Luke Fickell becoming victim of revisionist history by Notre Dame fans over Marcus Freeman

Notre Dame fans are trying to discredit Luke Fickell for his success with Cincinnati because of his slow start with the Wisconsin Badgers.

Cincinnati Bearcats defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman, left, stands next to head coach Luke Fickell during an injury timeout of a college football game against the Ohio State Buckeyes, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2019, at Ohio Stadium in Columbus | Kareem Elgazzar/The Enquirer via Imagn Content Services, LLC

Luke Fickell's success with the Cincinnati Bearcats made him one of the more coveted head coaching candidates for the Wisconsin Badgers and other Power Five programs to pursue.

After an underwhelming second year in Madison, fans of other teams are unfairly questioning his previous success.

The primary culprit seems to be Notre Dame fans, who want to give Marcus Freeman the credit for Fickell's success in Cincinnati

With time, it’s become more clear that Luke Fickell’s success at Cincinnati was due to an elite group of assistants who are basically all now at Notre Dame.

His Cincy staff that propped him up:

DC Marcus Freeman
QB Gino Guidugli
WR Mike Brown
DB Mike Mickens
STC Brian Mason

— College Football Watcher (@CFBWatcher) July 22, 2025

Freeman was Fickell's defensive coordinator for four seasons before jumping to Notre Dame and later becoming head coach.

During that span, the Bearcats consistently won double-digit games, including an undefeated regulars season that earned them a spot in the College Football Playoff.

Apparently, in the eyes of some Fighting Irish faithful, the assistant coaches were the real stars of the show.

Fick owes all his coaching success to Marcus Freeman, Sauce Gardner, and Desmond Ridder. With Des as QB1 he is 44-6, he is 32-32 throughout the of his head coaching career.

— daniel eager (@eager_daniel) July 23, 2025

Let’s not forget OC Mike Denbrock

— Marteen (@satxbardad) July 23, 2025

Correct. ND fans should thank their lucky stars that Swarbrick went with Freeman instead of waiting for Fickell

— College Football Watcher (@CFBWatcher) July 23, 2025

And a cake schedule that many teams could have walked through with great success. Look at it and it is obvious.

— Chris Davis (@cdavis20000) July 23, 2025

It's a fundamental misunderstanding of how a football team functions to think that players and assistant coaches could prop up a supposedly "bad" head coach all the way to an undefeated season, even in the AAC.

Who was the person that hired those coaches and recruited those players? Luke Fickell.

Freeman was not an established defensive mastermind when Fickell brought him to Cincinnati. He had been a linebackers coach at Kent State and Purdue following his short NFL career.

Fickell's Bearcats teams were also known for being built by lower-rated, under-recruited players who overachieved during their time in Cinncinati.

It wasn't as though he was bringing in five-star players and letting them carry him. And even if that was the case, that would be really valuable for a head coach to do for a program.

Fickell is the winningest coach in Cincinnati history. He deserves credit for developing a coach like Freeman that has gone on to have even more success.

A couple of slower seasons with the Badgers doesn't take any of that away, especially when he's had injured quarterbacks both years.

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