The Coaching Hot Board

With Mark Dantonio’s stunning announcement on Tuesday that he is stepping down as head coach at Michigan State comes speculation as to who will replace him as Michigan State’s next head coach.

The hot name on the board is Luke Fickell, 46, head coach at the University of Cincinnati.

Fickell is 26-13 in four years at Cincinnati, and went 11-2 and 11-3 in the last two seasons, including victories in the Military Bowl and Birmingham Bowl.

Like Dantonio, Fickell is part of the Jim Tressel coaching tree. Fickell was an assistant coach for Tressel at Ohio State from 2002 to 2010. He was co-defensive coordinator at Ohio State from 2005 to 2010 and served as interim head coach at OSU in 2011.

Urban Meyer kept Fickell on as co-defensive coordinator from 2012-16.

Fickell beat out Michigan State for a handful of Ohio recruits in 2020, including four-star linebacker Jaheim Thomas, four-star quarterback Evan Prater, three-star defensive lineman Justin Wodtly and three-star defensive back Sammy Anderson.

Fickell is a native of Columbus, Ohio. He attended Columbus DeSales High School and played at Ohio State from 1993-96, making 50 consecutive starts.

Cincinnati lost its athletic director, Mike Bohn, to USC in December. Cincinnati hired Minnesota Deputy Athletics Director John Cunningham as his replacement on Dec. 16. With the changeover in the athletic department, it is believed that Fickell did not sign an extension at the end of the season.

Sources tell SpartanMag.com that Dantonio was considering retirement in December, and Fickell was made aware of it.

Other head coaching candidates to consider: