Badgers Hall of Famer calls on Luke Fickell to put more emphasis on recruiting in Wisconsin
The Wisconsin Badgers have a lot to fix this season during an abysmal losing streak that doesn’t have an end in sight.
But Luke Fickell also has some bigger picture issues to address for the long-term health of the football program.
Former players have been expressing concerns about this staff’s efforts toward recruiting in-state athletes, and Pro Football Hall of Famer Joe Thomas is the latest to lend his voice to the issue.
In an interview with WISC-TV in Madison, he urged Fickell and his staff to make Wisconsin high school players a larger priority.
“We need to put more energy and effort into recruiting the players within Wisconsin,” Thomas said. “They’re going to be the guys that talk about the values and the tradition that’s here, that build a culture in your locker room that was so much a part of Badger football past that’s just not a part of it right now.”
Thomas noted that when Barry Alvarez first took over the program, he said he was going to build a wall around Wisconsin and not let in-state football players go anywhere else.
The star left tackle thinks that was key toward building the culture that allowed him and others to out-play their recruiting status and thrive.
“Finding guys that maybe don’t look the same on film as guys that you could recruit in other states often times become your best players, your All-Americans, your Jim Leonhards, because the Badgers meant something to them,” Thomas said. “Guys that maybe weren’t great high school players are willing to work themselves into great players.”
