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DT Luke Fickell (HC Wisconsin Badgers)

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Bleed S & G said:
LOL what a dumb fucking post. No pumpkin there.
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So Meyer didn't talk about wanting a more aggressive defense every single week up until the Penn State game this season? He didn't say that he has gone from spending 20% of his time with the defense to 70% of his time (or something like that) to make sure that they start playing more aggressively?

Those are rhetorical questions because both of those things did happen.

Do you honestly think that Fickell would interview for a HC position in the middle of the season without Meyer's approval? And if Meyer gave his approval you have to wonder why. I was just throwing out a hypothetical as to why Meyer might have given his approval for this interview.

Edit: And for the record, I'd like it very much if Fickell stayed, particularly if the improvement and aggression we've seen the past two weeks become an ongoing trend.
 
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I'd imagine Meyer would encourage any of his assistants to interview for any HC gig as a matter of principle. He genuinely seemed to like Fick a great deal. I can't imagine Urban telling Fick to be more aggressive and Fick ignoring him and Urban not firing him on the spot.

Does anyone have any idea what Vrable's next move would be if Fick left? Would he follow him if he were forced out or encouraged to leave? Is he staying regardless? Retire from coaching? Maybe promoted to assistant or co-DC?
 
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I see 2 DC threads on Fickell now. This one is 125 pages, and the other is 114 pages. The other one is labeled "DC Luke Fickell (official thread)." Both have been started by the same person on the same day. Odd. Probably needs to be merged.
 
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BUCKYLE said:
Yeah i can't imagine him wanting to leave, but I thought I'd read that he was here because he wanted to coach with Fick. I mean bidness is bidness, but how would he react to Luke being persuaded to skidaddle.

Meh, I don't think Luke is being asked to leave anyway.
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Didn't I see somewhere in this thread that the FAU athletic director
came to Columbus to interview him for H/C. What ever became of that?
 
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BUCKYLE said:
I can't imagine Urban telling Fick to be more aggressive and Fick ignoring him and Urban not firing him on the spot.
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I don't think it was a case of Fickell ignoring Meyer but rather of Fickell taking baby steps towards being more aggressive. I get the strong impression that he is generally a very conservative guy. Given the success of the past two weeks, perhaps he has finally "seen the light" so to speak and is moving more towards Meyer's vision for the defense.

At the very least, moving from the Bollman offense to the current one must take a little while to get used to- if you gamble big and lose on defense it's not an almost sure fire way to lose a game anymore. As I said, perhaps Fickell is finally coming around to that new reality. Then again, it's not like the last two offenses have been juggernauts.

BUCKYLE said:
Meh, I don't think Luke is being asked to leave anyway.
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I don't think it's a question of him being asked to leave, but rather how strongly Meyer is asking him to stay. Given the highly odd mid-season job interview, that is my biggest question around this whole thing.

To reiterate, I love Luke Fickell and want to see him stay in Columbus. From being a true Buckeye with Ohio roots to recruiting prowess to proven results coaching linebackers and a growing resume of aggression on defense, I have a hard time imagining finding someone much better- especially someone that is so committed to the program and won't just bolt for greener pastures in a few years.

I'm just throwing out some scenarios given my observations of the situation.

Perhaps it's all just some elaborate scheme by Meyer to motivate.
 
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Yeah I hear ya, but I'm not buying the baby steps part. If that were the case, it would seem Fick heard the message loud and clear halfway thru last season and decided to scrap what Urban wanted at the start of this year and reboot in safe mode. I wonder if it's all a part of Urban's plan to play different styles of D thru the season. Maybe the beginning of the year, against a soft schedule, he plays it safe while the offense figures itself out. Then once the O gets rolling, start attacking on D and take more risks.

I dunno. Just seems strange if Urban wanted aggressive D from the jump, I'd imagine that's exactly what we'd have seen.
 
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kippy1040 said:
Didn't I see somewhere in this thread that the FAU athletic director
came to Columbus to interview him for H/C. What ever became of that?
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Yeah, I believe that he (Fick) was interviewed this week for the FAU vacancy. My post was more about what would Vrabel do if Fick left. I may definitely be wrong, but I was under the impression they were a package deal. If that is the case, and Fick leaves on good terms (i.e. Urban would have him back if he wanted to stay), then I could see Vrabel staying without Fick. But if Urban...let's say...encouraged Fick to go, would that leave a bad taste in Vrabel's mouth? Would Vrabel stay if he felt Fick wasn't wanted back?
 
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ant80 said:
I see 2 DC threads on Fickell now. This one is 125 pages, and the other is 114 pages. The other one is labeled "DC Luke Fickell (official thread)." Both have been started by the same person on the same day. Odd. Probably needs to be merged.
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The second one was probably for some guy named Withers and the name "accidentally" changed to Fickell since we never talk about "that other Def Coordinator" (rumor has it, he's a figment of Fickell's imagination anyway)

Buckeye86 said:
Do you honestly think that Fickell would interview for a HC position in the middle of the season without Meyer's approval? And if Meyer gave his approval you have to wonder why. I was just throwing out a hypothetical as to why Meyer might have given his approval for this interview.
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I'm not sure what the ethical guidelines are on this situation, but I doubt he would prevent anyone from interviewing for a promotion at another Program (assuming no 'conflict of interest', ie if they were a Big opponent)
 
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