COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Luke Fickell doesn’t remember much about running onto the field for his first game as a player at Ohio State.
Expected to see playing time as a callow freshman on the defensive line in 1992, he was too busy thinking about his responsibilities after the kickoff.
Odds are, he won’t remember much about his first game as a head coach, either. The 18th-ranked Buckeyes and Fickell hope to put nine months of accusations, investigations, suspensions and uproar behind them when they host Akron on Saturday.
The beaten-down Buckeyes are left with lots of losses to graduation and scandal and a stadium full of question marks. Almost no one thinks they’ll have a great season, a fact that motivates many of the players to prove the naysayers wrong.
It’s a difficult spot for a first-year coach.
