The Dream Team?

From the moment it was "official" that Urban Meyer would be the next head football coach at The Ohio State University, he promised to assemble to best possible coaching staff in an attempt to rival any other school in the nation. Gene Smith confirmed (in contradiction to his previous affirmations) that he would make available the necessary resources for Coach Meyer to spend SEC-type money to pay assistant coaches at OSU (read: ticket prices are going up again). I guess that a 6-6 record can do that to you.

And so, it has been entertaining in the past month to watch not only the football player recruits sign (and, as in the case of Brionte Dunn, re-sign) but also to watch the movements of Meyer in recruiting the "Dream Team" of college football coaches. Meyer has even interviewed former head coaches to be coordinators and assistants at OSU. There has been talk of Mike Stoops as a co-defensive coordinator, Tim Brewster as a recruiting coach, and an assortment of former Florida coaches coming in to coach with Meyer again at OSU.

And this week has produced a flurry of official hirings. First, Tom Herman from Iowa State has been hired as offensive coodinator and quarterbacks coach. Formerly an offensive coordinator at Rice, Herman oversaw an offense that ranked in the top 10 nationally in passing offense, total offense, and scoring offense. I am excited to see what improvements he will bring to the technical play of Braxton Miller, who showed vast improvement in decision-making (with the exception of a questionable spike of the ball on 3rd down against TTUN) throughout last season, often keeping the Buckeyes in games late and even producing a dramatic last-minute win versus Big 10 Champion Wisconsin.

And not all of the "hires" are new to OSU. Stan Drayton, the current OSU receivers coach, is expected to move to running backs coach, a position he held under Meyer at Florida in 2010. This is interesting. Why the heck were we using a running backs coach as a receivers coach, I wonder? Apparently Meyer wonders the same thing...

To add to the list of coaches, Meyer has announced that the still-titleless Luke Fickell will call the defensive plays for the Buckeyes next season. I am not sure why Meyer has yet to give Fickell a formal title. Perhaps it is because he wants to assemble the rest of his staff first? Meyer seems to think a coaching title doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, and he feels Fickell agrees with him.
And titles aside, I think allowing Fickell to slip into the role of quasi-defensive coordinator is a good move. He has OSU ties, passion for the university and football in general, and the players already identify with him as one of the coaches. Though being a head coach at OSU wasn't a successful endeavor for Fickell right now, I think allowing him to go back to focusing on defense alone will strengthen our defensive scheme, which has usually been our strong suit. Let's face it, defense kept us in some of the games we played earlier this season! But we will talk more about Fickell in a moment...

The "co"-defensive coordinator position has been granted to Everett Withers.

Um...Who?


Oh yeah, Withers is interim coach at North Carolina, having taken the place of Butch Davis, who was fired earlier this season in the wake of all-too-familiar NCAA violations. Meyer hired Withers over a much more well-known Mike Stoops, apparently because Withers' mentality more closely resembles that of Meyer.
I have to say, I would have preferred Mike Stoops if I was choosing from name recognition. But I also wouldn't have hired anyone named Jim Tressel 11 seasons ago, probably opting for the more familiar Glen Mason...so maybe name recognition isn't always best.

The rest of the defensive staff should be comprised of current defensive backs coach Taver Johnson and possibly linebackers coach Mike Vrabel. And honestly, though the defensive went downhill beginning in the 3rd quarter versus Nebraska, I don't have a ton of complaints about them over the last several seasons, so I think Fickell and Withers and all the defensive recruits we have stolen..er...wooed away from other schools should be on pace to rebound dramatically next season.

But now there is news of Fickell being interviewed for the head coaching job at Pitt. Look, I know you eventually aim to be a head coach Luke, but are you sure you want to coach at a school that has been through FIVE head coaches in 12 months? There has to be something to that, right? As much as I complained about Fickell this season, I am hopeful he sticks it out for at least one season at OSU.

Maybe titles do matter to Fickell. Let's think of what we could call him. Something like Coordinator of Defensive Coordination? Head Coordinator?