A national champoinship coordinator with head coaching experience who knows the state of Ohio as well as anyone, Luke Fickell checks all of the boxes to help Cincinnati return to form
by Dick Weiss for the American Athletic Conference
Interview with Coach Fickell from The American's Summer Kickoff and Media Days
Luke Fickell has already had a taste of the big time.
He is an 18-year coaching veteran whose impressive resume includes being part of a staff of two national championship teams at Ohio State and producing 12 NFL draft picks as the defensive coordinator for the Buckeyes over the previous 12 seasons.
The 43-year old Fickell, accompanied by his wife Amy and his six children, finally decided to venture out on his own last December, leaving the comfort zone of Urban Meyer’s Big Ten colossus to accept the head coaching job at Cincinnati, an American Athletic Conference program whose coaching alumni includes Mark Dantonio, Brian Kelly and Butch Jones, who are currently head coaches at Michigan State, Notre Dame and Tennessee.
In many ways, Fickell seems like the perfect choice to follow in their footsteps. He is Mr. Ohio.
Fickell grew up in Columbus, where he was a three-time undefeated state champion in wrestling as well as a blue chip defensive lineman at De La Salle High and was a starting nose guard for Ohio State before spending a year with the NFL New Orleans Saints, the only time he left the state.
Fickell returned to his alma mater in 2002 and was special teams coach the year the Buckeyes won a national championship. He was elevated to co-defensive coordinator in 2005, and other than 2011 when he spent a year as interim head coach following the resignation of Jim Tressell, served in that role until he left for Cincinnati.
Fickell began thinking about his future in the spring of 2016. “My passion changed from going to places to study defense going to meet with people in the summer about defense,” Fickell said. “I started reading leadership books. The best advice I received came from Mark Dantonio. He told me, ‘To move up, you have to give up some of the things you love.’ I love defense. But I had to give it up to achieve my dream.’’
Fickell is one of five new coaches in The American in 2017, though two of the four are quite familiar with the conference and its schools. Former Florida defensive coordinator Geoff Collins takes over at Temple. Charlie Strong, who coached Louisville in The American in 2013, enters his first year at USF. Houston promoted offensive coordinator Major Applewhite to head coach prior to the Las Vegas Bowl last season. And UConn is led by Randy Edsall, who begins his second stint on the Huskies’ sideline after serving as head coach at Maryland and working in the NFL with the Detroit Lions.
When Fickell took the job, he admittedly did not know much about The American, but he became a quick study.
“My second week on the job, I went down to meet with Mr. (Sashi) Brown, the general manager of the Bengals, and he looked me right in the eye and said, ‘You know this league is good.’ Then, he pointed to board behind him said, ‘You know this league has more guys on it than a lot of leagues in this country and you better know you’re in for it.’”
It hasn’t taken long for Fickell to win back fans who were smarting from the Bearcats’ 4-8 season in 2016. He has intelligence, charisma and energy. He is a masterful recruiter who has made it his mission to reboot the program by dominating what he refers to as “the State of Cincinnati” - a radius of 50 miles surrounding campus that is filled with elite high school programs in the Greater Miami Conference, the Greater Catholic League and other talent-rich leagues in the Cincinnati and Louisville area.
The rich high school tradition is part of Cincinnati’s identity as much as college football and the NFL. At Ohio State, Fickell may not have recruited southern Ohio as much as he did the northern part of the state, but he knows the coaches and they know him.
“One of the great things about college football is understanding the culture of the area, what the city wants to see, what it takes to make the city thrive,” Fickell said. “I have a relationship with coaches in a 300-mile radius. The University of Cincinnati had 28 draft picks in the last 15 years and 18 of them are from Ohio.”
He has already had huge success on the recruiting trail, gaining commitments from two of the top 15 prospects in Ohio from the class of 2018.
The future at Cincinnati seems bright, based on its recent past. The Bearcats had an undefeated regular season as recently as 2009, when were ranked No. 3 in the final Bowl Championship Series standings and nearly gained a spot in the National Championship Game. There is no reason why the Bearcats can’t quickly become a contender in The American. In fact, the Bearcats have won nine or more games in seven of the last nine years.
Fickell inherits a team that temporarily lost its way offensively in a fluid league and must replace its top three tacklers, including linebacker Eric Wilson, who led The American with 129 stops. Fickell brought in Mike Denbrock, a former Notre Dame assistant to be his offensive coordinator and former Ohio State linebacker Marcus Freeman as his defensive coordinator to help right the ship.
A lot will depend on how far skill position players, like quarterbacks Hayden Moore and Ross Trail, running back Mike Boone and wide receiver Devin Gray, can take the Bearcats in the offensive-minded American. Boone rushed for 749 yards and seven touchdowns in 2015, but was limited to nine games last year. Gray had 58 catches last season for 860 yards and five touchdowns.
The defense, judging from the team’s spring game, should be better with junior defensive tackle Cortez Broughton and senior safety Tyrell Gilbert now it is playing with a renewed sense of urgency.
Fickell is not putting any limits on this team.
“We have enough talent here to be able to play for championships,” he said. “I don’t think that’s something where we have to say, ‘Oh, we have to build for that for two or three years.’ I really believe we have enough talent to do that.”
Does that mean challenging for the American’s East Division?
“No, the whole thing,” said Fickell. “We are not going to shy away from that.”