Michigan State football coaching search: 5 leading candidates to replace Mark Dantonio

1. Luke Fickell, Cincinnati head coach

The Detroit Free Press immediately reported Luke Fickell is the front-runner to replace Dantonio. His coaching roots are Ohio State tilted after he played there too, but he was on Jim Tressel’s staff in Columbus with Dantonio for two years.

Fickell cut his teeth as interim head coach at Ohio State in 2011, with a 6-7 record, then stayed on Urban Meyer’s staff as co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach for five seasons (2012-2016). He then took the head job at Cincinnati and the Bearcats have posted back-to-back 11-win seasons.

Fickell may be holding out for a major Power 5 job, and it’s hard to know if he’d consider Michigan State to be on that level or on the same level as openings he interviewed for at Louisville and West Virginia. He would owe Cincinnati a $2 million buyout if he leaves for another job before Dec. 31, 2020, but if he wants to leave that will not be a concern with the natural rise in salary he’d get elsewhere.

Fickell is 46 years old, so he could be at Michigan State for a long time and he’d surely bring a spark to the program Dantonio just couldn’t anymore. The internal list apparently starts with Fickell, and it’s easy to see why he’ll probably get the right of first refusal before any other candidates are looked at.

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