Top 5 Ohio State defensive coordinator candidates for 2025

Luke Fickell

It’s hard to envision a Big Ten head coach taking a demotion to a coordinator role, but there may be an outside chance that Fickell and the Buckeyes have mutual interest in a reunion. Fickell has notable ties to Ohio State as a nose guard for the Buckeyes in the mid-1990s. He began his coaching career as a grad assistant in Columbus in 1999 and returned as a defensive assistant in 2002. Fickell served as the Buckeyes co-defensive coordinator from 2005-16 and was the program’s interim head coach in 2011. After a successful stint as a head coach at Cincinnati, Fickell’s tenure at Wisconsin has gotten off to a rocky start, and he will likely be on the hot seat if things don’t improve in 2025. Perhaps that makes him consider joining a more stable situation in Columbus, similar to what Kelly did last year when he left UCLA.