vball10set;914333 wrote:IMO, Luke Fickell was never seriously considered for this job. His lack of head coaching experience made this too big for him, but because of the timing of JT's resignation, and being that the administration needed a conduit that's familiar with the program until next season, I believe they gave him this grand stage to audition for a HC job elsewhere....and maybe come back to THE OSU in the future.
My prediction for next season's coach? Urban Meyer, with a completely new staff (maybe keeping Vrabel)
Luke won't be seriously considered for the job. I don't think any decision one way or another has been made. I think he'll definitely be interviewed. What happens if Meyer isn't interested or is he interviews and says no? You then have to interview others. Even though this is Ohio State it's possible that their first or second choice may not be interested and Fickell then becomes the top guy on the list of candidates and is offered the job. Let's also remember that even though some other big time schools have promoted a coordinator to head coach with success usually those guys have had years of experience as coordinators at major schools (JimBo Fisher is the first name that comes to mind, and he had been an offensive coordinator for over 10 years at LSU, where he won a title, and at Florida State). Let's remember that Fickell has never been a coordinator by himself and that he had only been a co-coordinator for 4 years before being named head coach.
I think that Heacock stands the best chance of being retained by a new coach. The defense has been the strongest aspect of this team for the past decade, he's been coaching at OSU for 13 years, and the defense has statistically been the best in school history since he took over as coordinator, with no significant statistical improvement when Fickell was named his co-coordinator.
As far as who OSU's next coach will be, Urban Meyer is the obvious choice, but I think that this school can (and should) make phone calls to a lot of people to gauge their interest. These are the names that, in my opinion, OSU should at least give a courtesy call.
Urban Meyer
Nick Saban
Jon Gruden
Bo Pelini
Bob Stoops
Pete Carol
Mark Dantonio
Darryl Hazel
Now I know that some of these people will say "thanks, but no thanks" and at least one we probably shouldn't even call (Carol), but all of these guys have ties to Ohio and/or Ohio State, so I think that the school owes it to itself to call the biggest names possible since this is one of the biggest jobs in college football, if not the biggest.
