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Luke Fickell responds to PJ Fleck’s claims of negative recruiting

Cole Thompson

By Cole Thompson

Published:

New Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell is defending himself and his stance on recruiting in response to Minnesota coach PJ Fleck’s comments.

Earlier during Wednesday’s Early Signing Period, Fleck stated that Fickell and the Badgers tried to negatively recruit and flip Martin Owusu away from his pledge to the Gophers. A 3-star prospect out of Prior Lake, the Badgers offered Owusu on Dec. 20 despite being committed to Minnesota since June.

In terms of “negatively recruit,” the phrase comes from badmouthing another program in hopes of landing a talent. Fickell told reporters later Wednesday afternoon that he would never try to persuade a player from leaving their current commitment by rattling off less-than-ideal comments about the state of a program.

“I know nothing out it and I won’t negatively recruit,” Fickell said, according to 247Sports. “I’m not saying that somebody didn’t call. I know we may have reached out to somebody, but I wouldn’t think we would have said anything negative about a guy going anywhere.”

Minnesota and Wisconsin have a long-standing rivalry for the Battle for Paul Bunyan’s Axe at the end of each season. Prior to Fickell’s arrival, the Badgers lost back-to-back matchups against the Golden Gophers for the 1st time since 1993-94. All time, the series is tied 62-62-8.

Fickell, who was hired to replace Paul Chryst after 6 seasons at Cincinnati, said his top priority is to sell recruits on the future of Badgers football, not bash another program for recruiting similar players.

“We have enough good things to say about the program here and what we want to do and where we’re headed to worry about saying anything negative about anyone else,” Fickell said.

Cole Thompson

Cole Thompson is a freelance writer for Saturday Tradition who has covered college football and the NFL for multiple websites. Thompson is currently based in Houston, Texas, and also can be heard daily on SportsMap National Radio's 'Just Sayin It' from 3am-6am.