TicketsTRANSCRIPT OF LUKE FICKEL INTRODUCTORY PRESS CONFERENCE
December 10, 2016 - Cincinnati, Ohio
Mike Bohn, Director of Athletics
Good afternoon. Thank you for taking the time to join us this Saturday afternoon, an exciting time at the University of Cincinnati. I apologize about our brief delay but it is about student-athletes and it's important for our new coach to be with them. We had the opportunity through our incredible technology here at the University of Cincinnati to be with them early today and it's really important to us. I told the team in this very room when we met that we wanted to do everything we can to ensure that they know what's going on and all their challenges that they are up against with finals and so forth and I believe we did that.
I want to welcome Luke and his family. As you can see, it's an incredible family, a big family, and the best part of the family is that Amy grew up as a Bearcat in high school so we like that. They were the Bearcats so that's a lot of good karma there. We are excited about that and joining their team.
I'd be remiss if I didn't say thank you first and foremost to our entire team on this campus and in this community in helping us through this coaching search process. I couldn't be prouder of the team and the alignment that is critical in helping welcome coach and getting him off to a great start. That obviously starts with our student athletes but also our staff and so many others. You're going to see coach's passion and the energy he brings. We wants to win games, graduate players, and develop young men and that's important to him.
When I had the opportunity to meet with President Davenport and talk with board members, some are here today, their desire integrity, discipline and determination was very clear and we obviously hired a man who represents all that. A man of integrity. He is a leader. Someone who has the ability to bring a community together, a team together. Passion and energy, I'm mentioning that again, and most importantly a coach who fits Cincinnati. Fits our program. Fits what we are all about here.
So many people have been so supportive in pulling this together and before I turn it over to introduce coach with our great president, real quick I think it is important to understand, some people don't know the process associated with finding a coach. We were fortunate to work with a dedicated, trustworthy and exceptional University of Cincinnati graduate and all the analytics associated with evaluation. So what does that mean? So basically you take in a lot of factors; turnovers, fumbles, penalties. Each of the decisions coaches make and they put it into a formula of 100,000 simulations of gameday. And you know who came out No. 1? Luke Fickell. The No. 1 defensive coach in the country. That's impressive. We like that and I know when he gets up here, the first thing he wants to talk about is offense because we like to hear about offense, too. Again, those analytics and putting that together represented the type of football coach that we have and
I'm proud now to introduce my partner and someone who has been a huge star for us as the transition is going on on campus so at this time I'd like to give the honor of introducing our president, President Beverly Davenport.
Dr. Beverly J. Davenport, President
What an honor it is today. Over the last two days, we have graduated over 3,000 Bearcats so how wonderful it is that we get to welcome eight new Bearcats who just happen to have this last name of Fickell.
Luke Fickell, we are just so excited when we heard that you and Amy are going to join us. We are just over the top. I want to thank our donors. All these people who have helped us. When Mike [Bohn] brought me to his office and he laid out all the data, and there is a lot of data. Big data is everywhere. We were very thrilled. He didn't have to work very hard on selling us on you, the data was there. When he put your picture up and when he told us about Amy and when he told us about these six children and told us that you believe in academic excellence. When I saw our student-athletes graduating today and he said that this is what this man is about. When he told us you care about your student-athletes and their academics and their lives and when he told us that you care about winning. When he told us that you care about leadership and that you believe in honor and respect and that you are going to win on the field and win at everyday, making these young men better people I said I'm in, how do we do this? You go get him and bring this amazing family back here.
I am absolutely honored to get to have a small part in welcoming to this campus our next head football coach, Luke Fickell, and his family. Thank you so much.
Luke Fickell, Head Football Coach
I appreciate that. That's quite an introduction and it's been quite a whirlwind as I'm sure all of you know. It's kind of hard to keep anything quiet nowadays with social media and all the things and all the access. My family was kind of wondering, why don't we go down there and meet with them and see them? I told them, you leave outside of your house and everyone knows what's going on. I appreciate the entire team, their ability to hear and see all the different things out there. I appreciate you guys having the patience and I actually had to speak with them for the first time today via iPad in my office in Columbus. That's not exactly how I envisioned doing this but I appreciate those guys and everything that they do and holding tight in the situations that they are in.
I want to start by telling everyone how extremely excited I am to be the new head football coach at the University of Cincinnati. This is a true dream to me. As a man who grew up, born and raised, a family that is born and raised in the great state of Ohio. To have this opportunity is an honor and truly a blessing. This is not a job to me. I think I told Mike this the very first time I talked to him. I said this is not a job to me. What I mean by that is a job is a means to provide for your family. A job is what it is that you do. This is a role to me. This is a role to me because it is a passion of mine. It is who I am. It is in every fiber of my body. To be a leader and a mentor of men. I know I told Mike that and I want to make sure that our players and everybody knows that that is what this really means to me.
There are going to be a lot of thank yous. I've got to truly start by thanking Mike, our AD, our leader. Thank you for having the faith and the confidence to give me this opportunity to lead this Cincinnati football program. You coming into my home and making my family a big part of this is extremely classy and is something that I'll never forget and I appreciate that. Thank you. To Dr. Beverly Davenport, for the support, the blind faith of not ever seeing me or meeting me but just seeing the analytics and believing. I appreciate it and look forward to working with you even if it is just for a short amount of time. I owe an incredible amount of thank yous to so many people. We would be here forever if I tried to thank everyone. You can't get this far in this profession or in life without an amazing amount of people who support you and help you out. I'd be remiss if I didn't at least mention a few of them who impacted my professional career and life in general. It probably starts with Joh Copper who was my college football coach and got me into this profession. He offered me a GA job and I started working for him. To Lee Owens. Lee Owens was the first guy to give me an opportunity and hired me at the University of Akron and gave me my first job. Jim Tressel, who showed me what coaching was really about. And then obviously to coach Urban Meyer who pushed me to the point of where I am today to be a head football coach.
To all my players. To all the players I had the fortune of coaching, I have to thank them. They are the ones that really taught me what it really and what coaching is really about. They are the ones that fueled this passion that I have to coach football and lead men to develop and grow in this field that I am in today. The last group I would like to thank is the one that probably deserves it the most, my family. My son Landon, to Luca, my daughter, to Ashton and Aydin, our first set of twins, and Laykin and Lucian, our second set of twins. That you for supporting us in this journey. And finally, to my best friend, my wife, Amy. The leader of our family. The one that is a true Bearcat. Who was grown up, born and raised, might have been a Spencerville Bearcat but a true Bearcat. The rock, and I wouldn't be who I am today without you. I love you and appreciate you and thank you very much.
Now, obviously, to the University of Cincinnati. To the city of Cincinnati. I'm not going to stand up here and promise you wins and championships but I am going to promise you that we are going to put a product on the field that you will be proud to call your own. Our team will play with great passion, integrity, and toughness and an incredible amount of class. We will do this by building a culture that relies on everyone being accountable, accountable to one another and realizing that in the game of football, like life, together everyone achieves more. We as a program will focus not on goals. Sometimes people don't understand that. We won't focus on goals. Goals to me are too broad and too long term. We will focus on objectives. Objectives are things that can be evaluated every single day. Will we grind? Will we truly, truly have the passion to work for what it is that we want? A lot of people say they will but will they truly have the passion to work for what they want? Will they have attention to detail? Will they truly do things that it takes to be successful? Will they be fundamentally sound, whether in football or in life in general? Will they truly love their brothers? Will they have a selfless commitment to one another to do the things that we are expecting you to do. This will determine how fast we will grow our program.
I'd also like to take a moment to address the former Bearcat football players. Please know that our doors will always be open. You are the ones that built this program into what it is today and I want you to know that you are always welcome. I don't know a ton of them but I am excited to have them back and to make sure we open the doors to those guys.
To the Ohio high school football coaches; we want them to know that our doors are always open as well. Recruiting will obviously be the lifeline to our program and we know that we must do the best job right here in our city, in our state, and truly within the 300-mile radius of our campus. We must reconnect with the high school football coaches and make sure that they know how passionate we are about developing, pushing, and caring for our student-athletes. There is no better high school football than the city of Cincinnati and in the state of Ohio.
Finally, what can you expect from our football team and our football program? I promise you'll see a fast, physical team that plays with relentless effort, incredible intensity and a love and care for one another. Obviously everyone wants to hear about offense. Offensively, we will be an uptempo team. There is nothing that we will do slow. There is nothing that we will do in our program that is slow and methodical. We won't walk slow, we probably won't eat slow, and we won't move slow. We will spread the field. We will run the ball and we will create mismatches. Defensively, we will be extremely aggressive. We will challenge everything and we will have a burning desire to be the best tacklers in the country.
I can't explain to you guys exactly how excited I am to be the head football coach at the University of Cincinnati. To be a part of this great institution as well as a part of this great city. I look forward to it. I'm excited to bring my family. I'm excited to get to know our team and I'm excited to get started. With that, I appreciate it. I thank you. Go Bearcats!