CFP COTTON BOWL: Fickell's rise the biggest reason for Cincinnati's success
Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell addresses the media during preparations for the 2021 Goodyear Cotton Bowl in Arlington, Texas. (Courtesy Cotton Bowl media relations)
By GRAHAM DUNN
ARLINGTON, Texas – It might not be the most important question to be asked this week as part of the Goodyear Cotton Bowl.
But it must be asked.
Who is Luke Fickell and how did he lead the Cincinnati Bearcats to the 2021 College Football Playoff?
In his fifth year as a head coach, Fickell has become the answer to a trivia question – who is the first coach in the Group of 5 to lead his team to a semifinal game?
It might not sound like much now but even a few years ago it wasn’t possible, at least listening to the pundits.
But Fickell isn’t interested in such drivel. He’s a no-nonsense type of coach who grew up wanting to be a Ohio State Buckeye and got that chance becaming the program’s defensive coordinator. And before that he was part of two conference championship teams at Ohio State.
”I know for us and our program, to be able to keep as much of our core nucleus of people together so that our 18- to 22-year-olds are continuing to hear and see a very similar message year in and year out, but the same types of people that they're around, whether they're being recruited by or developed by, to me is a big deal,” he said.
“And as we take that next step and try to become a top-10 program, it has a lot to do with being able to sustain and maintain the people that you've put around these guys. And we've been very fortunate so far.”
He’s done it the old-fashioned way. In a time where flashy offenses are the norm, Fickell keeps it simple - win with defense.
If he has found himself looking for help, his gaze has turned south.
“If I've said it once, I've said it several times. I don't have a whole lot of mentors,” Fickell explained. “Again, just not being in a whole lot of different places. So the fortunate thing I've been able to do is to study guys from afar. And unfortunately, never really have got a chance to know Coach (Nick) Saban or even spend any time around his program other than studying it from a distance.
“And I've said it from the get-go, when he went to Alabama, I thought there was nobody that did a better job, not just coaching but evaluating and bringing in and developing talent than what I observed he did and he did throughout his program.
“And one of my great mentors in Jim Tressel always said, “It's one thing to be able to get to the top of the mountain. It's another thing to be able to sustain it.” And he used to always say, “It's ten times harder to sustain that greatness once you can get there and reach those tops of the mountains. “
Saban has praised Fickell and the Cincinnati program since the pairing was announced on Dec. 5.
”I'm extremely impressed,” Saban said. “I've always had a lot of respect and admiration for Luke when he was a defensive coordinator. I think he's done a fantastic job of building a program. And I think the indication of that, not knowing sort of the internal parts of it, is when you look at what's happening on the field. The way their players play, the way they compete, the discipline that they have, you know it's a very structured organization that's creating a lot of value and teaching a lot of people what they need to do to be successful.
“And that's something that we always have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for. They obviously have a lot of really good players, so they've done a good job of attracting good talent, which is always an important part of having a good team. But those good players are also being developed in a very positive way to help them be successful.”
It’s been pointed out a few times in the last few weeks – Fickell was on the sidelines when his defense played a big part in Ohio States’ upset of Bama in the first CFP semifinal in the 2015 Sugar Bowl. He understands the importance of extra time for preparation and that will be on display on Friday.
“I think the messaging starts all the way back when we first kind of phase one of this thing,” he said. “And even though we weren't preparing maybe in those first two phases for just what we're going to see as far as schematically from Alabama, we were really kind of into the messaging of what it is that we needed to do and how we needed to be thinking how we were attacking this thing.
I don't know that the last minute before we take the field is anything that's going to make a huge impact on the game, but I think the last two and a half weeks, just the mindset of how we have gone about all of this, it comes back from the entire season. It comes back from the end of last year, to be honest with you.”
Chances are pretty good that Fickell’s stay at Cincinnati will be a short one in the coming years. His name was floated out in “Rumorland” that he would be the next coach at Notre Dame after Brian Kelly took the job at LSU.
The prep for the next gig continues.
“I think that handling those different things, it's not always yourself because, obviously, we know what's going on inside our own heads more than anything,” he said. “And personally been through it a lot, just from where I was in the past.
But every time you're going (a new season), it's a bit different because of the people that are around you. And I mean that with a lot of times 18- to 22-year-olds. And who you're depending on and who you're counting on has a big part of that.
So everybody handles it a little bit different. You hope you can continue to pound into their minds the things that you want them to recognize and understand and see, and the traps that are out there with all the different things that can happen.
But what it comes down to is, hey, this isn't one guy. This isn't two or three guys. It's amazing what the group of guys have got to be able to handle this together more than anything else.”