KOCH: Inside the Search Which Brought Luke Fickell To UC
By Bill Koch
GoBearcats.com
CINCINNATI -- After University of Cincinnati Director of Athletics Mike Bohn locked in on Ohio State defensive coordinatorLuke Fickell as the primary target during his search for a head football coach, he conducted the interview not in the sterile confines of a hotel or an airport, as some athletic directors do, but in Fickell's home in the northwest Columbus suburb of Powell.
"I think that was really a key piece for us to be able to be on their turf, if you will, to really get a good sense of his comfort zone associated with us and our process and what we were doing," Bohn said. "His wife, Amy, and all his kids were home. That's what I prefer to do. I think that's important.
"The meeting occurred last Thursday, December 8, two days before UC announced that Fickell, 43, had been hired to replace Tommy Tuberville, who resigned on Dec. 4 after four years as the Bearcats' head coach.
But long before Bohn interviewed Fickell, he and his staff had done extensive research on Fickell, including the use of data analytics to vet all 12 of the candidates on Bohn's original list. Bohn said he had never used such research before during a coaching search, but he decided to tap into the expertise of a UC graduate who had a past relationship with the athletic department and expressed a desire to help in the search.
"Having a University of Cincinnati graduate expressing a desire to help us was intriguing," Bohn said.
According to Brandon Sosna, Bohn's chief of staff, a simulation on each candidate starting with the personnel on the current UC roster was run 100,000 times to produce a four-year projection of how the team would perform.
"There are a few characteristics of coaches that are consistent no matter where they go or what they do," Sosna said. "Things like turnover margin tend to follow coaches. Penalties per game tends to follow coaches, and tempo. You're either an up-tempo coach or you slow down but you don't tend to change over time.
"Naturally, since Fickell is a defensive coach, "We were able to assess the defense a lot better than we would his offense," Sosna said. "But there were some core assumptions based on what we knew we could assess, that we would be running a version of an up-tempo spread offense."
The computer analysis projected UC's win-loss record, points for and against, and where the Bearcats would finish in conference play based on what is currently known about UC's schedules during the next four years. Sosna said Fickell gave the Bearcats their best chance over a four-year period to win a conference championship at about an 80 percent probability.
Bohn's early conversations with Fickell included assurance from him that he would run an up-tempo, spread offense.
"The very first question we asked him was, we know all about you defensively, but we want to talk about offense," Bohn said. "He was excited to talk about that. That excited us that he understood he wanted to be up-tempo, spread.
"But he also liked the fact that Fickell was a defensive coach.
As Sosna explained it, when Fickell was working under Jim Tressel at Ohio State, the Buckeyes ran a conservative Power-I offense that relied on ball control and defense. After Tressell was forced out in 2011, the Buckeyes turned to current OSU head coach Urban Meyer, following one year in which Fickell was the head coach.Meyer favored a wide-open passing offense with less emphasis on dominating time of possession.
"The performance of the Ohio State defense was the same," Sosna said. "They were still a top 10, top 15 defense every single year. The fact that he was able to continue to scheme such a great defense despite the polar opposites in terms of coaching styles on the offensive side, his ability to keep that continuity of performance on defense was really valuable.
"The other thing is that in (the American Athletic Conference) the ability of a defensive coach to be successful was more important than in some because you've got Bob Diaco (at Connecticut) and Willie Fritz (at Tulane) and now Luke Fickell, Geoff Collins (at Temple) and Charlie Strong at USF (who are defensive coaches). Everybody else is an offensive coach. So there's greater value placed on those that coach on the defensive side of the ball in our league. It's an equalizer for our league."
Armed with that information, Bohn talked to sources across the country, including former UC head coach Mark Dantonio, now the head coach at Michigan State, and OSU's Meyer, to learn more about Fickell."
When you have the opportunity to visit with Mark Dantonio, who loves UC and got his start here in `04, which is not that long ago, to be able to share his thoughts and talk specifically about our market, our University, our program, was invaluable," Bohn said. "Then you add Urban and obviously he's a UC grad. Then you start talking with other coaches around the country that are well-respected and offer a perspective and you hear from high school coaches, you hear from recruits, you hear from former players. You hear from people associated with their families and their personal background."
Dantonio's opinion was especially meaningful because of his past relationship with both UC and Ohio State, where he worked as the Buckeyes' defensive coordinator before he was hired by athletic director Bob Goin to take over a UC program that was about to make the transition from Conference USA to the Big East Conference."
I first got to know Luke in 2002, the year we won the national championship (at Ohio State)," Dantonio said. "He came in as a linebackers coach and I just found him to be very engaging, a great recruiter, an outstanding coach. He's got great relationships with the players. I think he has a plan. He's had unparalleled success as the defensive coordinator at Ohio State."
Dantonio said Fickell reached out to him to solicit his opinion about the UC job.
"I think this is something he wanted and set out to be able to get," Dantonio said. "I told him UC is a great place, I think you can win there. I think he's a natural fit because he's from Ohio. There are a lot of good people that are still there and they've made great improvement since I was there in terms of facilities. It's also become more of a fan draw in the last 10 years."
Fickell is an Ohio native who graduated from Columbus' DeSales High School, where he was a three-time state wrestling champion. He started at nose guard for Ohio State for four seasons and spent a total of 16 years coaching the Buckeyes in different roles.
Those Ohio ties were very important to Bohn."A lot of people referred to him as Mr. Ohio," Bohn said. "He knows where players have been. He knows the coaches they played for. He knows who their brothers are. He understands that history. I believe that connection to Ohio was vital in being able to articulate the connection to young men in this region that we want to have be a part of our football team."Bohn first talked to Fickell about the job via cellphone on Tuesday, Dec. 6. The interview in Fickell's home two days later went well, Bohn said, but he didn't offer him the job right away."We all decided to sleep on it and continue to engage all our different leadership groups, communicating with the president (Beverly Davenport), communicating with others," Bohn said. "I think you begin to find some energy behind a candidate and then it keeps moving forward and then it went another day of continued research, background checks, phone calls to former players, players, teammates and got to the point finally where we were able to offer him the job." Contract details were worked out Saturday through Fickell's representation and UC announced his hiring later that day, followed by an introductory press conference in UC's Richard E. Lindner Center.Bohn said Fickell was not the only coach he interviewed. He acknowledged that Western Kentucky's Jeff Brohm and Western Michigan's P.J. Fleck were also on his original list. But Brohm quickly accepted the head coaching job at Purdue and Fleck reportedly is close to a new contract at Western Michigan.
By Bill Koch
GoBearcats.com
CINCINNATI -- After University of Cincinnati Director of Athletics Mike Bohn locked in on Ohio State defensive coordinatorLuke Fickell as the primary target during his search for a head football coach, he conducted the interview not in the sterile confines of a hotel or an airport, as some athletic directors do, but in Fickell's home in the northwest Columbus suburb of Powell.
"I think that was really a key piece for us to be able to be on their turf, if you will, to really get a good sense of his comfort zone associated with us and our process and what we were doing," Bohn said. "His wife, Amy, and all his kids were home. That's what I prefer to do. I think that's important.
"The meeting occurred last Thursday, December 8, two days before UC announced that Fickell, 43, had been hired to replace Tommy Tuberville, who resigned on Dec. 4 after four years as the Bearcats' head coach.
But long before Bohn interviewed Fickell, he and his staff had done extensive research on Fickell, including the use of data analytics to vet all 12 of the candidates on Bohn's original list. Bohn said he had never used such research before during a coaching search, but he decided to tap into the expertise of a UC graduate who had a past relationship with the athletic department and expressed a desire to help in the search.
"Having a University of Cincinnati graduate expressing a desire to help us was intriguing," Bohn said.
According to Brandon Sosna, Bohn's chief of staff, a simulation on each candidate starting with the personnel on the current UC roster was run 100,000 times to produce a four-year projection of how the team would perform.
"There are a few characteristics of coaches that are consistent no matter where they go or what they do," Sosna said. "Things like turnover margin tend to follow coaches. Penalties per game tends to follow coaches, and tempo. You're either an up-tempo coach or you slow down but you don't tend to change over time.
"Naturally, since Fickell is a defensive coach, "We were able to assess the defense a lot better than we would his offense," Sosna said. "But there were some core assumptions based on what we knew we could assess, that we would be running a version of an up-tempo spread offense."
The computer analysis projected UC's win-loss record, points for and against, and where the Bearcats would finish in conference play based on what is currently known about UC's schedules during the next four years. Sosna said Fickell gave the Bearcats their best chance over a four-year period to win a conference championship at about an 80 percent probability.
Bohn's early conversations with Fickell included assurance from him that he would run an up-tempo, spread offense.
"The very first question we asked him was, we know all about you defensively, but we want to talk about offense," Bohn said. "He was excited to talk about that. That excited us that he understood he wanted to be up-tempo, spread.
"But he also liked the fact that Fickell was a defensive coach.
As Sosna explained it, when Fickell was working under Jim Tressel at Ohio State, the Buckeyes ran a conservative Power-I offense that relied on ball control and defense. After Tressell was forced out in 2011, the Buckeyes turned to current OSU head coach Urban Meyer, following one year in which Fickell was the head coach.Meyer favored a wide-open passing offense with less emphasis on dominating time of possession.
"The performance of the Ohio State defense was the same," Sosna said. "They were still a top 10, top 15 defense every single year. The fact that he was able to continue to scheme such a great defense despite the polar opposites in terms of coaching styles on the offensive side, his ability to keep that continuity of performance on defense was really valuable.
"The other thing is that in (the American Athletic Conference) the ability of a defensive coach to be successful was more important than in some because you've got Bob Diaco (at Connecticut) and Willie Fritz (at Tulane) and now Luke Fickell, Geoff Collins (at Temple) and Charlie Strong at USF (who are defensive coaches). Everybody else is an offensive coach. So there's greater value placed on those that coach on the defensive side of the ball in our league. It's an equalizer for our league."
Armed with that information, Bohn talked to sources across the country, including former UC head coach Mark Dantonio, now the head coach at Michigan State, and OSU's Meyer, to learn more about Fickell."
When you have the opportunity to visit with Mark Dantonio, who loves UC and got his start here in `04, which is not that long ago, to be able to share his thoughts and talk specifically about our market, our University, our program, was invaluable," Bohn said. "Then you add Urban and obviously he's a UC grad. Then you start talking with other coaches around the country that are well-respected and offer a perspective and you hear from high school coaches, you hear from recruits, you hear from former players. You hear from people associated with their families and their personal background."
Dantonio's opinion was especially meaningful because of his past relationship with both UC and Ohio State, where he worked as the Buckeyes' defensive coordinator before he was hired by athletic director Bob Goin to take over a UC program that was about to make the transition from Conference USA to the Big East Conference."
I first got to know Luke in 2002, the year we won the national championship (at Ohio State)," Dantonio said. "He came in as a linebackers coach and I just found him to be very engaging, a great recruiter, an outstanding coach. He's got great relationships with the players. I think he has a plan. He's had unparalleled success as the defensive coordinator at Ohio State."
Dantonio said Fickell reached out to him to solicit his opinion about the UC job.
"I think this is something he wanted and set out to be able to get," Dantonio said. "I told him UC is a great place, I think you can win there. I think he's a natural fit because he's from Ohio. There are a lot of good people that are still there and they've made great improvement since I was there in terms of facilities. It's also become more of a fan draw in the last 10 years."
Fickell is an Ohio native who graduated from Columbus' DeSales High School, where he was a three-time state wrestling champion. He started at nose guard for Ohio State for four seasons and spent a total of 16 years coaching the Buckeyes in different roles.
Those Ohio ties were very important to Bohn."A lot of people referred to him as Mr. Ohio," Bohn said. "He knows where players have been. He knows the coaches they played for. He knows who their brothers are. He understands that history. I believe that connection to Ohio was vital in being able to articulate the connection to young men in this region that we want to have be a part of our football team."Bohn first talked to Fickell about the job via cellphone on Tuesday, Dec. 6. The interview in Fickell's home two days later went well, Bohn said, but he didn't offer him the job right away."We all decided to sleep on it and continue to engage all our different leadership groups, communicating with the president (Beverly Davenport), communicating with others," Bohn said. "I think you begin to find some energy behind a candidate and then it keeps moving forward and then it went another day of continued research, background checks, phone calls to former players, players, teammates and got to the point finally where we were able to offer him the job." Contract details were worked out Saturday through Fickell's representation and UC announced his hiring later that day, followed by an introductory press conference in UC's Richard E. Lindner Center.Bohn said Fickell was not the only coach he interviewed. He acknowledged that Western Kentucky's Jeff Brohm and Western Michigan's P.J. Fleck were also on his original list. But Brohm quickly accepted the head coaching job at Purdue and Fleck reportedly is close to a new contract at Western Michigan.
