5 Ryan Day replacements Ohio State fans should beg for after another Michigan loss

4. Luke Fickell could get his actual dream job now at Ohio State

It might be hard to pull off, but Luke Fickell is going to be connected to any vacancy that should arise in Columbus.

Fickell played for the Buckeyes as a nose guard when he was in college and ultimately was a part of the staffs for both Jim Tressell and Urban Meyer at Ohio State, spending 11 total seasons as a co-defensive coordinator with the Buckeyes. He was also the interim head coach for the 2011 season after Tressell resigned and before Meyer was hired, though most fans would like to forget that as the team went 6-7.

Following the 2016 season, though, Fickell was hired by Cincinnati and we saw the elite Group of 5 program he built with the Bearcats. You can't discredit the amount of hard work from a head coach it takes to get a team from the American Athletic Conference into the College Football Playoff, but by god, Fickell did that.

That ultimately earned him the Wisconsin Badgers job where he oddly coached the bowl game at the end of last year and then had his first full season in Madison in 2023. The success was limited as some philosophical changes created hardships, but a 7-5 record considering that is not all that bad.

Just recently arriving at Wisconsin could make Fickell and expensive option for Ohio State. However, for a program that likes to have one of their own in the building and in charge oftentimes, there might not be a bigger name connected to Columbus than Fickell, at least not one with his illustrious track record. So if Day were to be ousted, you can bet that Fickell would get a long, hard look.