Previewing Luke Fickell's Wisconsin Defense (The Origins of Cincinnati's 3-3-5 Defense)

Twitter: @tcpfootball

Additional Resources:
Luke Fickell ($): Defensive Identity and Evolution: https://coachtube.com/course/football...
Marcus Freeman (via Chris Vasseur's podcast "Make Defense Great Again"):   / s03-e03-marcus-freeman  
Pat Narduzzi ($): Press Quarters vs. the Pass: https://amzn.to/43v2NFA
Patt Narduzzi($) : Press Quarters vs. the Run: https://amzn.to/3ME2lhv

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Video Contents
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00:00 Introduction
01:55 Fickell's Early History
04:20 Origins of Mark Dantonio's Defense
13:35 Nick Saban's Influence on Dantonio
20:54 Fickell's Struggles vs. the Spread
24:31 Switching to Press Quarters (Cover-4)
32:15 Problems at Cincinnati
35:56 Cincinnati's 3-3-5 (Dollar Package)
44:38 What will Wisconsin do in 2023?

In this video, we'll see how Luke Fickell, the new Head Coach of the Wisconsin Badgers football team, developed his Dollar Package/3-3-5 defense during his time with the Cincinnati Bearcats. We'll see how Fickell came up as a young coordinator in the Ohio 4-3 defensive school, which was Mark Dantonio's take on what he'd run with Nick Saban at Michigan State in the late 90's. We'll see how Fickell adapted that defense over time, switching from a matchup/pattern-matching Cover-3 philosophy to a Press Quarters/Cover-4 base, in response to the challenges presented by spread offenses. Finally, we'll see how he, along with guys like Marcus Freeman (current Notre Dame HC) and current Wisconsin co-coordinators Mike Tressel and Colin Hitschler developed a unique way to defend the spread. We'll close with some thoughts from the Wisconsin spring game, and an attempt at predicting how Fickell, Tressel, and Hitschler will use their different defensive structures and personnel groupings with the Badgers in 2023.