star prospect from Glastonbury, Connecticut, who held scholarship offers from the likes of Boston College, Duke, Kentucky, Michigan, Oklahoma State, Vanderbilt and Wisconsin, among others. He signed with Miami and reached the top of the Hurricanes’ depth chart as a redshirt freshman in 2021, completing 62.3% of his passes for 2,931 yards with 25 touchdowns and six interceptions, leading the team to an overall record of 7-5 and a 5-3 mark in the ACC. But never again would Van Dyke reach that kind of productivity and ball security in the coming seasons, and he ultimately entered the transfer portal last November after tossing a career-high 12 interceptions in 2023 that cost him a spot on the field.
Still, the struggles Van Dyke endured were among the factors that, perhaps somewhat conversely, made him so appealing to Fickell and offensive coordinator Phil Longo, both of whom wanted to introduce another veteran quarterback into the competition after last year’s starter, former SMU transfer Tanner Mordecai, exhausted his eligibility. Together they believed Van Dyke had already shown an ability to perform well against high-level competition at earlier points in his career — such as Miami’s victory over then-No. 18 NC State on Oct. 23, 2021, when Van Dyke completed 25 of 33 passes (75.8%) for 325 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions — and they genuinely appreciated the way he spoke about subsequent dips in production and playing time alike during recruiting conversations last fall.
“I think the greatest thing is Tyler has walked in and embraced everything with our program,” Fickell said. “[He] understood what he was walking into year one, the ups and the downs, the things that we needed from him. He’s got a humility behind himself when he walked in the door that he was willing and understood that he was going to have to earn everything.
“For me, if you said, ‘What’s the greatest thing that you liked when you were identifying Tyler Van Dyke?’ I would say all the adversity that he had been through. The ability for him to handle three different coordinators, the ability for him to go from the East Coast down to South Florida, win a starting position, have the ups and the downs, and be able to continue to stand tall and have the confidence to continue to play — and to play at the level which he expects to play. He’s done a phenomenal job, and I expect him to continue to grow in his leadership role.”
Though Van Dyke is often described as having a relatively soft-spoken demeanor, teammates said he began earning their trust with the way he carried himself during the offseason. Van Dyke took Wisconsin’s offensive linemen out for pizza and made sure to pick up the check. “We loaded up,” starting left tackle Jack Nelson joked at Big Ten Media Days. The relationship building continued over games of poker and bonfires on warm summer nights. Most impressive to Wisconsin’s veteran linemen was how open Van Dyke seemed to feedback and his desire to do whatever is necessary for the betterment of the offense.
That type of disposition blended perfectly with what safety Hunter Wohler, the team’s leading tackler in 2023, described as the Badgers’ effort to continue “pushing the standard and holding guys accountable,” two messages that came directly from the head coach. Fickell has encouraged players to speak their minds in practices and meetings, to confront each other when there are issues to be addressed, to take ownership of the product they want to put on the field each week – all things Wisconsin must harness on Saturday morning when Van Dyke leads his new team into Camp Randall Stadium against mighty Alabama.
“He’s confident in a good way,” Wohler said. “I love that about him because you can just tell he has a swagger to him that is noticeable. So I love the way he plays. He plays with a tenacity and a confidence that if he gets the ball in his hands, he can make something happen. That’s what I thought right when he got on campus, and I still think that. Every time he touches the ball, he’s ready to make a play.”
Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him at @Michael_Cohen13.
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