Around the 'Shoe

+1 Give him a real chance.

Fickell is an unknown guy. Has the school record for consecutive games started. Over 8 years coaching experience with OSU. A great recruiter for the defense and has great relationships with his players. If he is 11-3 with a Rose Bowl win then he did a damn good job LEARNING ON THE JOB.

First, the statement that was made was that "no one starts at the top." It didn't allow for any exceptions. I refuted that statement. If your best response is to say you don't care about who Houston, Clemson, WVU and Boise hired, then you completely missed the point.

Secondly, I'm well aware this is OSU. I am more than familiar with our history of hiring coaches. The reality is we don't have that many options to choose from and Fickell's in the top 5. In fact, right now, his name is the only one on the list because it's his job to lose. It's not where you start but where you finish that counts. There's still a lot of football to be played before anyone writes this guy off. The more people do this assine whining of "This is OSU! He's got to be shipped off to coaching Siberia to earn his stripes in HC graveyards in places like Kent or Ypsilanti or Ames or Akron before he can be HC here," the more it makes me want to root for the guy.

Third, since you obviously need further education, let's go: JoePa only coached for Rip Engle at PSU...for 15 years. With the exception of one year as OC at East Carolina, Mark Richt only coached for Bobby Bowden at FSU. With the exception of one year as OC at that Cradle of Coaches, Austin College in Texas, Bill Snyder only coached for Hayden Fry, first at North Texas and then at Iowa. Frank Solich only coached for Tom Osborne, who only coached for Bob Devaney.

Conversely, in the 18 years before he became HC at TCU, Gary Patterson had 11 AC jobs, none for more than 3 years, six of them for no more than 1 season. How much do you really think he learned in the single seasons he spent at coaching juggernauts like UC Davis, Pittsburg State, Cal Lutheran, the Oregon Lightning Bolts (????) and Navy? They were nothing more than stepping stone jobs that eventually got him the DC job at TCU, which became the HC job. But to hear you say it, they mean more than Fickell's nine years coaching for Jim Tressel at OSU. At most of those stops Patterson probably had a P.O. Box for his mail because he wasn't there long enough to remember where he lived. I'm sure you'll dis his addition to my list but I'd bet you'd be happy to have at HC at OSU. Or are we only OK hiring HCs from Miami of Ohio, Iowa State and Youngstown State? And before you brag up Miami as the real Cradle of Coaches, name their last good coach--Randy Walker? Otherwise, Woody Hayes was a long, long, long time ago.

I don't care whether Fickell was DC or Co-DC. He's the HC now and he's Heacock's boss. He was the guy who stepped up and took it, not Heacock. That's what matters. That and it's his job to lose.

One last thing: I used the BCS Top 25 as my metric. It was the most logical standard if we're looking for CURRENT coaching excellence. You're using your head up your ass for yours. If you want me to go deeper into the list, just say the word. Just know that it means your head will only go deeper up your ass.

Come on now...

I've said this before in another thread and I'll say it again here. Regardless of what Fickell does the rest of the season, OSU needs to open up the coaching search, see who's interested and make the best decision from the available choices. If that turns out to be Fickell, I'm all in with him. But, they have to go through the process.

You don't make coaching decisions, or hiring decisions of any kind in ANY field, based on emotions. You don't hire Fickell after one emotional win over Wisconsin. Period. Or one emotional season, for that matter. Someone mentioned Dana Holgorsen at WV as evidence that hiring a coach with no HC experience can work. What they failed to mention is that Holgorsen took over for a guy, Bill Stewart, that was hired after one emotional Fiesta Bowl upset win over Oklahoma. By the way, who hasn't upset Oklahoma in a Fiesta Bowl, am I right? How did that Bill Stewart hire work out?

If Fickell can go 11-3 with wins in the B1G championship and Rose Bowl, it would go down as one of the greatest coaching achievements in Ohio State history. And I still wouldn't fault Gene Smith for bringing guys in for interviews. He has to see who wants the job first and make the best decision possible, whether that turns out to be Luke or someone else.

Agreed, Buckeyeundergrnd and Lucky!

I too cannot believe people are all the sudden talking as if we are going to win the BIG and a BCS Bowl. Talk about putting the cart before the horse.

If not for the clutch performance of one Braxton Miller, every poster on here would be cursing Fickell right now.

But for one solitary play — broken play if I am not mistaken — all of the sudden Fickell is the next JoPa!

And no team that throws seven passes a game is going to win a BCS game, sorry.

No. The hail mary was more a breakdown in WI coverage. ie, more a WI coaching gaff than any great OSU coaching. There was an article in a WI paper about the breakdown in coverage and a miscommunication. Luckily that happened so now Fickell can be the coach the next 10 yrs.

+1

100% spot on. This situation must be evaluated with a fine toothed comb. All things have to be considered. Great example with Bill Stewart.

I like Luke Fickell. I think with what he's had to deal with and endure he's done a top notch job so far. Sure he has faults.....he is somewhat learning on the job which for tOSU is not a great situation to have. Some obvious things stand out like game preparation, management etc. You have to consider who he beat, who he lost to....why that happened...and most importantly....let's say Fickell manages to go 11-3 with a Rose Bowl or BCS bowl victory. You have to ask the question: What are the chances of Fickell repeating that success? Is it possible? Do you allow him to make coaching changes and truly turn the team over to him?

Because I think that's ultimately what has to be done if they consider keeping Luke Fickell as head coach.

Furthermore...we've all heard the rumors about Urban Meyer. Quite frankly there's not a more qualified candidate for hire than this man. Not one. His resume speaks for itself. Like him or not...the man is the best college coach that can be hired if he's available. You'd have to be a fool not to at the very least pursue this man and make it known that you are interested in him......and IMO.....give him every consideration to be your next head coach. Equal to if not a little more than your current interim head coach.

What we have to consider is that this is not in the slightest anything personal. It's strictly business. And tOSU is in the business of winning Big Ten championships, beating the $hit out of scUM....and contending hopefully for national titles.

I continue to be amazed at the manlove for Urban Meyer because of what he accomplished in 2006 and 2008. For all of you who think he would pull that off at OSU are completely wrong. First of all, the SPREAD offense is beginning to be defensed. You look at the best teams now, they run a Pro-style offense. Spread teams are not able to consistently run the ball. Sorry, but in the Big Ten, you are going to need to run and pass. The Spread needs quick and agile linemen, something we do not have and will not have for several years. We cannot get a decent lineman now to save our lives due to the reputation of Bollman. Braxton Miller would be a good spread QB, but who is going to be the RB after Jordan Hall leaves. You need FAST RB's to make the Spread work, and then we get to the WR's where none of them fit the mold of Spread WR.

So let's say Urban comes in and immediately gets the PR and closes a strong recruiting class. It will take years to change the talent at OSU to match what Urban had at Florida. Almost seems as if we would be following in the RichRod steps. Going backwards to go forwards? 3 years down the line, Urban will have another "medical issue" because he is tired of hearing boos during the games and we get to start over again. Urban proved last year that his offense only works when he has the exact skill set. That skill set is not here at OSU.

That being said, IMO Luke Fickell is not the right coach either. It has been obvious several times this season that he is in over his head. This is no place to have on the job training. Fickell has spent his entire career under Jim Tressel. There are other coaches out there that have coached under several different head coaches which would be significantly better. For those of you who think Gruden is coming here, think again. I played golf with Gruden in Tampa a couple of times in the the past two years and he loves what he is doing and making a ton of dough to do it. He will not be coming to OSU as the next coach. If he coaches again, it will be in the NFL. He has a couple of talented kids that he wants to get through school, what he is doing now affords him that opportunity.

Chris Petersen is not coming to OSU. He has seen how badly other very successful Boise coaches have faired at high profile schools. It did not end well for either. Patterson will stay at TCU, especially since it is now part of the Big 12. Not sure that Pellini is a good long term fit at OSU either, the dude has serious attitude issues and will rub people the wrong way. Nebraska fans are beginning to call him Bi-polar Bo. Dantonio is a great coach, but a Tressel clone, and will probably keep a lot of the current staff, pass. Tim Beckman may ultimately be the best choice if you want someone with Ohio ties that has previous HC experience. Again however, I do not believe his offense is the best long term solution for OSU.

I would vote for Mel Tucker. He has coached under several highly successful coaches once he left OSU. He knows OSU and coaches in the state of Ohio. He will well respected in the NFL and the NCAA. Recruits may have a hard time with the choice at first, but he is a guy that once you meet him you will follow him. He is a leader and that is what OSU needs right now. The man was a recruiting machine at OSU when he was here and once he left (along with Dantonio) our recruiting began to suffer for it.

I maintain that teaching a Freshman QB with outstanding running ability to keep his eyes looking downfield is heavily attributable to coaching, regardless
of whatever Wisconsin was doing on D at the time.

I will be pulling for the Buckeyes in every game they play and hoping Fickell can win out, but honestly, I just don't see that happening. Do you honestly think we can beat Stanford or Oregon in the Rose Bowl? It isn't happening this year, not with this offensive game plan.

After last season, Fickell couldn't even get hired by Miami of Ohio. Do you people honestly believe that now all of a sudden because he beat Illinois and Wisconsin he will be JoePa's successor if we don't hire him? And then take a step further and think he will be kicking our tails for years to come there? JoePa doesn't even kick our tails ... what makes you think Fickell will?

I love Ohio State. I think Fickell is a great Buckeye and a great person. I hope that one day he will be a great head coach, and maybe even for the Buckeyes, but he isn't that right now. This team is 5-3 and lucky to be that ... we easily could have lost to both Toledo and Wisconsin. Contrary to what some people post on here, Tressel did not leave the cupboard bare here. I know there was all the off season turnmoil, suspensions and everything that Fickell has had to deal with (which was Tressel's fault), but even with that, we have a super talented team (IMO more talented than every team we have played to include Wisconsin) with almost the entire coaching staff intact. Fickell didn't have to step in and create something from nothing. If it were not for poor coaching (bad play calling, poor personnel decisions, failure to properly manage the game, etc.) we would be at least be 7-1 if not 8-0 right now.

No matter what happens, Ohio State needs to look at all of the available options, to include Fickell, and hire the best guy for the job.