Badgers hold first spring practice under Luke Fickell

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - The Wisconsin Badgers held their first spring football practice in the Luke Fickell era on a day that felt less like spring, and more like winter.

Fickell compared the first practice to feeling like “Christmas morning,” and the foot of snow that Madison received on Saturday echoed Fickell’s thought.

The plan was for practice to be held outside, Fickell said he began checking the weather report 10 days ago and said it initially predicted that Saturday would be 51 degrees and sunny. “And then all of a sudden this little snowflake popped up there about a day or two ago,” Fickell said.

It became clear just a few minutes into practice how fast-paced the team moved from drill to drill. Fickell said they spent some time in the offseason going over how they would move through practice, and modifying things so come spring ball the team would be efficient with their time.

UW finished their first practice in 2 hours and 11 minutes, with 2 hours and 15 minutes being the standard Fickell has set for spring practice. Moving quick between snaps and drills is intentional, because it serves as the team’s conditioning.

“Your coach isn’t laid back,” Fickell said. “There’s not going to be anything within the program that is very laid back and kind of chill. It’s just the nature of what we want to continue to create in the way we train, the way we practice and the way we play.”

Below is an updated list of Badgers who are either out for spring or are expected to be very limited during spring practice due to injuries:

Clay Cundiff

Cole Dakovich

Ross Gengler

Bryson Green

Mike Jarvis

Cole LaCrue

Cam Large

Luna Larson

Max Lofy

Sean Timmis

Darian Varner

Aidan Vaughn

Aaron Witt

The Badgers will open up spring practice to the public on Saturday, April 22 for ‘The Launch.’

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