WEST HARRISON, Ind. — Luke Fickell sits at a corner table in the dining hall at Camp Higher Ground, Cincinnati‘s off-campus football training site in the hills just beyond the Indiana state line.
Behind him, the most anticipated team in Cincinnati history devours lunch before a rescheduled afternoon practice. Three days earlier, the Bearcats received their highest-ever preseason ranking (No. 8) in the AP poll. Cincinnati is 31-6 since 2018, nearly went undefeated last season and is led by Fickell, one of the fastest-rising coaches in the sport.
But 10 summers ago, Fickell found himself in a different spot, preparing to lead Ohio State into a season of uncertainty. Then 38, he had received his dream job under nightmarish conditions. Head coach Jim Tressel had resigned amid an NCAA investigation into the program, after being suspended for not reporting that he knew players had received improper benefits. Fickell, a Columbus native who had played defensive line for the Buckeyes and had become a full-time Ohio State assistant under Tressel in 2002, suddenly held an interim role that he wanted but wasn’t ready to inherit.
“I didn’t really know who I was as a leader,” Fickell said. “Maybe I’d been around Coach Tressel, that’s really it, or Coach [John] Cooper. I hadn’t really spent that time to say, ‘OK, what would you do? How would you do it?’ I worked hard, I cared, I trusted, but nobody really knows. The first time being a head coach, it’s like being a pilot. Or are you ready to be a father? Well, no. You can take all the classes you want, but until you actually do it, you don’t know.”
Fickell didn’t know immediately, but the 2011 season at Ohio State, which included seven losses for the first time since 1897 and the program’s only defeat to Michigan since 2003, put him on a journey of self-discovery. An assistant too occupied with recruiting and other in-the-moment duties to prepare for head-coaching interviews became a head coach under incredibly challenging circumstances. A man who played for a College Football Hall of Fame coach (Cooper) and worked for another (Tressel) needed time under a third (Urban Meyer) to help craft a leadership profile all his own.
He lost the head-coaching bug after 2011, only to recapture the desire several years later.
“I realized all the mistakes I made, and it’s probably been the best thing that’s happened to my career,” Fickell said. “It really was like a lifetime of experiences in eight months.”
Fickell became a head coach again later than expected, and at a lower-profile program than some assistants with his credentials from Ohio State. But he believes he’s exactly where he should be, leading a top-10 team he recruited and developed into a season filled with expectations and possibility — even though schools will keep calling.
BEFORE MEMORIAL DAY 2011, Fickell had never truly prepared to be a head coach.
As Ohio State’s co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, Fickell received interest — and would reflexively answer “Yes” — when asked whether he wanted to run his own program. He had some conversations with Tressel about becoming a head coach but hadn’t mapped out what it would require. The job inquiries usually came while Fickell was out recruiting, and he’d usually throw something together for interviews instead of detailing his objectives and vision.
Then, Tressel stepped down and Ohio State named Fickell interim coach for the 2011 season. A program that had dominated the Big Ten and had made three of the previous nine national championship games was staring down NCAA sanctions and discipline for key players.
“The biggest mistake I made was I tried to be Coach Tress,” Fickell said. “I thought that’s what we needed, when in reality, it was probably the [opposite] because you can’t consistently be somebody you’re not.”
Nothing about Ohio State’s 2011 season would be normal. The Buckeyes scored 13 total points in losses to Miami and Michigan State, then blew a 21-point lead at Nebraska to start 0-2 in Big Ten play. The day before the Nebraska loss, the NCAA added to star wideout DeVier Posey’s suspension and suspended three other players for getting paid for work not performed at a summer job.
Even Ohio State’s successes were strange. Freshman quarterback Braxton Miller attempted only four passes in a win at Illinois, then beat Russell Wilson-led Wisconsin the next week on a 40-yard touchdown (he finished with 89 passing yards) in the final minute. The Buckeyes then finished the season with four consecutive single-digit losses, including the Michigan defeat.
Cooper, who coached Fickell at Ohio State from 1993 to 1996 and led the program from 1988 to 2000, thought the mere fact that the school chose Fickell after Tressel’s resignation underscored how he was viewed.
“He didn’t have a very good start here at Ohio State, but the thing I like about him, he never gave up, he kept persevering,” Cooper said. “I thought he’d get another shot.”
Fickell didn’t want one, at least not right away. Ohio State hired Meyer in late November, and Fickell returned to his role as defensive coordinator.
That winter, he took a call about a head-coaching opportunity but wasn’t genuinely interested.
“I didn’t have a good experience of being a head coach,” Fickell said. “It wasn’t fun. There was nothing I enjoyed about it. You got pulled away from the kids and those relationships. It just wasn’t comfortable.
“There’s different things about running a program. It’s maybe not for everybody.”
Fickell mentioned John C. Maxwell’s leadership book, “Don’t Send Your Ducks To Eagle School.”
“I felt like maybe I don’t want to be an eagle,” Fickell said. “I kind of like my own little world.”
When Meyer introduced his staff at a January 2012 basketball game, he started with Fickell, who received a loud, sustained ovation and chants of “Luuuuuuke” at Value City Arena. The applause lasted so long that Meyer looked at Fickell and said, “That’s strong.”
“He’s an ultimate competitor, and 2011, being his first year as a coach, didn’t go the way he planned it to go, in terms of wins and losses,” said Notre Dame defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman, a linebacker under Fickell and Tressel at Ohio State and Fickell’s defensive coordinator at Cincinnati the past four seasons. “We never talked about him wanting to be a head coach again. Shoot, being from Columbus, Ohio, the defensive coordinator at Ohio State, that’s not a bad gig, man.”
A gig so good, in fact, that Fickell had no desire to leave until the summer of 2016.
THE FIRST SIGNS were subtle. Fickell began reading more about leadership. When he attended NFL minicamps, he spent more time watching and listening to the head coach rather than eavesdropping on the defensive staff and those schemes.
“My passion changed,” he said. “I started to realize, if I want to do this, I’ve gotta be prepared.”
Ultimately, Fickell had to be even more intentional. He carved out several weeks in the summer to outline his head-coaching plan. He had no shortage of resources after playing for Cooper, then working under Tressel and Meyer and alongside future head coaches such as Mark Dantonio. His college teammate and roommate Mike Vrabel — Fickell was best man at Vrabel’s wedding — was on the fast track as an NFL assistant and would become Tennessee Titans head coach in 2018.
Fickell could take tidbits from others, but, as he learned in 2011, outright duplication was wrong.
“Who are you, really, and who do you want to be?” he asked himself. “You can’t be Jim Tressel, you can’t be Urban Meyer, you can’t be John Cooper. You’re a part of all of them because you spent a lot of time with them, but you’ve got to figure out who you are.”
The next step was where he wanted to be, and when he could get there. As it turned out, Cincinnati needed a coach after the 2016 season.
“There are schools we talked about, they were open, some that he wasn’t interested in,” Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said. “There were certain places he just wasn’t going to go. He’s got a large family; he’s a value-based individual. Certain programs actually fit him, and Cincinnati is one.
“It was a perfect opportunity.”
Fickell knew how he wanted to play. His teams would be very physical, especially on defense, while valuing the run game and fundamentals as well as limiting mistakes.
The greater challenge would be how to lead. Fickell knew he couldn’t be guided by impulse and emotion. He also understood that he couldn’t connect with a 120-man roster the same way as with a 10-man linebacker room. Those relationships could be forged over time. He also had to trust his staff, just as Tressel and Meyer had trusted him.
Like most new coaches, Fickell endured difficulties. In 2017, Cincinnati went 4-8, dropping seven games by 10 points or more and four by 22 points or more. But the Bearcats responded in 2018 by going 11-2, and they haven’t looked back.
“He is a fierce competitor,” said a Power 5 athletic director who has observed Fickell. “He’s built that sense of confidence, poise and calm within the storm of games, that his team really embraces and allows them to go out and just play loose and free.”
COACHES WORK LONG days during the preseason, but in late July and early August, Fickell would stay up extra late and wake up extra early. He couldn’t get enough Olympic wrestling from the Tokyo Games.
Fickell might make his living in football, but one of the greatest wrestlers in Ohio state high school history is magnetically drawn to the mat.
“He still has a deep, burning passion for wrestling,” Cincinnati senior quarterback Desmond Ridder said of Fickell, who went 106-0 with three state titles during his final three years at DeSales High School in Columbus. “You can tell it in his hands, how big they are. He just likes to get ahold of people and throw them on the ground.”
Wrestling shaped Fickell as a football player and now as a coach. It has humbled him when needed and has taught him not to seek the spotlight and how to instill a work ethic and toughness in those around him. The 48-year-old still looks as if he could scrap.
At Ohio State, he started 50 consecutive games at nose guard, a team record that stood until 2017. Cooper doesn’t recall Fickell ever missing a practice.
“A blue-collar, Midwest guy,” Freeman said. “He’s going to make sure you know the value of hard work.”
Ridder felt that Cincinnati had toughness when Fickell arrived but that it undoubtedly has grown there, physically and mentally, during his tenure. Building toughness in 2021 is different from when Fickell played. As Freeman noted, “The days of, ‘Do 100 up-downs just because,’ I don’t think that’s relevant.”
“He’s always been a down-to-earth guy,” all-conference linebacker Darrian Beavers said. “I don’t have to be scared of him. Some programs, you’re scared of saying something to the head coach, but you can go up to him and say anything. Or he will come up to you and ask questions, like, what do you want? What do you think we need for the team?
“That’s why we have a lot of success in this program.”
Cincinnati athletic director John Cunningham sees some throwback qualities in Fickell, but with a modern twist.
“It does go back to mental toughness, and that’s who wrestlers are. They’re going to work really, really hard, and they’re going to be consistent in everything,” Cunningham said. “He has a way of interacting with the players that isn’t, probably you wouldn’t think is an old-school wrestler mentality. That’s not who he is in the day-to-day interactions with his team.”
A LARGE PORTION of college football coaches come from Ohio, but few have a bond with the state as powerful as Fickell’s.
“Most especially in Columbus, where he’s obviously well-known, well-respected, well-liked,” Tressel said. “But really throughout the whole state of Ohio, he really had a lot of connectivity. Young people can see his genuineness, competitiveness and passion.”
Fickell built a reputation as one of the nation’s top recruiters at Ohio State. He has strengthened it at Cincinnati, which can’t target the same level of prospects but has been successful locally and regionally, as well as with transfers from the area looking for a fresh start, such as Beavers, who began his career at Connecticut.
Cincinnati has signed ESPN top-50 recruiting classes in three of the past four years, finishing ahead of Power 5 programs. Fickell has signed two ESPN 300 prospects from the state in tight end Leonard Taylor and quarterback Evan Prater, Ridder’s projected successor in 2022, and has identified and developed others into stars. The program has branched out to neighboring states (Indiana, Kentucky) and into the South, but Ohio remains at the core of Fickell’s strategy. The 2021 roster features almost 40 players from in and around Cincinnati.
“Nobody has a better grasp of what’s going on recruiting-wise in this state and in the surrounding area,” Cunningham said. “He understands its importance, and he probably projects that when he meets with these high school coaches. He gives them the respect that he feels they deserve.”
When Cincinnati began its coaching search, Smith remembers talking with then-athletic director Mike Bohn about Fickell’s appreciation for Ohio high school athletics. Smith calls Fickell “an icon in the state.”
“Whether they’re the football coach or the wrestling coach, they’re people that do it the right way,” Fickell said. “I’m not saying they don’t do it the right way elsewhere, but a lot of people are going to the South or Texas because high schools are making a lot more money and these coaches are almost college coaches. I think the Midwest, in general, we see people that are coaches in high school because they’re a teacher and they love to coach.
“You treat them the right way, and it’s really helped with how they look at you. It’s deeper. It’s more of a relationship.”
THE BEARCATS ARE overwhelming favorites to repeat as American Athletic Conference champions. A loaded roster features Ridder, the reigning AAC offensive player of the year, All-America cornerback Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner and seven other all-conference selections from 2020.
The schedule includes trips to No. 17 Indiana (Sept. 18) and No. 9 Notre Dame (Oct. 2) and gives Cincinnati an outside chance to become the first Group of 5 team to reach the CFP.
“We all know that this is a championship team,” Beavers said.
The biggest question surrounding the program is this: How far can Fickell take Cincinnati in 2021? The question that usually follows: How long will he stay at the school?
Fickell already has been courted by Michigan State and others but has remained at Cincinnati, which last year rewarded him with a contract through 2026 that pays $3.4 million annually. He and his wife, Amy, and their six children — their oldest, Landon, is a freshman offensive lineman for the Bearcats — love the area. Three of Cincinnati’s past four coaches left for Power 5 opportunities: Brian Kelly (Notre Dame), Butch Jones (Tennessee) and Dantonio (Michigan State).
“I didn’t think he would be there as long as he is,” Cooper said of Fickell. “I thought he would have taken the Tennessee job or the Michigan State job or some of those other jobs. And he didn’t take them. He’s done such a great job there at Cincinnati; his son is playing for him; he’s got a good team coming back. So he doesn’t need to be in a big hurry. He needs to be pretty selective before he does leave there.
“I think you’ll see him some day in a top-10 coaching position, maybe top-five.”
Fickell’s name will surface for Power 5 openings in the upcoming cycle, along with coaches such as Iowa State‘s Matt Campbell and Louisiana‘s Billy Napier, who also has remained at a Group of 5 program despite overtures. Power 5 athletic directors certainly are aware of Fickell’s talents and potential aspirations, as one said, “In his heart of hearts, he wants to be the head coach at Ohio State. But he’s going to be real selective. If he goes anywhere, it’s going to be an elite program with elite history.”
Ohio State coach Ryan Day, who is 23-2 with the Buckeyes and only 42 years old, looks like a long-term answer in Columbus. But any Tier 1 job in the region that opens — Notre Dame, Michigan, Penn State — likely will have Fickell on its short list. Michigan is the likeliest vacancy after this season, but it also would provide the most conflict for Fickell, a deep-rooted Buckeye.
“Some people are always thinking about what’s next,” Tressel said. “He loves where he is — he’s in a great situation, he loves being in the state of Ohio, his family loves the community. I’ve fielded a lot of calls from universities [about Fickell] the last couple years. There’s going to be a lot of people after him, but he’s not going to let that affect his every-day work.
“That’s where his focus is.”
Fickell admitted the expectations around Cincinnati this season make it “more emotionally draining.” Cincinnati has the best collection of players since he arrived. But he knows from his time at Ohio State, which never lacked star power, that the most talented teams aren’t always the best ones.
He’s far less concerned about what his own future holds.
“I’ve been around those [coaches], they were like, ‘Always have a plan, two steps ahead, there’s my next job,'” he said. “I’ve been fortunate to have the philosophy that I don’t worry about what would be next for me. This is where I want to be, so that puts no stress, which is lucky.”