Michigan Football: Jim Harbaugh won’t lie on your behalf, Luke Fickell

Michigan football has been riddled with an erroneous scandal originating from lies perpetrated by a former Ohio State assistant coach.

It’s time to set the record straight. Luke Fickell, like all the other Ohio State assistant coaches, are tainted goods. Luke was not there for the Urban Meyer scandal but he was certainly a part of the Jim Tressel era which saw equally tumultuous times. Vacated wins and a loss to Michigan football left Luke stranded as the co-defensive coordinator at OSU until his eventual departure to lead Cincinnati outside the Power 5.

Don’t get me wrong, Fickell has experienced success for the Bearcats, earning AAC coach of the Year with an 11-2 record in 2018, but his recent comments prove he his hatred of Michigan is deep and unwavering.

“I can’t really speak intelligently about why they (Michigan) feel the way they feel. It must be their philosophy and their program,” Fickell said yesterday after the team’s practice. “Personally, we’re in it for what is best for our kids. If that means we might have to help somebody move on, then you might have to help somebody move on. I don’t know. You’d have to ask (Harbaugh).”

Jim Harbaugh doesn’t do what’s best for the kids? How can someone say that with all the evidence to the contrary? From the starters to the bench players, young men have appeared in droves to defend Harbaugh against the Wolverine haters.

But Luke didn’t stop there.

“I know differently,” Fickell said, in response to Harbaugh (rightly) claiming the waiver process has nothing to do with the coaches. “We’ve battled, we’ve worked with it a lot more than probably they have, to their defense. They don’t have anybody that has a waiver to come in to play. There is a reason why I called, just like I called Coach (Ryan) Day at Ohio State and Coach (Nick) Saban at Alabama. I did nothing different than what I did with those guys, and the results are different.”

So, if I’m reading that correctly, Luke Fickell called Urban Meyer’s protege and Nick Saban who helped him out, potentially in violation of NCAA rules.

Cincinnati’s problem comes, as Fickell says, when he called Harbaugh in what appeared to be a negotiation, one that he came out on top with two other universities. Jim wasn’t having it.

“Coach Fickell tried to coach me on how to say it differently,” Jim said. “Not saying it in that way. I told him, ‘I’m not gonna lie.’”

In what appears to be a white flag from Fickell, he concluded his comments by bashing the NCAA.

“To be honest with you, on the whole James thing, I’m disappointed in the NCAA as well,” Luke said, “It’s a world we live in, a world I live in. I love it. I wouldn’t have a job if it wasn’t for the NCAA. But I completely disagree with them and how they’ve gone about this situation. It’s unfortunate that they can’t give — not me, I’m a grown man, I don’t need a great explanation — but that they can’t give a 20-year-old an explanation as to exactly why.”

Ultimately, the philosophy of the two coaches is the same as Harbaugh has said he also doesn’t approve of the current transfer process and if it were up to him, all students would be granted one transfer with immediate eligibility.

As we wait for Harbaugh to respond to Fickell’s Wednesday night comments, it has become quite clear that this argument is no longer about the students and more of an attempt to discredit a coach who has done nothing but help his young players. A coach who – in 2007 as the head coach at Standford – once bashed the Michigan program for their loose educational standards.

“Michigan is a good school, and I got a good education there,” Harbaugh said, “but the athletic department has ways to get borderline guys in and, when they’re in, they steer them to courses in sports communications.”

Jim is not a cheat nor a liar, just a coach trying to win the right way.