Ohio State Football: Meet Luke Fickell, Co-Defensive Coordinator and LBs Coach

To most in the Big Ten, Luke Fickell is a pretty well-known name by now. Fickell became the second-youngest coach in the Big Ten last season as he took over for disgraced and ousted coach Jim Tressel on a de facto interim basis (Fickell's "interim" tag was officially removed before the 2011 season). The Buckeyes struggled, Urban Meyer was hired and Fickell went back to being an Ohio State assistant.

But that's not a whole lot to actually know about the guy, is it? He's still only 38, and he's got the same extremely bright future in coaching that he had 12 months ago. So, let's look back on the Luke Fickell that was and look forward to the Luke Fickell that will be.

Fickell, like fellow defensive coach Mike Vrabel, is a Buckeye through and through. Fickell spent four years as Ohio State's starting nose tackle in the mid-1990s, registering 50 starts in the middle of the line before a knee injury halted an NFL career that wasn't very promising to begin with.

Fickell spent a year as a graduate assistant back at Ohio State before being hired as Akron's defensive line coach; he was back in Columbus as the Buckeyes' special teams coach just two seasons later, and he hasn't left since.

By 2010, after nine seasons as a full-time Buckeye assistant, Fickell had progressed from special teams coordinator to linebackers coach and co-defensive coordinator, a position he holds today. His ascension did not go unnoticed, and the American Football Coaches Association named him the Assistant Coach of the Year in 2010.

A few months later, of course, all hell broke loose at Ohio State, and by the time all the pieces had stopped moving, Fickell was in charge of the program. Without a starting quarterback who was anywhere near the level of the permanently ineligible Terrelle Pryor, the Buckeyes struggled, but Fickell helped the future of the program immensely by installing true freshman Braxton Miller as the permanent starter early on, no matter how rough a transition it would be.

As it turns out, Miller's first season as starting quarterback wasn't so good. He wasn't ready to play, and he wasn't recruited to be ready to play in that first year. In a different world, he'd be a redshirt freshman this year. But Fickell eschewed the traditional logic of giving the starting nod to his senior (in this case, the also-frightening Joe Bauserman) and trying to maximize his win total in his one year of service in deference to the greater long-term good of the program. It's a move that probably worked.

And then, with the hiring of Meyer, Fickell went right back to his old role with the program, which was the right move for all involved.

One doesn't have to look very far for another young assistant pressed into an interim head coaching position, only to take the job on a more permanent basis several years down the line. Over in Lincoln, Bo Pelini was only 36 when, as the then-Nebraska defensive coordinator, he was asked to coach the Huskers in the Alamo Bowl in 2003 after the firing of Frank Solich.

Pelini wasn't hired as the permanent coach—Bill Callahan was, and Callahan didn't retain Pelini. Bad decisions were made. Pelini had cups of coffee at Oklahoma and LSU before returning to the sidelines in Lincoln as the head coach in 2007. A good decision was made.

So even if it's not an exact replica of Fickell's unique situation, there's precedent for the idea that he could get some looks from major programs as a head coach down the road in a few years. A smart mid-level program should make an offer this season, but it's unlikely that Fickell would listen, even though he's probably got a long wait in front of him in Columbus with Meyer only nine years his elder.

There'll be something good down the road for Fickell, though, and probably very soon. In the meantime, Ohio State's wunderkind co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach is even more experienced and game-ready than he was 12 months ago, and that portends very good things for the Ohio State defense in 2012 and beyond.