When Luke Fickell entered the media swarm Thursday, minutes after Ohio State completed its second practice of the spring season, he knew what question was coming.
A new name occupies Ohio State's defensive coordinator position alongside him for the third time in four seasons. Chris Ash replaced Everett Withers after the 2013 season, and now it is Greg Schiano's turn with Ash now the head coach at Rutgers. Fickell and Kerry Coombs have been stalwarts, but that's quite the staff turnover.
"Well, let me see, I'm going to go back four years to what you asked me and then I'm going to go back two years to what you asked me," Fickell joked when a reporter broached the topic with him yet again on the indoor turf at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. "But, no seriously, it's the same for me."
Fickell remains Ohio State's defensive coordinator — head coach Urban Meyer made that clear in December after he hired Schiano.
"Luke is the defensive coordinator," Meyer said. "Did a heck of a job for us this year, second in the nation in scoring defense. I see Greg, once Chris leaves, assuming a very similar role; that Chris was an impact hire. As you notice, I like to have two people kind of in that room.
"I don't believe in dictatorships. I believe in teams, teams on staffs, too."
He does, a point Fickell reiterated Thursday. Schiano brings a wide range of defensive coaching experience to the table in Columbus, as well as a fresh perspective to a unit that must replace eight starters.
"It's great to have a new eye and some other ideas," Fickell said. "We're not going to change, but it's the idea of 'hey when we do this, let's enhance what we've done to make this better.'"
“It's great to have a new eye and some other ideas. We're not going to change, but it's the idea of 'hey when we do this, let's enhance what we've done to make this better.'”– Luke Fickell
Schiano is used to being the main voice in terms of a football team's defensive strategies, however, doing so first as the defensive coordinator at Miami (FL) and then even when he was a head coach at Rutgers and of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He stressed that as being a key piece to what he brings to Meyer's staff.
"I think 28 years of coaching defense. Because even when I was the head coach some years, I was the defensive coordinator as well," Schiano said. "The years that I did that, it wasn't just where I called the plays, I literally did every bit of the defensive coordinating."
A run of 28 years of defensive coaching at all levels of football — high school, college and even the NFL — is quite a résumé for anyone, a key reason Meyer brought his friend Schiano on board after Ash left.
Though he was out of coaching for two years, Schiano shifting from being a head coach to only the defensive coordinator is a transition.
"There's plenty of assistant coaching things I have to do, trust me," Schiano said. "But I've enjoyed it and I've enjoyed the camaraderie with the staff. It's different when you're the head coach. You fly in, then you get out. You're all over the place."
Fickell, though, plans to keep the order he, Ash and defensive line coach Larry Johnson (who joined the Ohio State staff in January 2014) established as part of a complete overhaul of the Buckeye defense the last two seasons. The Buckeyes were 19th in total defense in 2014 and ninth last season, after finishing 47th overall in 2013.
Fickell's goal is to further complement that with Ash gone and Schiano now on board.
"The idea here, and that's the great thing about it, is that this is a program. Then when other, new guys come in there's a lot of great ideas and a lot of things," Fickell said. "Ultimately what it comes down to being successful is guys working together. I think everybody has weaknesses, and what are your strengths?
"Strengths are being able to work with people. Just one of those things that I think I learned a really young age here from Jim Tressel."
Schiano only signed on with Ohio State through this season, but claims his mindset sits on the same tracks Fickell, Johnson, Meyer, Coombs and his predecessor, Ash, laid.
"It's been fun to hunker down with what I think are three tremendous coaches in Coach Coombs, Coach Fickell and Coach Johnson," Schiano said. "Hopefully that (NFL) experience, they can bounce some questions off me and some different things, have learned some lessons the hard way. Maybe we don't have to go through the pain on some of those."
