RE: Fickell Previews Camp
Nice article on Fick:
Paul Daugherty: Relax Bearcats fans, Luke Fickell is no Brian Kelly or Butch Jones
Paul Daugherty, Cincinnati Enquirer Published 4:39 p.m. ET Aug. 7, 2019
Coach Luke Fickell discusses Cincinnati Bearcats football's first day practicing in pads. Fletcher Page, fpage@enquirer..com
WEST HARRISON, INDIANA – He has never sought a job. Luke Fickell has never had His Guy call Your Guy to set up a meeting to talk about a Special Opportunity. He was two years into his first coaching job as Akron’s defensive line coach, in 2002, when Ohio State called. The Buckeyes needed a special teams coordinator.
“You interested?’’ they asked him.
“Sure,’’ Fickell said. Why not? He was an alumnus and a very good player there. What young assistant wouldn’t want Ohio State on his resume?
“Then why did you never call or send us anything?’’ when the job came open, the Buckeyes contact wanted to know.
“I didn’t want the kids I coached to think I was looking for something else,’’ said Fickell.
A few minutes later in our interview, Fickell offers a similar story from last offseason. A school or its representative (presumably West Virginia) called to assess Fickell’s interest in the Mountaineers job. Fickell said to his wife Amy, “I don’t know if I could look Josh Whyle in the face if I walked out of here a year after he got here.’’
Whyle is currently a redshirt freshman tight end at UC, a LaSalle High grad, and someone Fickell and his staff recruited hard two years ago. Fickell’s thinking was, I’m going to sell this kid on me and UC, then take off at the first opportunity?
Lots of coaches do exactly that. Ambition is more often served than loyalty in big-time college sports. So why do I think Fickell is different? Why is his line convincing? He uses words such as “loyalty’’ and “commitment’’ and my highly tuned, been-here-30-years BS Meter doesn’t roar like a jet engine.
It did with Brian Kelly. It did with Butch Jones. Boy, did it ever. It did with Sean Miller and Thad Matta. Chris Mack and Mick Cronin, too, though to a far lesser extent.
Not Fickell. Why not Fickell?
He’s a college coach. Leaving is what college coaches do, and it’s OK. You don’t want a football coach who sees UC as his dream job. You want strivers, careerists, fast-trackers. Having both a striver and a stayer is impossible, isn’t it?
Maybe not.
“I’m not a short-term plan guy,’’ Fickell says. “I’m not a guy that thinks beyond the job I have right now. That’s why I never pursued being a head coach. I was wrapped up’’ in the moment.
He’s different today than when he arrived three offseasons ago. He freely admits that. “I’m much more conscious of what the team needs, the staff needs,’’ Fickell says. “The first year, it was more what I needed. To prove something, to make sure these guys were tough.
“Grind and grind. Sometimes that’s my mentality. I need pressure. I need conflict.” Players don’t always need that. Theirs is a different kind of grind.
(This post was last modified: 08-07-2019 04:39 PM by dsquare.)
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