Ohio State Football: Luke Fickell's New Role Can Do Wonders for Buckeye Defense

Luke Fickell, after a very tough year filling in as the interim coach for the beleaguered Jim Tressel, has moved back to defensive assistant under Urban Meyer.

While he won't have a pay decrease, he will be going back to the role he had just a year ago: defensive coordinator and linebackers coach.

Fickell's move to LB coach/DC means Mike Vrabel will coach the defensive line, the latter's position during his time at Ohio State.

For Fickell, this is a move back to the spot where he made the biggest impact, turning out many talented LBs, including James Laurinaitis, Ross Homan and Brian Rolle among others.

And after the way the linebackers for Ohio State played last season, Fickell will have his work cut out for him.

The linebacking corps for the Buckeyes last season was utterly awful at times, showing poor passing coverage and ability to contain the perimeter, especially in the final few games of the season.

Only Andrew Sweat is gone from that group, meaning there will be plenty of experience coming back this season.

Etienne Sabino and Ryan Shazier are probably the two most likely players to start at this moment, both players from Florida.

The other starting job, however, is still very much up for grabs, with Storm Klein and Curtis Grant among the favorites to take the job in spring and fall practices.

But probably the most important aspect of having Fickell being back as strictly a defensive assistant is his aggressive mentality.

As the co-defensive coordinator for the last two seasons, Fickell had an SEC-style type of defense, a group of players that played fast, that attacked downhill with aggression. And it worked very well, as they forced turnovers and shut teams down for large parts of games.

With Fickell forced into the head coaching role, that same aggression from the past two seasons vanished, replaced by blandness and conservatism.

Those days should be over.

Meyer likely won't let his team's defense sit back and be a passive unit. With an offense that is under construction for this upcoming season, it will be up to an aggressive defense to help ease the learning curve.

That is Fickell's job: Crank up the tempo, crank up the intensity and get the Silver Bullets back on track.

He will have his time to get back to what made him one of the top assistants in college football a year ago.

Now with a small rebuilding project at his feet, it's his time to prove it.

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