I have never had more fun on Twitter than I have so far in the Luke Fickell Era of Badger Football.

My typical day logging on to www.twitter.com:

Always a 5-alarm dumpster fire. An entertaining dumpster fire, but a dumpster fire nonetheless.

But lately? I can’t WAIT to get on Twitter to see how many more 4 and 5 star recruits Luke Fickell has lured to Madison with cheese curds and cash prizes. It’s been BANANAS. I follow all of the Badger Beat, but I mostly see Evan Flood’s tweets about Badger football and basketball. I don’t think this guy has slept since Fickell got hired. It’s almost every hour on the hour a new recruit commits to Wisconsin. Yesterday they got ANOTHER 4-star QB from the portal:

Now I realize that it didn’t work out in practice, but remember how amped up we were in theory when Graham Mertz committed? ‘A 4- star QB recruit?? At Wisconsin??? Praise Jesus!’ We couldn’t believe we were getting a player so highly touted, let alone a quarterback.

Well in about a month, Luke Fickell added a 4-star QB transfer from Oklahoma in Nick Evers. He added arguably the #1 QB in the transfer portal in Tanner Mordecai. He signed a 4-star QB recruit for 2024 in Mabry Mettauer. And yesterday he added the 4-star transfer from Mississippi State in Braedyn Locke. In the words of Liz Lemon: What the WHAT.

In addition to all of that, the Badgers also locked down 5-star kicking transfer, Nathanial Vakos, and a WR transfer from Cincinnati, Will Pauling. The Badgers have also been heavily linked to 4-star WR tranfer, CJ Williams, from USC.

Is this how other major programs have been living for the past 5 years?? Because let me tell you, it is AWESOME. It’s a new treat every day. Sometimes multiple treats.

Now in the immediate aftermath of what happened to Jim Leonhard, I really felt for him. And still do to some extent. I don’t think there’s a Badger fan out there who doesn’t wish Jim the absolute best wherever it is that he lands. But we can all agree at this point that Chris McIntosh made the 1,000% correct call, right? We all love Jim Leonhard, but I can’t imagine ANY of this happening if they would have gone that direction. I realize you don’t win championships on paper, but it feels like the program has already taken 1 (or 2)(or 3) big step(s) forward in Fickell’s short time with the program. I can’t remember the last time I was geeked for the beginning of the Badger football season on January 11th.

Speaking of, has everyone looked at their schedule for next season?

I see 10-2 minimum, 11-1 a real possibility, and the 1 would be against Ohio State which is a home game. Fully comprehending that it’s not even the middle of January, I think if you booked a hotel in Indy for the Big Ten Title game on December 2nd, it’s going to be Badgers/Michigan or Badgers/Ohio State.

PS: I was talking about this on the air this morning and got a text that said, ‘don’t get too excited, Jon. Remember the Packers were supposed to be good this year too.’ Fair enough. But here’s the thing about me, the Packers are in the rear view mirror and I’m already on to setting myself up for my next heartbreak. That’s the beauty of sports. Your next hope and inevitable heartbreak are right down the road. New year, same me.