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Ohio State Moving Forward

So at 11 p.m. in the all-but-deserted Woody Hayes Athletic Center, Fickell reluctantly entered his new office. He slid manila folders under the legs of the heavy desk and bull-rushed it across the floor. He rearranged the chairs, moving them to the other side of the room. He angled the remaining furniture just so.

"It was something I had to do," Fickell says.

In that moment of late-night interior decorating, Jim Tressel's office became Fickell's. The awkward transition was complete.

"I have the utmost respect for Coach Tressel," says Fickell, who was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, played for Ohio State and later spent nine years on Tressel's staff as an assistant. "I can honestly say he made me better in every aspect of my life."

But this is Fickell's program now because Tressel failed to practice what he often preached. Tressel's swift and spectacular free fall leaves Ohio State with a 37-year-old, first-time head coach who always thought he'd be an Olympic wrestler, a doctor or optometrist, not the caretaker of Buckeye Nation.

Fickell wasn't hired because he's a captivating public speaker. (He isn't.) He wasn't hired because he's Jim Tressel Jr. (He can't be.) He wasn't hired because he's the hottest commodity in the coaching business. (He's not.)

He was hired because Ohio State needed a tourniquet, not a sweater vest. It needed someone willing to take a scarlet-and-gray leap of faith -- and take it not knowing whether he's a one-and-done head coach or a success-story-in-waiting.

"We know he's legit," Buckeyes senior center Mike Brewster says. "We want to prove to people we're still Ohio State -- no matter what happened."

Fickell is as polished as a dirt floor. If the disgraced Tressel was The Senator, Fickell is the county clerk. He isn't a finished product but a work in progress. And that's OK.

Tressel was polished, and look where it got him. He thought he was bigger than the program he oversaw, bigger than the administrators he reported to, bigger than the university whose "Carmen Ohio" he sang at the end of every home game. It was a classic case of absolute power absolutely corrupting.

And now he's gone, a victim of self-inflicted stupidity. In his place is Fickell, the loyal Ohio State soldier who has been handed a dry mop and been asked to sop up the mess left by Tressel.

For all intents and purposes, he is an interim head coach. Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith, himself a former interim designee, gave Fickell a one-year contract and nothing more.

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