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DT Luke Fickell (HC Wisconsin Badgers)

BrowardBuck;1942856; said:
Honestly, if they wait and/or have already decided that Luke isn't their man in the long term, then it will kill our recruiting for at least this year and if they don't get the big named guy (Urban?), it will likely set up back next year as well.

Due diligence is not what's setting this program back. The mistakes that led to having to do a search in the first place are what's setting the program back. There was going to be a price to pay for all of this, and losing out on some recruits is part of it. Ohio State can't let a few players in this year's and next year's classes allow them to get sidetracked from doing what's right for the program in the long term.

To the people who are advocating a cheap contract for a few years that the university can simply eat if they decide Fickell's not their guy... Have you considered the fallout that would come from firing a guy a year or two after going thru the whole dog-and-pony show of removing the "interim" tag? That could hurt recruiting longer and more deeply than the delay that we're currently experiencing.
 
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I said many times that Luke's hire is the sun that will burst through the clouds. This is a win-win situation.
1.) You promote someone that obviously JT and staff believe is a head coach in waiting.
2.) You promote your best recruiter in trying times.
3.) If shows the NCAA that this was an isolated case with a Head Coach making a poor decision (keeping the assistants in the dark) and the kids are already punished for 5 games and the other one left school. Obviously with the cars the only new issues was Tressels emails that he was in control of and lost his job. I personally feel that if you can not talk to JT or Pryor because they do not have to comply then how is OSU at fault and obviously when learned of the violations presented that to the NCAA.
4.) If Luke does well you have one of the youngest coaches in his dream job that is a great recruiter with one of the best program to sell.
5.) If it does not work out then you let someone come in and hire outside and clean house.
6.) For 2011 you maintain some stability and us against the world mentality.
 
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UpNorthBuckeye

I keep saying, Fickell/Hoke could be the new Hayes/Schembechler.

Just look at 'em.

Don't know what other story lines will have become prominent by November but The Game is going to be interesting this year, with two coaches in their first year.

I kinda hope that scUM is 7 and 4 or something, and not 3 and 8 like they were a couple years ago. I want to beat the team that everyone thinks is "on the way back".

Well, I just want to beat them, no matter what the sitch.

Go Bucks!
 
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jlb1705;1942916; said:
Due diligence is not what's setting this program back. The mistakes that led to having to do a search in the first place are what's setting the program back. There was going to be a price to pay for all of this, and losing out on some recruits is part of it. Ohio State can't let a few players in this year's and next year's classes allow them to get sidetracked from doing what's right for the program in the long term.

To the people who are advocating a cheap contract for a few years that the university can simply eat if they decide Fickell's not their guy... Have you considered the fallout that would come from firing a guy a year or two after going thru the whole dog-and-pony show of removing the "interim" tag? That could hurt recruiting longer and more deeply than the delay that we're currently experiencing.

You and I agree on some of your points. I agree that they can't allow some things to sidetrack them from doing what is right long term. But I go back to my original point. Sometimes, short term actions ARE what is best to help long term (or can be a disaster for long term health). In this case, I think that leaving the interim tag on Fickell is a mistake and will have a long term impact. I hope I am proven wrong, but to me, it may be worth a couple of million to hedge that bet if we end up having to buy out a contract.

As for the fallout...it couldn't be any worse than the fallout we would have from a recruiting perspective if we kept a coach that wasn't the right fit and wasn't getting the W's. I'd rather take the hit of firing Fickell after a year if it meant we would get a high end coach that would pay immediate dividends. Lets be clear though, I truly want Fickell to succeed and be the permanent head coach.

At the end of the day, if the BoT and Gee aren't convinced that Fickell IS the guy, then they should have immediately went after someone else and been willing to pay what it took to get them here. In my profession, if I am not convinced that the man/woman sitting in front of me for an interview is the right person for the job, I don't hire them or promote them. I keep looking for the person I do feel is the right person for that job.

As much as I love Tressel and as much as I still believe he wasn't the only person in the know about tatgate, he should have been asked to resign back in January when it was first discovered and reported to the NCAA. Had they done so, they would have had months to find their guy. Instead, they allowed this to play out to the point that the media had a field day with every tidbit and morsel that they could find, no matter how unfounded it was. Then, they allow Tressel to resign. By that time, it was too late to find a coach. To me, there has been a whole series of mistakes that has led us to this point. Leaving the interim tag on Fickell is just one more mistake, in my opinion, to add to the pile of mistakes already made.

At the very least, there should be a VERY public gesture of support for Fickell from the university leadership that makes it clear that Fickell is the #1 guy for the position unless they fail to perform during the season. At least that would give the impression that they are supportive of their "interim" guy. Right now, there is the appearance that Luke is one and done and the BoT/Gee are not laying any kind of groundwork of support for the guy. Instead, he's left floundering.

BB
 
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BrowardBuck;1943315; said:
You and I agree on some of your points. I agree that they can't allow some things to sidetrack them from doing what is right long term. But I go back to my original point. Sometimes, short term actions ARE what is best to help long term (or can be a disaster for long term health). In this case, I think that leaving the interim tag on Fickell is a mistake and will have a long term impact. I hope I am proven wrong, but to me, it may be worth a couple of million to hedge that bet if we end up having to buy out a contract.

As for the fallout...it couldn't be any worse than the fallout we would have from a recruiting perspective if we kept a coach that wasn't the right fit and wasn't getting the W's. I'd rather take the hit of firing Fickell after a year if it meant we would get a high end coach that would pay immediate dividends. Lets be clear though, I truly want Fickell to succeed and be the permanent head coach.

I think you're underestimating the consequences. Removing the interim tag from Fickell and then canning him after a year anyway would be a farce. How would the next coach be able to walk into a recruit's house and be able to tell him and his family that Ohio State is going to treat them with respect and not screw them over? How could anybody walk in there and tell them that the turmiol is actually over?

If you remove the interim tag from Luke Fickell, the dollars from a buyout are the least of the costs of making a change again immediately after that. Like it or not, if the university removes the interim tag from Fickell they have to make it at least a 3-5 year commitment to him as the leader of the program.

I think you and I also have a different idea of what "long-term" and "short-term" mean. To me, the entire span of NCAA eligibility of any recruits Ohio State loses until a permanent hire is made - that's all short-term. If Ohio State is struggling or not living up to expectations in 4-5 years because of a couple weak junior & senior classes - well, that's the price a program pays for the mistakes that were made.

Fans that think Ohio State can get around that by playing games with the HC position need to prepare themselves, because it's likely coming no matter how Ohio State tries to manipulate the situation. In the meantime, they shouldn't compound the problem by stringing people along with a commitment to a head coach if they're only making it for PR and recruiting purposes. Doing something like that could make that dip in 4-5 years even worse in terms of severity and duration.
 
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jlb1705;1943334; said:
I think you're underestimating the consequences. Removing the interim tag from Fickell and then canning him after a year anyway would be a farce. How would the next coach be able to walk into a recruit's house and be able to tell him and his family that Ohio State is going to treat them with respect and not screw them over? How could anybody walk in there and tell them that the turmiol is actually over?

Exactly. The timing of Tressel's resignation and the timing of the NCAA hearing leave OSU with no real choice except to go with an interim head coach for the time being. They can't spend the summer right before the season doing all the due diligence that is required of a full-blown coaching search, and the uncertainty of the program's NCAA punishment would negatively affect that search anyway. There's really no way for OSU to know if Fickell is THE guy at this point--circumstances changed quickly and they had to make an immediate decision without even formally interviewing him or anyone else. Obviously he's proven his worthiness as an interim/emergency fill-in for Tressel, but it's unrealistic to expect/demand a long-term decision to come before the end of 2011.

And chances are this won't be the best recruiting class ever, or the smoothest ride to signing day, but that's less a matter of OSU's support for Fickell and more of the decisions Tressel made that put the program in this position. This is by necessity a wait-and-see situation for OSU and Fickell.
 
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I don't see the problem. If Tressel had retired this year, then there would have been a selection process that may or may not have appointed Luke Fickell as coach. He was appointed in an interim capacity, as a result of an unexpected opening in the head coach position.

I hear the arguments about giving him a head coach label now, but it's not clear that he would have been the choice of a proper selection process. Until he has been chosen in that way, he should carry the title "interim head coach".

I'd like nothing more than to see him prove himself and get the nod at the end of the year. It rests in his hands.
 
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BrowardBuck;1943315; said:
You and I agree on some of your points. I agree that they can't allow some things to sidetrack them from doing what is right long term. But I go back to my original point. Sometimes, short term actions ARE what is best to help long term (or can be a disaster for long term health). In this case, I think that leaving the interim tag on Fickell is a mistake and will have a long term impact. I hope I am proven wrong, but to me, it may be worth a couple of million to hedge that bet if we end up having to buy out a contract.

As for the fallout...it couldn't be any worse than the fallout we would have from a recruiting perspective if we kept a coach that wasn't the right fit and wasn't getting the W's. I'd rather take the hit of firing Fickell after a year if it meant we would get a high end coach that would pay immediate dividends. Lets be clear though, I truly want Fickell to succeed and be the permanent head coach.

At the end of the day, if the BoT and Gee aren't convinced that Fickell IS the guy, then they should have immediately went after someone else and been willing to pay what it took to get them here. In my profession, if I am not convinced that the man/woman sitting in front of me for an interview is the right person for the job, I don't hire them or promote them. I keep looking for the person I do feel is the right person for that job.

As much as I love Tressel and as much as I still believe he wasn't the only person in the know about tatgate, he should have been asked to resign back in January when it was first discovered and reported to the NCAA. Had they done so, they would have had months to find their guy. Instead, they allowed this to play out to the point that the media had a field day with every tidbit and morsel that they could find, no matter how unfounded it was. Then, they allow Tressel to resign. By that time, it was too late to find a coach. To me, there has been a whole series of mistakes that has led us to this point. Leaving the interim tag on Fickell is just one more mistake, in my opinion, to add to the pile of mistakes already made.

At the very least, there should be a VERY public gesture of support for Fickell from the university leadership that makes it clear that Fickell is the #1 guy for the position unless they fail to perform during the season. At least that would give the impression that they are supportive of their "interim" guy. Right now, there is the appearance that Luke is one and done and the BoT/Gee are not laying any kind of groundwork of support for the guy. Instead, he's left floundering.

BB

The problem here is, I think that they are leaving the interim tag on him for many of the reasons you think they shouldn't.

(I also wouldn't think of your comment "Unless they've already come to an agreement with Urban" -- I certainly don't know what the status of that is, but, Someone has passed him a note under a table with that says, "You want to be our new head coach? Circle Yes or No.... eighth grade style)

The thing we need to keep in mind here is, we're already screwed for this year. Interim tag or not... the current coaching staff has no idea if they are staying or going, the recruits have no idea, and we have no idea if they WANT to stay or go. None of those guys, who do most of the recruiting, can go in and say "I'm going to be here"

The whole point of this is to MAINTAIN continuity.

At least after this season, the uncertainty of what the NCAA punishment is going to be will be resolved. (And to that point even if they had let Tress go back in January, you have to consider that a HC search would go better with that behind you. I'm not agreeing with the idiots who say we couldn't get a top notch guy, but it might have narrowed the field some)

Furthermore, if we're going to lose some schollies, and that seems likely, we might as well take as much of the hit as possible up front when we have a pile of guys already in the program... the idea of comitting to Fickell for "3 to 5" years is problematic because if you're on the 3 year end of that you're going to get hit with a wholesale staff turnover twice. What if you DO keep him for one more and fire him?

Whatever, the point is, you need to be sure... you need to go through this transistion ONCE if at all possible.

The problem is that EVERYTHING is interim right now. The Coach, the Staff, some players probably, # of scholarships, bowl eligibility, other NCAA sanctions... and none of that takes into consideration the situation with Gene Smith and whether he's going to be around by the time winter rolls around. If he's going to step down in the wake of the NCAA hearing, the last thing you want is, "Hey, your new Coach is Luke, and I gave him a Charlie Wiess contract after game 4, see ya later suckers."

Making the right choice in a coaching search is hard enough in the right conditions. They need to give themselves the best opprotunity to make the right decision, in the right timeframe and that decision needs to be made by people that will take ownership of it and have skin in the game. The less uncertainty around the football program, athletics department, and University there is at that time, the better.
 
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Link

John Simon's comments about the new HC

With Tressel gone, the reins of the team have been turned over to interim head coach Luke Fickell. Simon thinks the task won't be too great for Fickell.
"Coach Fick is a great guy," Simon said. "He's a players' coach. He's going to look out after us no matter what. He's a very passionate guy, and I think he's going to instill that in the team. I think that's going to be great for all of us."
The difference between Fickell and Tressel is that Fickell brings a bit more emotion to work.
"Coach Fick is a little more fiery than coach Tressel, but their morals are the same," Simon said. "I don't see a lot of changes around work. He's the guy we need right now."
 
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AKAKBUCK;1943385; said:
The thing we need to keep in mind here is, we're already screwed for this year. Interim tag or not... the current coaching staff has no idea if they are staying or going, the recruits have no idea, and we have no idea if they WANT to stay or go. None of those guys, who do most of the recruiting, can go in and say "I'm going to be here"

The whole point of this is to MAINTAIN continuity.


The problem is that EVERYTHING is interim right now. The Coach, the Staff, some players probably, # of scholarships, bowl eligibility, other NCAA sanctions... and none of that takes into consideration the situation with Gene Smith and whether he's going to be around by the time winter rolls around. If he's going to step down in the wake of the NCAA hearing, the last thing you want is, "Hey, your new Coach is Luke, and I gave him a Charlie Wiess contract after game 4, see ya later suckers."

Who is his agent? If continuity is the linchpin, then it should result in a hefty short term paycheck for Fickell, as they cannot stiff him in this crucial recruiting juncture and have him unsigned save the first interim year. And yet they cannot tie him up for multiple years at big money either - if the experiment goes south right away. Conversely, tOSU job is so coveted that Fickell's agent cannot play hard ball. The line behind him wanting the job is so long he can't see the end, and it is the chance of a life time for him. How they both play against each other will be interesting.

The weight seems to be more with tOSU than Fickell on the upper hand scale of the circumstances, despite the need for continuity.
 
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Gatorubet;1944561; said:
Who is his agent? If continuity is the linchpin, then it should result in a hefty short term paycheck for Fickell, as they cannot stiff him in this crucial recruiting juncture and have him unsigned save the first interim year. And yet they cannot tie him up for multiple years at big money either - if the experiment goes south right away. Conversely, tOSU job is so coveted that Fickell's agent cannot play hard ball. The line behind him wanting the job is so long he can't see the end, and it is the chance of a life time for him. How they both play against each other will be interesting.

The weight seems to be more with tOSU than Fickell on the upper hand scale of the circumstances, despite the need for continuity.

I think they are giving him 750K (or 750K more, can't remember which) for this season. If that answers your question. (If that's incorrect someone will correct me, I'm sure)

But you're right, Fick's Agent doesn't have much in the way of leverage, on the other hand, if they do hire him long term, he'll get a salary commensurate with his resume and the gravity of the position. I'm sure Fickell isn't too worried about it.

I still believe there will be a search at the end of the season and the resumes of all will be considered. Fickell's opportunity here is to make his resume better.
 
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Question for clarification: is Fickell still on a 2-year contract, with the 2nd year on its previous terms but this interim head coach year at the new $775K salary? I keep reading that he had his existing 2-year contract modified upon being interim HC, but there's no reason he would have given up that 2nd year just for that, right? Not really making a point, just askin.

But, to respond to Gator's query, I just don't know that Fickell is the kind of guy to leverage this kind of situation anyway. He could have had other opportunities for higher pay and title if he had chosen to pursue them, but instead of bouncing from place to place or making a stink about Darell Hazell making more than him, he bided his time and let the opportunities come to him. He's a Columbus guy with a bunch of young Columbus kids and was expecting to make under $300K this season, so I really don't see him forcing the issue until 2011 wraps up.
 
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Love for Fickell to be here for the next ten years, but it'll come down to whether he beats Michigan. Dpn't care if the record is 8-3 or 11-1, tough to fire a guy when he just beat the other first year coach at their place and the game is played in the Shoe next year.
 
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When you look a the 2011 Buckeyes and the talent and depth of the roster, where do your think you stand in that regard compared to the other 2011 Big-10 programs. I'm not talking your record at year's end, but purely the talent and depth you have compared to your conference brethren.

Who ranks in the top five, and by how big a margin?
 
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