The Coaches

Luke Fickell
Luke Fickell is 3-3 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.




Ron Zook
In his seventh season at Illinois, Zook is 34-45. He is 57-59 in his 10th year of his career as a head coach at Illinois and earlier at Florida. Zook was a defensive back assistant coach under Cooper from 1988-1990 at Ohio State. He is from Loudonville, Ohio. Zook was a defensive back at Miami (OH) and the team went 32-1-1 while he was there. He is 1-4 against Ohio State.