Michigan should replace Jim Harbaugh with former Ohio State coach Luke Fickell

Michigan football should look at hiring former Ohio State football coach Luke Fickell.

Luke Fickell may be the solution to the Michigan football problem Jim Harbaugh cannot fix.

After falling at home to the Michigan State Spartans, 2020 may be the end of the line for Harbaugh leading the Michigan Wolverines’ football program. This will be the sixth year Michigan will not win the Big Ten East under Harbaugh’s watch. A divorce feels inevitable in Ann Arbor. If Michigan wants to contend with the Ohio State Buckeyes, go hire their former interim coach.

It may sound blasphemous, but it might work

Fickell played defensive tackle for Ohio State. Outside of his one year in the NFL with the 1997 New Orleans Saints, Fickell has spent his entire football life in the state of Ohio. He returned to Columbus as a graduate assistant in 1999. After spending two years coaching the Akron Zips’ defensive line, Fickell returned to Columbus in 2002. Fickell was the interim head coach after Jim Tressel resigned in 2011 and went 6-6. He was then on Urban Meyer’s staff before leaving to take the Cincinnati job.

Fickell took over the Bearcats in 2017 after former head coach Tommy Tuberville resigned. After a 4-8 campaign in 2017, the Bearcats had back-to-back 11-win seasons in 2018 and 2019, finishing the season ranked inside the final AP Top 25 in both years. Now in yeah is fourth year leading Cincinnati, Fickell has his Bearcats at 5-0 and ranked No. 6 team in the country.

While there is still a lot of football left to be played this season, Cincinnati is the presumptive favorite to come out of the Group of 5 and make the New Year’s Six and possibly sneak in the College Football Playoff. When a head coach wins the Group of 5, he’s poised to take the leap for a Power 5 job the following year. Coaches like Tom Herman, P.J. Fleck, Scott Frost and Mike Norvell have done so the most recently. Fickell is next.

Simply put, if an intriguing Power 5 job comes available, Fickell would have to be on the short list of top-tier coaching candidates. Though candidates like Iowa State Cyclones head coach Matt Campbell and Clemson Tigers defensive coordinator Brent Venables could be in line to replace Harbaugh, don’t dismiss Michigan kicking the tires on the former Ohio State player, assistant and interim head coach.

It may be blasphemy for this former Buckeye to go lead Michigan, but he would not be the first head coach to lead a program in the same conference as his alma mater. Will Muschamp coaches against Georgia at South Carolina, Jeremy Pruitt leads Tennessee vs. Alabama and Lincoln Riley blows out Texas Tech while at Oklahoma. Two of the three have beaten their alma mater before.

Truthfully, do not expect a ton of Power 5 jobs to become available this winter. We are in the midst of a global pandemic and most universities cannot afford to be buying out head football coaches from their contracts, no matter how underperforming they may have been. However, Harbaugh may resign and try his luck coaching an NFL team in 2021. Michigan would be very appealing.

So why should Michigan even consider an Ohio State guy for the job? I think the better question is how many more years do you want to keep losing to the Buckeyes in The Horseshoe and in The Big House? Fickell has the coaching acumen to hold his own against Ryan Day, something we are almost certain Harbaugh cannot even do. Ultimately, desperate times call for desperate measures.

If Michigan does not hire Fickell to replace Harbaugh, someone else will get the Cincinnati coach.

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