https://theathletic.com/91183/2017/08/31/matt-luke-and-the-challenge-of-being-an-interim-coach/
Matt Luke and the challenge of being an interim coach
Chris Vannini
August 31 2017
When Jim Tressel resigned on Memorial Day 2011 amid an NCAA investigation, Luke Fickell was suddenly handed the keys of an Ohio State program five months removed from a Sugar Bowl win.
How would Fickell handle himself as a head coach? Tressel had built the Buckeyes back into a national powerhouse, so Fickell decided to just keep things running the same. That was a mistake, he conceded, and Ohio State posted its first losing season since 1988.
“I tried to take over in a short amount of time and keep it as similar as I can, and that was probably the worst thing I could have done,” Fickell told The All-American. “Because I couldn’t be consistent as a leader every single day trying to be like Jim Tressel.”
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Fickell took over a team coming off a 12-1 season, but it was one that had seen quarterback Terrell Pryor depart in the wake of the investigation. The Buckeyes started 6-3 under Fickell but lost their final three games and then their bowl, after Urban Meyer had been hired. Fickell knew the emotional toll of everything would weigh on his team during the year, and it would eventually catch up to them.
“You have to have a plan for that,” he said. “I thought we did, and I knew we had to be good early in the year, because at that time, I knew it was going to hit our guys late in the year. They’d be drained emotionally, because of the stuff flying around us. I was right. We didn’t handle it great, but I was right.”
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