Luke Fickell on Ohio State tenure: Working under three Hall of Fame coaches was invaluable

New Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell has significant Big Ten coaching experience in his past, with 16 years of his coaching career spent at Ohio State in various roles. How much did his Ohio State tenure prepare him for his new Power 5 coaching gig, which will pit him directly against the Buckeyes?

Fickell downplayed the importance of being at Ohio State, in particular, focusing instead on the opportunities those stints provided him.

“I don’t know that it was where I was,” Fickell said. “I think that the great fortunes I had is I was able to keep my family at one place for 16 years and be with three Hall of Fame coaches.

“So I had the good fortunes to play for and then be a GA for John Cooper, then I had the great fortune to coach for Jim Tressel for 10 years, nine, 10 years, and then with Urban Meyer for five. Obviously it was unique that I was at my alma mater, but I got incredible experiences in three different leadership styles and never had to move my family.”

That dichotomy, both the continuity in personal life that allowed for a comfortable focus on career development and a lack of continuity in terms of exposure to different bosses, helped mold him into the promising young coach he has become.

Fickell put together a 57-18 record as head coach at Cincinnati from 2017-21 before earning the Wisconsin gig.

“So I look at myself and say I had incredible fortune, not just to win games and to see how it’s done, but to do it and be able to see how three Hall of Fame coaches have done it and done it in different ways,” Fickell said. “I treasure those experiences.”

Ohio State tenure molded Luke Fickell, but it doesn’t define him

One thing Fickell was careful to mention was that he is not any of those Hall of Famers. He plans to take his own, unique style of leadership to Madison, Wisc.

“I’m none of the three,” he said. “I think that’s what I’m very fortunate to be able to see. No matter what, you take a piece from every single one of those guys, but you’ve got to be authentic and you’ve got to be who you are.”

More than anything, Fickell seemed appreciative of the diverse experience he had despite being in one place for so long.

“I don’t know if I would understand that had I only been with one, had I only been with two, had I not seen it be done and be successful,” he said. “So like I said, when I stood up here today, I didn’t thank those guys. There was a lot of people that I couldn’t thank, but if I was here today right now to say, ‘OK, what’s helped you get to where you are?’ it’s having the ability to be around John Cooper, to be around Jim Tressel, Urban Meyer and I throw Lee Owens in, in two years at the University of Akron.

“That’s what has helped shape me into the coach and leader I am today.”