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Post being replied to

Fickell seems to be the clear choice for 4 reasons: by austindomer

1. His experience at OSU under Jim Tressel and, yes, Urban Meyer. Two championship winning coaches.

Coaching Tree? Check.

2. His record as a HC at Cincinnati is very good. Almost phenomenally good even with the joke schedule the Bearcats play every year.

Head Coaching Experience? Check.

3. The guy is Catholic and has six kids. Now, the number of kids a man has is not always a perfect predictor of the quality of his faith, but it usually is a fairly good marker. I suspect that Fickell and his family would fit in well at Notre Dame and that he'd be a good representative of the university.

Intangibles? Check.

4. He and Freeman have worked together and know one another well; the two could fall right into place together if Swarbrick plays his cards right (stop laughing). Swarbrick could name Freeman interim head coach for the bowl game to give him a shot at the big chair and then sign Fickell with the understanding that Freeman would be given an associate HC position. It might hold him for a year or two, long enough for ND to determine if Fickell is working out. Then, either Fickell or Freeman would move on.

Hit the ground running? Check.