CPD
Players ponder future in coaching
Thursday, November 09, 2006Doug Lesmerises
Plain Dealer Reporter
Columbus- Is there a future Pat Fitzgerald or Luke Fickell playing for Ohio State, a player who could be back coaching his alma mater in a decade or two?
Ten years ago, Fitzgerald, the first-year Northwestern head coach whom the Buckeyes will face on Saturday, was an All-American linebacker for the Wildcats. At the same time, Fickell, the fourth-year Ohio State linebackers coach, was finishing up an OSU record of 50-straight starts at defensive tackle. It didn't take them long to get back to their old homes.
Maybe David Patterson, who has the necessary smarts and the people skills, will do the same in 2016.
Players mentioned as coaching candidates by the current OSU staff included defensive tackle Patterson, safety Brandon Mitchell, linebacker James Laurinaitis, receiver Anthony Gonzalez and offensive guard T.J. Downing, while one teammate nominated receiver Ted Ginn Jr.
If they're like Fickell, they don't have to know right now that they want to coach. It doesn't seem like players are lining up for spots on the Ohio State staff.
"I think I could be good at it, I really do," said Mitchell, a senior safety, "because I like studying film and learning the defenses. But I see how long these coaches are over here, and they're here too long for me. When I get older, I want to be able to work my 9-to-5 job and go back home to my kids. There guys are over here from 7 a.m. to 11 at night, and I can't see myself doing that."
Fickell didn't see himself coming back to Columbus, and neither did his Buckeye coaches.
"My coaches tried to talk me out of it," Fickell said. "They told me to get a job where you can be with your family. I had all these ambitions of going to medical school or optometry school, and then when football ended for me, I looked back on my life, and every one of the people I respected and admired the most happened to be a coach. And it just kind of hit me - this may be what I really want to do."
Ginn said he'd consider coaching, but he's most interested in following in the footsteps of his father, Ted Sr., the coach at Glenville High.
"I'm in love with the game and I'm still going to have that fire when football is not around," Ginn said. "I watch the high school games, and I still call my Pops and say you should do this or that, and sometimes he takes my advice. It's all about helping kids grow up."
Patterson, an integrated social studies major, has been making plans to coach since the day he first got a taste of it at Warrensville Heights, though he wants to teach and coach in high school.
"One day our coach wasn't there for the JV games, and they let me call the defense for that game," Patterson said. "It was like the best thing ever. After that I knew I wanted to be a coach. I think I would like high school, because I like what someone like Coach Ginn does. But if the college opportunity presented itself, I'd take a strong look at it."
One Buckeye taking ambitious steps toward a coaching career is a player you've never heard of. Walk-on Matt Daniels, a junior, is the son of quarterbacks coach Joe Daniels. After two seasons as a fullback, he switched to safety this season. He did that in part because there were six other fullbacks on the roster and no room for him. But the other idea was to expand his view as a future coach.
"I know what coaches go through and what comes with the job," Daniels said. "Especially at this level, it's a lifestyle. It's a life move, not a career move. If coaches got paid by the hour, they'd all be millionaires, every single one of them."
Jim Tressel is a millionaire. But if millionaire is the goal, coaching might not be the path.
"A guy like [fullback] Stan White is real sharp," running backs coach Dick Tressel said, "but he's on his way to big money - easier money than this."
Fickell thought he was headed that way, too. But then there are ex-Buckeyes like his friend Mike Vrabel, the New England Patriots linebacker.
"His whole life he said, 'When I get done, I'm going to be a coach at Ohio State,' " Fickell said with a laugh. "I said, 'With $30 million, what do you mean you're going to coach? Go coach Little League so you can coach for two hours and go home.' "
And then Fickell went back to work.
