So, we finally have the identity of the Ohio State assistant who wanted this job: Luke Fickell. Eight years on Tressel's staff....a personal recommendation by Tressel, along with a donation to UA....and the Zips (err, their outsider, Tom Wistrcill) opted for an unproven non-coach to lead this program.

This is a disgrace and an embarrassment. Zips fans should demand an explanation.

I share some of your frustration, but I don't quite see it as a day-and-night difference. This guy has never been a head coach either, is much younger, and has been a position coach himself, and more recently a "co-defensive coordinator", whatever that means.

It says on his coaching record that he was a line coach here about 10 years? I don't remember that. However, I don't make a practice out of following the careers of Cowlumbus State football players.

Here's Fickell's bio page and photo.

Yeah, notice all of the practical coaching experience...for one of the top D-1 programs in the nation. And an Ohio guy, to boot.

This is what we COULD HAVE (SHOULD HAVE) had here at Akron:

http://www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com/ViewArtic...p;Q_SEASON=2010

Click to view attachment

One HUGE difference is that this guy is from OHIO, which to me, means that he would care about Akron and would have an understanding of football in Ohio.

Akron's biggest mistake was hiring Tom Wistrcill. Hunter Yurachek should have moved up for continuity and his understanding of Akron.

One problem....to make him feel at home, how would we schedule the same cupcake schedule that OSU has to deal with for 50% of the year? Maybe we could schedule a couple High School teams? That would be about the same skill differential right now.

I thought you guys wanted someone with head coaching experience....evidently that's why JD and RI have failed...

you mean the "cupcake teams" that OSU killed and we in turn got killed by?

We essentially play OSU's cupcake schedule...difference is it's 9 out of our 12 games each year and not 4 or 5.

Who cares about Jim Tressel.

He offers to make a donation, so his "guy" can get the job? If he's bribing AD's, can brown paper bags full of cash on recruiting visits be far behind?!

Think TW reads ZN.o?

Anyone notice this a few days ago?




obviously not really him but pretty funny.

What makes anyone think Fickell would make a good HC?

He is co-defensive coordinator. He isn't even the d-coordinator.

He has never been a HC either. He was on the Akron staff a while back, but he has proven nothing.

We need to get an experienced HC. Someone that has been a consistent winner. There are guys like that available at the lower levels.

Actually it's 12 out of our 12 games. Every single team Akron plays would be a cupcake to a top 20 team.
Certain irrational fans don't see that.

I agree it is a disgrace and embarrassment. I demand an explanation.... What evidence is there that this guy wanted the job?

Tell that to Kentucky, who knocked off the #10 team in the country and nearly knocked off Auburn in the last few weeks.

Or, Syracuse, NIU and Temple, who are all now in the Top-50 in RPI.

Yes, many teams we play would be cupcakes to a Top 20 team, but to put every team we play into that category is just a huge exaggeration.

Kentucky is the only one that even makes sense there. And even they got beat up quite a bit. Every team can play a good game or 2, but an entire season tells the story.

Syracuse, NIU and Temple would be smashed by most of the top 20. The only chance they would have is if the other team was on a down week. Which does happen. Upsets happen.

I saw that same login a few nights ago, too. Glad you captured it. Pretty funny

Does schedule strength matter when we can't win any I-A games and lost to a very mediocre I-AA school? We need to schedule games that we can be competitive in and likely win and build from there. We have a long way to go before complaining about our strength of schedule.

Guess WVU must have had a down week...

What difference does iit make now who we would've or should've gotten. We got RI. And we will have to live with him for at least 1 more year and more likely 2 more years before the ax may fall.

Every team does.

I'm just confused how all of this supports your "Every single team Akron plays would be a cupcake to a Top-20 team" quote.

You should know by now, Suckeyes fans are not the smartest. They always believe their team is the greatest, and no matter how many games they lose, or haw many times it is proven, they will not accept the fact. They are just flat out overrated. ESPN said it themselves, fine you are better than Akron thats something to be proud of....not. There's a reason no one likes OSwho fans. Fair weather and no matter how bad Akron does, you'll never see us crying on the street corner like I saw so many people do in their stupid red and gray, that night they got spanked by Wisconsin. I even saw idiots turning their jerseys inside out! please get real.

I'm ambivalent about Ohio State, but the pure hatred some of you have for Ohio State is amazing. I could care less if they win or if they lose.

What I know is that Jim Tressel walks around with the same The University of Akron on his resume that all of you who graduated from here do and those who are planning on graduating from here some day will. He has coached multiple National Championship teams at 1-AA and one at 1-A. Charlie Weiss the guy who recommended RI (I imagine) has none of those and is a faiulre at the HC ranks. Fickel started his coaching career here and knows the area better than RI could possible know the area. He's from Ohio and played football in Ohio. How these don't add up to him being a better candidate than RI is beyond me.

At the end of this season we are going to be sitting with an 0-12 record and a coach whose team has looked worse than they did the first game of the season. He is a complete and utter failure. To flog someone because they believe another assistant coach from another school that more logically fits with our situation is idiotic. You're right he doesn't have past HC experience but he still fits our situation better and IMHO would have been a much better fit with our program. Not to mention (like it or not) he at least came from a winning program. On top of it look at what the "Recruiter" left behind in South Bend....a 4-4 program that got their ass handed to them by Navy last week. How does he even get the reputation of being an excellent recruiter when the program sucks soooooo bad!

Where in the hell did I say a thing about OSU? Answer the question. Where?
Where did I say how great they are? Where?

Nowhere, that's where.

Yeah, OSU fans think their team is the greatest..ROFLMAO. You would change your mind if you ever visited an OSU baord. But you would rather spout off your ignorance rather than know any facts, so you would never do that.

Wow, showing a picture of an upset OSU player. Maybe you think they should just be ok with losing and just be totally apathetic towards it like Akron players seem to be. I guess other teams are partying after they lose.

Some of you are just so jealous and butthurt that you have to attack them in every thread that has nothing to do with them.

Akron plays a cupcake schedule. That has nothing to do with OSU playing a cupcake schedule or if OSU is over rated flat out sucks, or loses every game.
Wow, ESPin said something. ROFLMAO. Mark May, the biggest douchebag in all of broadcasting.

Really, Did someone on the UA board actually call others fair weather? The board that has an entire thread of posters saying they won't waste their money on UA. You are completely clueless and I really hope you aren't a UA grad or alum. You certainly wouldn't make me proud to know we went to the same school.

Well guess what son, I came home for a weekend and actually went to an Akron game that 1 weekend out of the year I was home.

I still give money to my school every year. Do you? I doubt it.

You just come on here and attack that which you are jealous and butthurt over.

You are the fat girl on the beach that hates the trim/fit girl. You don't care that you may be smarter, have a better life or have better friends than she does. You just hate her because she is better looking. And all the denying that in the world doesn't change a thing.

You are right. They are always over rated. 5-3 in BCS games, top 10 year in and year out. The biggest game of the season for nearly every team they play. Bullseye on their back every week. Won the Rose Bowl last year over the Oregon team that was supposed to smack them, bal, bla, bla. Oops, there I go defending them.

YOUR ENTIRE POST IS JUST ONE BIG FAIL AND SHOWS HOW SMALL, JEALOUS AND BUTTHURT YOU ARE.

Carry on.

Please take your logic elsewhere... it obviously has no place on this thread.

Thanks to everyone for degrading this thread. Way to go. What was the point of it all?

Back to Fickell, the least we could have done is give him an interview like the other candidates instead of flat-out rejecting someone who was willing to walk into a difficult situation with the intention of helping us. Is it because he wasn't one of the search committee's recommendations? I don't recall Ianello as being one of their finalists, either.

Fickell draws parallels to Al Golden of Temple and his connection to Paterno and Penn State. That worked out pretty well for the Owls, don't you think?

Most intelligent post on this thread. Couldn't have said it better myself. If UA was simply INTENT on not hiring a HC with previous experience, how is a young, energetic, upbeat, former PLAYER and longtime assistant coach (for multiple positions) at a national championship school NOT a better fit than a recrooooter from who-knows-where?

Yep

Good post. This is the best part. ND just isn't bad, they are terrible and void of any talent. Navy has better talent....NAVY. I watched Wake almost beat Navy this season and Wake is terrible.

Getting back to a question I asked earlier. What evidence is there that LF is even interested in the program beyond the fact that he has a connection to UofA through his professional career? I'm sure he would like to see the Zips do well because he coached at UofA, but is there any REAL evidence he showed a level of interest beyond just a passing glance? Someone please provide that evidence.

None. Not only that he has no HC experience. There is no reason to believe he would be a good HC.

Lots of loose ends here.

Did Tressel out of the blue approach UA to recommend Fickell as head coach? If so, why on earth would a successful head coach voluntarily try to push out a good assistant and hurt his own team?

Or did Fickell ask Tressel to recommend him to UA as head coach? If so, it's understandable why a head coach would honor an assistant's wishes. But then why would a successful assistant on a successful team want to try to go to a down and out program at a school with no history of winning when his credentials might be strong enough to earn himself a head coaching gig at a winning program with more resources?

Or did none of this really happen? Did someone at UA merely mention Fickell as a potential candidate, and as it got passed on from person to person, embellishments were added and it morphed into a story that Tressel and Fickell did everything in their power to push Fickell as head coach, and UA wouldn't even pick up the phone?

Is there any way to separate fact from fantasy on this? I mean, someone almost talked me into believing they had seen Rodgers on the sideline during the first half of last week's game when I was certain he wasn't there, and the reality was that Rodgers was not there. So I'm more skeptical these days when someone's unsubstantiated opinion is passionately presented as gospel on ZN.O.

That's the question I always ask myself!! And what happened to all of the people who wanted nothing short of an experienced Head Coach? And now some of you want this young guy with no HC experience at all? And his title would indicate that he's a position coach, and some sort of assistant coordinator? Or shares the job? Heck, Rob was an Interim Head Coach, if titles mean anything. And has a lot more experience, if that means anything.

I originally got involved in this thread because the original poster seemed to be indicating that somehow Luke was light years ahead of ICoach in his qualifications for this job. I don't see it at all. Are other schools after his services?

I see some of the things that Big Zip points out. And it's certainly much easier in hindsight to point out the things we don't like about Rob. But, I am not seeing this no-brainer of a candidate in Luke that some people seem to see.

Luke comes from a top-10 program. Ianello comes from a program that wouldn't win the MAC. Their resumes are similar, but Luke has a previous conection to Akron and at least sees his team win as a position coach and co-coordinator (does that means he calls plays?), while Ianello's only conection to Akron was through the AD and his recent teams were terrible as the assistant head coach (but never called a play).

Ianello was so non-aggressive and had such a lack of leadership that he allowed his team (yes, it was his team as he was the interim head coach at the time) to opt out of a bowl game and the additional 15 practices that come with that, despite them clearly needing the extra time for underclassmen to improve for the next year and for seniors to prepare for the NFL draft. Instead, they quit, like how Ianello quits when he tells the offense to go for fieldgoals when down by 21. It should have been a red flag that he wasn't able to control a team or inspire confidence in the players.

You'll never get the UA administration to admit to anything regarding Luke, but if you find the right people "in the know," they can tell you that there is truth to this story. All of it.

As to why Fickell would want to leave OSU...well, every assistant at some point endeavors to move up the ladder. He has coached for nearly a decade under Tressel (another UA alum), and Luke is already familiar with UA. Everyone starts somewhere, and with the campus upgrades and Ohio ties, why wouldn't someone like him be interested in Akron? I'm sure the pay is a big step up from assistant, and it's good training for future positions elsewhere, if desired.

I'm surprised we have to dumb it down for so many commenters here. Aren't some points rather obvious?

((Oh, and Skip-Zip...if Ianello was in such demand, please name me one other D-1 school that ever offered him a HC job....or any that WILL offer him after we're finally rid of him.))

((Zach The Zip: Brilliant post. Spot on.))

I agree with what you say except for the issue of salary. I'm pretty sure that top assistants at programs like OSU are likely to earn more, and sometimes significantly more, than a MAC head coach. But, as you say, you've got start somewhere if your ambition is to be a head coach. And there are only so many openings each year. Fickell at Akron would have made sense. I know hindsight is 202/20 but he's the guy I was hoping would get the job.

Fickell makes $250k as a "co-coordinator". Ianello makes $350k as a head coach.

You do have to wonder how much excitement we could have seen by announcing his name as coach. As opposed to the incredibly neutral reaction surrounding Ianello's hire. Who was honestly excited about that? I don't think anyone outside of Wistrcill showed any excitement.

[/quote]

Fickell makes $250k as a "co-coordinator". Ianello makes $350k as a head coach.

You do have to wonder how much excitement we could have seen by announcing his name as coach. As opposed to the incredibly neutral reaction surrounding Ianello's hire. Who was honestly excited about that? I don't think anyone outside of Wistrcill showed any excitement.
[/quote]

EXACTLY. A struggling program like Akron *H-A-D T-O H-A-V-E* a headline-making hire as head coach after three failed attempts (Faust, Owens, Brookhart). It had to be as much about PR as coaching...and UA failed miserably. I could not BELIEVE the hire, and I'm sure Akron fans uttered a collective, "Ho-hum, you've got to be kidding. That's the best ya got?"

Proenza failed miserably when he brought YouTube Tom to town, and we're seeing the by-product in his disciple.

I was kind of surprised to see that he's "only" making $250 thousand. I found a Columbus Dispatch article from this past summer that said, "In recent years he (Fickell) has been interviewed for an assistant's job at Notre Dame and been a candidate for the head coach job at Akron." So, according to this story, he was a candidate for the Akron job, although its not clear how serious a candidate he was. I assume if he was a candidate he was interviewed. His name was sure mentioned a lot.

I also looked back at some old ABJ articles when Ianello was hired. The comments from back then are interesting. They are mostly negative with a few "give the guy a chance."

You remind me of someone who used to post similar language on ZN.O, but completely disappeared from the forum many months ago.

[/quote]
I was kind of surprised to see that he's "only" making $250 thousand. I found a Columbus Dispatch article from this past summer that said, "In recent years he (Fickell) has been interviewed for an assistant's job at Notre Dame and been a candidate for the head coach job at Akron." So, according to this story, he was a candidate for the Akron job, although its not clear how serious a candidate he was. I assume if he was a candidate he was interviewed. His name was sure mentioned a lot.

[b]I also looked back at some old ABJ articles when Ianello was hired. The comments from back then are interesting. They are mostly negative with a few "give the guy a chance."[/b]
[/quote]

There's the point, in a nutshell. NO ONE wanted Ianello as coach...from the very get-go. His hiring was an utter disappointment for the entire Zip fanbase. The best anyone could muster was "give the guy a chance." No excitement, no bump in ticket sales, no positive reaction in any way. Imagine how badly UA had to screw up this hiring to provoke such an apathetic response. And you think the situation has gotten any better as we see/hear how he treats coworkers, players and fans? Bad to worse is the best way you can describe it.

Good coaches "coach up" their players and get the most from them. Has anyone seen even a shred of evidence this guy is able to do either? (And please, don't give me that nonsense about needing "his own recruits." We see what those recruits are doing for Notre Dame, don't we? Yeesh.


(And Dave in Green, I only recently felt compelled to join ZipsNation--after Rasor's ridiculous call to retain Ianello, following a laundry-list of negatives about him. So I don't know who you're comparing me to. Sorry.)

This is as close as I could get to an article stating LF had any real interest in the job at UofA. It only says he was a candidate. This could mean anything. The interesting thing is it is in an article about tOSU coaches getting raises. Was he interested in UofA, or was he interested in getting a pay increase?

$100K difference between assistant coach at tOSU and head coach at UofA. What would you do? UofA has yet to produce a coach that goes up the ladder after UofA, earning it the Great GP1 name of "The Graveyard of Coaches". I would have done exactly what he did.

Pretty flawed argument, GP1, when you consider who the Zips hired as their last three coaches. Faust was retirement age and had already been at ND. Owens...well, whoever thought it was a good idea to hire a HS coach got what they deserved. Brookhart?....good heavens, his credentials were about as poor as Ianello's. And Ianello?....no one will come headhunting for him either.

That speaks more to the flawed UA selection process. The right man could come in to this market and awaken a sleeping giant. You really think RI is that man?

Fickell would've connected with people from Day 1.

Do I think RI is the man? Hell no! IF this team goes 0-12, he should be fired, along with the AD who hired him, at the end of the year.

Other than being from Ohio (I'm not sure why that matters), what would make him a great coach? He was a defensive coach at UofA during the Owens years....Remember how the defenses played during those years?

Did anyone ever think we get the quality of coaches we get because it is all we can get? Why is UofA an attractive position? Why would a guy like LF come to UofA?

I don't know Dave. I just wondering when the poster can dumb himself down after he realizes he went to such great effort with bold type and underlines to hammer my post when I was commenting about Luke's demand as a HC, and not Rob's.

Zach. We agree on a lot of things, and I do see some of your points. But, I can't quite see how someone would view their resumes as "similar" when I believe one of them has about 25 years of coaching experience, and the other has about 10 years.

And I am no defender of Rob's by any means. Frankly, I wish just about anyone was here now instead of him.

[/quote]
Zach. We agree on a lot of things, and I do see some of your points. But, I can't quite see how someone would view their resumes as "similar" when I believe one of them has about 25 years of coaching experience, and the other has about 10 years.

And I am no defender of Rob's by any means. Frankly, I wish just about anyone was here now instead of him.
[/quote]

Then why do you seem to be going out of your way to trash anyone suggesting that Fickell (he would qualify as "just about anyone," doesn't he?) would've been a better choice than Ianello?

I ask once again, please name me JUST ONE...JUST ONE...thing you like about Ianello as coach.

I anxiously await anyone's intelligent answer. You don't even have to dumb it down. Just list one of his valuable assets/strengths. Just one.

Ranked teams on their schedules the last three years (not counting bowl games):

2010: 3 (maybe more by year's end)
2009: 3
2008: 5

Keep on Buckeye-hating though, it's doing UA a lot of good.