Saturday, Cincinnati officially announced Ohio State defensive coordinator Luke Fickell as its new head coach.
Fickell spent the last 12 years on the OSU coaching staff, including one season as the interim head coach between Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer. During that time, he's done a phenomenal job on the recruiting trail (finding hidden gems like Darron Lee) as well as on the football field, putting together a fearsome linebacking corps year after year.
At schools like Ohio State, quality assistants do not stay forever, and it was just a matter of time before Fickell got a head coaching opportunity elsewhere.
The Buckeyes are undoubtably going to miss him, but as we speculate about his successor, history tells us Urban Meyer will bring in somebody who will at worst get the job done, and at best make the unit even stronger than it was before.
Meyer seems to have a knack for replacing great assistants with great assistants. As he tries to do that again, we take a look at all the coaching departures throughout Meyer's tenure and how their replacement fared.
Everett Withers to Chris Ash (2013-2014)
Perhaps the most staggering example of a replacement who actually improved the team is the first one.
Everett Withers was Ohio State's co-defensive coordinator during Ohio State 2012 and 2013 seasons. He left following the 2013 campaign to take a head coaching job at James Madison.
Meyer seems to have a knack for replacing great assistants with great assistants
Withers' final year at Ohio State was the season of Pitt Brown, which meant there were definite rough patches. While the offense broke countless records, scoring over 30 points in 13 of its 14 games, the secondary routinely got torched, allowing 268 passing yards a game, which ranked 104th nationally.
Another rampant issue was tackling. The Buckeyes had a staggering number of missed tackles on the season. Players seemed to lack basic tackling technique, failing to wrap up regularly.
Given these deficiencies, Chris Ash was the perfect replacement after Withers departed. After all, he's an expert in pass defense and literally produced a DVD titled Tackling Fundamentals and Drills for Defensive Backs.
Within a year, Ohio State had the best tackling secondary in the country. Within two, the Buckeyes had a top-15 passing defense, allowing just 184 passing yards per game – half of what they averaged before Ash.
Mike Vrabel to Larry Johnson (2013-2014)
Defensive line coach Mike Vrabel was invaluable to the Buckeyes as a coach, but particularly as a recruiter. He was instrumental in the recruitment of current starts Jamarco Jones and Jalyn Holmes as well as current NFL star Joey Bosa.
When Vrabel left the team to take a position with the Houston Texans, he seemed nearly irreplaceable. But then Ohio State hit another home run with the hiring of Larry Johnson from Penn State.
In his three years at Ohio State, Johnson has helped produce NFL Draft picks Bosa, Adolphus Washington, Noah Spence and Michael Bennett as well as future draft picks Sam Hubbard (who he helped convert to a defensive end from a safety) and Tyquan Lewis (who was the Big Ten Defensive Lineman of the Year in 2016).
On the recruiting trail, Johnston secured the commitments of 2016 five-star defensive ends Nick Bosa and Johnathan Cooper as well as 2017 five-star defensive end Chase Young and a few four-star defensive tackles.
Under Johnson's leadership, the Ohio State defensive line has gone from a strong unit to one of the top defensive lines in the country year after year – and the future looks even brighter.
Tom Herman to Tim Beck/Greg Studrawa (2014-2015/2016)
Tom Herman is one of the brightest minds in college football. Meyer was never going to completely replacing what he brought to the Buckeye, nor was he going to stay at Ohio State as an offensive coordinator forever.
Future Buckeyes Tate Martell and Emory Jones. The Future is bright.
Anybody following Herman is a downgrade. Still, Tim Beck and Greg Studrawa have been a valuable additions to the Buckeyes.
Since his hiring, quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator Beck has had phenomenal success on the recruiting trail, secured commitments from four-star quarterback Dwayne Haskins and the top-ranked dual-threat quarterbacks in both the 2017 and 2018 classes – Tate Martell and Emory Jones respectively.
Studrawa was hired to take over as offensive line coach after Ed Warinner was promoted to offensive coordinator. His first year, he performed similar wizardry to his predecessor in 2014, turning an offensive line with three new starters including a true freshman into a playoff-caliber unit. The same year, he helped coach veteran Pat Elflein to a Rimmington Trophy.
Collectively, they're still not Tom Herman – nobody is – but what he's done to bring the top talent in the country at the most important position to Ohio State is certainly impressive.
Stan Drayton to Tony Alford (2014-2015)
After Ezekiel Elliott's legendary post-season performance in 2014, running backs coach Stan Drayton left Ohio State to take the same position with the Chicago Bears. Meyer tabbed former Notre Dame assistant Tony Alford as his replacement.
It was a rocky start as Alford had to deal with a tricky scenario regarding Mike Weber's recruitment during his first few hours on the job, but it's been relatively smooth sailing from there.
Alford inherited a mostly finished product in Elliott from Drayton, but he still deserves some credit for coaching him to over 2,000 all-purpose yards and developing him into a top-5 pick in the NFL Draft – which is really unheard of for a running back in this era.
His second season, Alford coached a new starter in Weber to a 1,000 yard freshman season while helping Curtis Samuel to become one of the most dangerous weapons in college football.
Chris Ash to Greg Schiano (2015-2016)
Given what Ash brought to the program after he inherited an abysmal pass defense, concern was justifiable when he left the program to become Rutgers' head coach.
Ohio State replaced three now-NFL players in its secondary as well as its coordinator and somehow got noticeably better.
Few people could replace what Ash brought to the table, but Meyer, as he seemingly always does, had a plan – former NFL head coach Greg Schiano.
During Schiano's first season, Ohio State replaced three now-NFL players in its secondary as well as its coordinator and somehow got noticeably better. In 2015, the Silver Bullets allowed just 15.1 points and 311.3 yards per game. In 2016, they surrendered just 14.2 points and 276 yards per game – good for No. 4 and No. 3 in the country.
As if the scoring and yardage improvement wasn't impressive enough, the Bullets have added another wrinkle to their game this year – scoring. The team broke the school record in pick-sixes earlier this season and is currently second in the country in defensive touchdowns, trailing only Alabama.
If I could give you a TL;DR it's this: Luke Fickell is a great coach and Ohio State will miss him, but if history is any indication the Buckeyes will be just fine with whoever its is who fills the void – maybe they'll even get a little better.
