The Coaches

Luke Fickell
Luke Fickell is 4-3 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.




Bret Bielema
In his sixth season as a head coach, all at Wisconsin, he is 55-17. After his second season he was 21-5, and was only the third coach in Big Ten history with that many victories in two seasons. The other two coaches being Michigan's Fielding Yost with 22 and Tressel with 21. After playing at Iowa he worked as a graduate assistant and then a Linebackers assistant coach at his alma mater. For two years he was an assistant defensive coordinator at Kansas State. Bielema joined Wisconsin as a defensive coordinator for two years prior to being named head coach. He is 1-3 against Ohio State.