Phil Longo fired as Wisconsin Badgers offensive coordinator

This story has been updated with new information.

Wisconsin head football coach Luke Fickell made a coaching change Sunday morning, parting ways with offensive coordinator Phil Longo.

“This morning I notified Phil Longo that he will no longer serve as our offensive coordinator,” Fickell said in a press release issued by the school’s athletic department. “After continuing to evaluate the program, I have determined that we are not where we need to be and I believe this decision is in the best interest of the team.

“I appreciate Phil’s commitment to helping us build our program over the past two seasons and wish him well moving forward. This team still has a lot ahead of it, and I am committed to doing everything we can to close out this season on success.” “

Longo’s tenure at Wisconsin lasted just 23 games. He was part of Fickell’s first coaching staff.

He spent four seasons as offensive coordinator at North Carolina and two seasons in the same role at Mississippi before bringing the “Air Raid” offense to UW in January 2023.

The Badgers (5-5, 3-4 Big Ten) are 10th in the 18-team conference this season with 23.9 points per game and ninth with 363.1 yards per game.

With 14 teams in the conference last season, UW ranked seventh in points per game (23.5) and sixth in yards per game (381.2).

UW’s announcement included no information about who would take on Longo’s roles. Fickell’s weekly press conference will be held at noon on Monday.

The news came One day after a 16-13 loss to No. 1 Oregon The Badgers produced a season-low 226 yards. His season low before that was 261 yards, while he equaled his season low of 10 yards in a 32-point loss to Iowa.

Wisconsin had two chances in the final 2 minutes, 36 seconds to create a drive for a game-winning goal or game-tying field goal. The Badgers couldn’t get a first down every time.

Fickell was asked last week what he needed to see to have confidence moving forward with the offensive scheme over the last three games.

“I think this is growth,” he said. “I think you’re still seeing the progression of what you’re doing. You’ve got what you’ve got. Finding ways to (do) what you want to do with what you’ve got is the important thing.” “

The Badgers have struggled to develop an offensive identity under Fickell. Longo’s hiring signaled a shift away from the physical style UW has been known for since its rise under Barry Alvarez to a more point guard-friendly scheme that aims to spread the floor and spread out around the ball.

That didn’t happen, as very few quarterbacks emerged during the nearly two seasons that Longo coordinated the offense.

Quarterback development also did not go as expected. UW was dealt a blow in the third game when opening day starter Tyler Van Dyke suffered a season-ending knee injury. This opened the door for redshirt sophomore Braedyn Locke to take over the offense.

During preseason camp, Longo and Fickell expressed confidence that Locke could run the offense when asked, but Locke completed 55% of his passes for 1,514 yards, nine touchdowns and nine interceptions. In each of his seven starts, he was stopped twice while shooting a 6-ball.

Longo met with reporters last Monday for his monthly press conference. He was asked if he had ever coached anywhere where it was this difficult to get the offense to the level he wanted.

“Not soon,” he said. “It’s a great conference. That’s why I came. There’s some great coaches and some really good talent that we fight every week, and it’s a top-to-bottom heavy conference. There’s really no bottom feeder in this deal. You fight every single one (week).

“But I guess you’re hired for a reason. Usually when you come in things are pristine and so right now in the last two years Fick has had a plan and a vision and he’s laid it out and sometimes he’s trying to get where you want it to be. We all want it to happen tomorrow but it’s a process and takes some time.

“I said it last year and I’ll say it again. It’s even harder when you’re building something to sustain success. It’s even harder to do that. Build the roster for a particular year and get an immediate response, or you can build something that you want to sustain success over the long term, That’s the goal here, and that’s what Fick wants.”

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