The Coaches

Luke Fickell
Luke Fickell is 3-1 in his first year as a head coach. Luke Fickell has been an assistant coach for 13 years. He was a graduate assistant at OSU under John Cooper in 1999. He was a defensive line coach at Akron from 2000-2001. Early in Jim Tressel's tenure at OSU, he hired Fickell as the special teams coordinator. He eventually coached the linebackers and was a co-defensive coordinator. Going into this season he was the assistant head coach, and was promoted in May to head coach, after Jim Tressel retired. Prior to coaching, Fickell was a four year starter for OSU, from 1992-1996. During his career, OSU was 41-8-1, won two Big Ten Championships and won the 1997 Rose Bowl. He started a school record 50 consecutive games. After graduation he spent one year on the injured reserve team for the New Orleans Saints.



Mark Dantonio
In his fifth season at Michigan State he is 36-20 and he is 54-37 in his career which includes three years at Cincinnati. Dantonio was the defensive coordinator at Ohio State for three years, including the 2002 National Championship season. Dantonio moved to OSU with Jim Tressel, after spending five years as a secondary and defensive coordinator at Youngstown. He has yet to beat Ohio State, the only Big Ten team he has not defeated.