Trebor

January 14th, 2014 at 12:56 PM ^

Ash I'm not totally sold on (Arkansas was so bad that it's hard to tell what the issue was), but Johnson is a fantastic hire. Instant recruiting boost in PA, MD, DC, DE, etc., and will probably end up flipping Holley (PSU's best recruit) to OSU. He's gonna have that DL be something fierce with all that raw talent they have.

Erik_in_Dayton

January 14th, 2014 at 1:01 PM ^

OSU internet people have believed for a long time that Johnson negatively recruited by OSU and Michigan by saying that they didn't care about graduating black players.  My OSU friend said, "Everyone's head exploded" when Johnson was hired.

Nosce Te Ipsum

January 14th, 2014 at 1:02 PM ^

My thoughts are that you don't know how to properly make a thread. You used no names in the title which makes it seem like a ploy to click through to your thread. Shoddy worksmanship. 

mGrowOld

January 14th, 2014 at 1:06 PM ^

How many freaking coaches does OSU have anyway?  Did they get a special coaching exception or something cause it seems like everytime I pay attention they are hiring somebody new for something.

 

MGoCombs

January 14th, 2014 at 1:44 PM ^

I've always wondered.. [warning: baseless, homer speculation]... does he know something about that program that keeps him on the payroll? I mean, if you're hiring a "co-DC" it isn't a strong bid of confidence. The better explanation is that he's a strong recruiter/position coach, they want him on the staff for that, but can't really demote him (or he'll leave), but it still seems like a very odd situation.

woodfeld

January 14th, 2014 at 2:12 PM ^

It seems understandable that it was co-DC's when Urban was first hired since he didn't know Fickell, other than what he saw on TV, and I'm guessing there was a lot of pressure from the Ath Dept to retain Fickell.  But to hire another co-DC after Withers leaves seems to say that Urban doesn't have a lot of faith in him, but is pressured to not fire him.  Fickell probably has a lot of fans in the Ath Dept after falling on the sword when Tressel left.

Scarlatina

January 14th, 2014 at 4:07 PM ^

Urban used co-DC in Florida with Charlie Strong and Greg Mattison and co-OC with Steve Addazio and Dan Mullen.

Currently OSU employs co-OC with Tom Herman and Ed Warinner. If I had to guess, he probably prefers have dual coordinators to make transitions easier since he has had a lot of past coordinators move on to become HC (Gregg Brandon, Kyle Whittingham, Charlie Strong, Dan Mullen, and Steve Addazio)

Urban Warfare

January 14th, 2014 at 4:09 PM ^

OSU fans hate Fickell like Michigan fans hated Borges.  There was no way he would be named sole coordinator, especially after Sparty racked up 438 yards in the  B1G championship game with the Bollrus in the booth. 

GunnersApe

January 15th, 2014 at 8:47 AM ^

By all means I'm glad he still on the staff, "why" is the question.

 - Because he's an Alumni? You'd think this means he would want the D to do well.

- They can't fire him because he's blackmailing the school for knowing where more bodies are buried from TatGate/CarU and would squeal?

- He's still being groomed for command? I thought if Tressel was still there he would be "MACing" it by now.

 As far as Ash and Johnson, If OSU was cool getting Johnson from the tainted PSU staff why not get Tom Bradley also?

Scarlatina

January 15th, 2014 at 2:50 PM ^

I believe Fickell is still around because the units he's responsible for (D-Line and LBs) were not the problem with the defense last year. The problem was because of the secondary that couldn't cover and could barely tackle, those units were coached by co-DC Withers.

Plus, there's the rumor that Withers and Fickell never meshed well because they came from differing defensive philosophies. Withers prefered having a "big-play" defense, while Fickell came from the "bend-don't-break" school of thought. Urban probably thinks that Fickell is doing everything (except for play-calling) well enough to justify keeping him for at least another season.

Remember, Fickell coached all of OSU's LBs from 2005-present, which graduated some of the best players the school has ever seen. Fickell was also praised by Heacock and Tressel as one of the smartest defensive minds they have ever come across.

Edit: Fickell is also arguably the best recruiter among all the coaches (except for maybe Urban himself). For example Fickell was Tressel's recruiting coordinator and was the biggest factor in bringing in the 2008 recruiting class that was ranked #1 nationally (Terelle Pryor, DeVier Posey, Mike Adams, Mike Brewster... Etc). Urban has repeatedly stated that recruiting prowess is the first thing he looks for in an asst. coach.

UMgradMSUdad

January 14th, 2014 at 8:28 PM ^

Salary does seem like a big part of it; it allows schools to pay a much higher salary than they would a position coach without raising eyebrows.  If a position coach is making over $300,000 or so a year, some within the university would get pissy.  Name the person a co-coordinator and suddenly $500,000 or even more seems acceptable in today's market.

UMgradMSUdad

January 14th, 2014 at 8:28 PM ^

Salary does seem like a big part of it; it allows schools to pay a much higher salary than they would a position coach without raising eyebrows.  If a position coach is making over $300,000 or so a year, some within the university would get pissy.  Name the person a co-coordinator and suddenly $500,000 or even more seems acceptable in today's market.

charblue.

January 14th, 2014 at 3:54 PM ^

 East Coast recruiting. Not sure how the Buckeye staff divides recruiting work and coaching duties, but given the dual DC roles, maybe Fickell is charge of overall recruiting, the same as Hecklinski is at Michigan. Just thinking out loud.