The Ohio State Buckeyes could be seeing a familiar face more consistently as Luke Fickell is reportedly the frontrunner for the Michigan State head coaching position.
This report comes just hours after Mark Dantonio stepped down as Michigan State’s head football coach. Dantonio has been the Spartans’ coach since 2007 and has recorded six winning seasons in that time.
As for Fickell, he started off his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Ohio State, left for Akron and returned to eventually become the program’s defensive coordinator.
After the 2016 season, Fickell left to take the head coaching position at Cincinnati, a program he’s completely turned around. After a 4-8 win season in 2017, Fickell has gone 22-5 in the last two seasons.
That type of success gets big-time programs like Michigan State looking, and Fickell may soon be the Spartans coach.
Luke Fickell the front-runner to replace Mark Dantonio at Michigan State, sources say https://t.co/GLskdjyfOx
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) February 4, 2020
“Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell is the front-runner to replace Mark Dantonio as Michigan State’s football coach, multiple sources with knowledge of the athletic department’s thinking told the Free Press on Tuesday,” Detroit Free Press‘ Chris Solari reported.
This will be quite the development and a testament to how skilled of a coach Fickell is. Trained at Ohio State, it should make the university proud to see his continued success.
The only question if the offer comes, is if Fickell is willing to make the leap to another team with a different view of rivalry with Michigan.